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MediaPost Agency Daily: Wild Card In Agency/Client Relationship: Trust

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Many don’t agree,mbut Curtis Smith, Accenture’s North America Media Lead, told a MediaPost marketing conference this week that for the most part, marketers trust their media agencies. And they do so despite allegations in a recent report from the Association of National Advertisers that many agencies in the U.S. are accepting rebates and other forms of payment from media companies in exchange for volume business without disclosing the payments to clients.
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MediaPost: ‘Guardian’ Admits Paying Media Rebates

 

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Another British newspaper is shedding a little light on the murky and controversial subject of agency rebates — the refunds that publishers and broadcasters sometimes, allegedly, pay to media buyers and ad agencies in return for high volume purchases or other incentives.

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Business Insider: The Guardian reveals for the first time it pays rebates to advertising agencies

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The Guardian has revealed in its annual accounts it pays rebates to advertising agencies, Campaign’s Gideon Spanier first spotted.

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Marketing Week: Ex-ISBA director Bob Wootton: Restoring client-agency trust requires new media auditing standards

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The US Association of National Advertisers’ (ANA) seminal investigation into media agency practices has made tough criticisms of the way they make their money from media owner rebates. But this has also resurfaced claims from Sir Martin Sorrell, chief executive of agency group WPP, that media auditors and consultants have conflicted interests too. To understand whether these claims have substance, we have to look at the history of media auditing.

Read More Marketing Week: Ex-ISBA director Bob Wootton: Restoring client-agency trust requires new media auditing standards

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AdAge: New 4A’s Chief Must Let Advertisers Follow the Money

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I don’t look for much clarity to emerge when — or if — the ANA board meets with the 4A’s board to discuss media-transparency issues. After the ad-agency trade group rejected the marketer trade group’s guidelines created by consulting firm Ebiquity, the ANA invited the 4A’s to a discussion at the ANA Masters of Marketing Conference in Orlando, Fla., this year.

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TrinityP3: Why the Australian Association of National Advertisers (AANA) needs to review its membership

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I recently expressed concern over the apparent leadership from the AANA on the issue of media transparency and rebates. This is an issue that we have seen develop in the past four plus years and which we have recommended possible solutions to our clients and the industry during that time. But with the latest rebuff from the AANA I posed that the inaction could be due to a possible conflict of interest in their financial membership, which includes agencies and advertisers. Instead of a discussion on the topic there was a rebuttal and then silence.
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AdExchanger: ANA Report Aftermath: (Re)Building Trust And Transparency

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The Association of National Advertisers (ANA) dropped a bombshell in June when it released a report about transparency and media buying practices in the digital advertising landscape.

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Marketing Land: Why every digital advertiser should demand transparency

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The world of digital advertising has a history of opaqueness, stemming from the early days of ad networks. Ad networks acted as brokers between advertisers and publishers. Being in such a position allowed them to be as transparent or “non-transparent” as they wished.

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AdExchanger: What Are Barter Agencies, And How Do They Tie Into The Transparency Debate?

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While media bartering isn’t commonly discussed, the ANA’s two reports on agency transparency referenced the practice 49 times.

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MediaPost: A CMO’s Guide To The Advertiser-Agency Rebates Controversy

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The Association of National Advertisers and the American Association of Advertising Agencies remain at loggerheads over the issue of how agencies might be padding their compensation with nontransparent business practices, including rebates and other incentives from media sellers—“kickbacks” that could be opaque to the agencies’ brand marketer clients.

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