The Association of National Advertisers (ANA) investigation into rebates has exposed a worrying imbalance between the murky levels of governance, accountability and oversight applied to media budgets. The pressure is now on senior marketers to wrestle back some control of media management from the media agency.

The long-gestating great rebate debate has hit its apex; if the ANA’s findings are to be believed, media agencies in the US are making money on the back of their advertising spending in ways that are not transparent such as taking undisclosed rebates from media owners. While the rebates themselves are not illegal, in fact it’s widely known that they are rife in markets beyond the US, it’s the growing clarity on how money is handed back to media owners by their biggest customers that’s sparked such concern.

Read the full The Drum article here.