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The Association of National Advertisers’ crusade for greater agency transparency entered phase two on Monday, when marketing analytics firm Ebiquity and its subsidiary, FirmDecisions, released an anticipated set of guidelines for advertisers on how to maintain transparent relationships with their agencies.
Read More AdExchanger: ANA Drops Second Rebate Report, With To-Do List For Brands
Advertisers should require their agencies to disclose “all potential conflicts of interest” and comply with thorough audits covering the agency, its parent company, affiliates and subsidiaries to ensure full transparency. That’s the core recommendation made as part of a series of “Guidelines for Achieving Media Transparency,” released today by the Association of National Advertisers.
The Association of National Advertisers has recommended advertisers make substantial changes to their relationships with advertising agencies, after an ANA probe found that rebates and other nontransparent practices are “pervasive” in the U.S.
Read More WSJ: Advertisers Should Reexamine Agency Relationships, ANA Says
WPP’s media buying arm, GroupM, has been revising the majority of its contracts with UK-based media owners, in an apparent attempt to shore up any transparency concerns.
The Association of National Advertisers’ recent report on transparency highlights a range of problems, such as publisher kickbacks, inventory credits and other shady practices.
Read More AdExchanger: Broken Trust – Can Agencies Regain Credibility?
Both sides are to blame. Marketers want more for less and their procurement departments have been squeezing media agencies’ margins for years. At the same time, agencies have turned to less transparent ways to make money such as rebates and acting as principal.
Read More Campaign: The Ad Industry Must Start Talking to End Crisis of Trust
The recent study of media transparency conducted by K2 Intelligence on behalf of the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) opened a closet door exposing a ton of skeletons in the digital ad buying world. The study concluded that agency rebates and management fee double-dipping were pervasive, and was especially damning to the approach most agencies take to programmatic ad buying.
Read More MediaPost: The ANA Study On Ad Transparency Is Spot-On – Now What?
Ebiquity’s subsidiary Firm Decisions has been summoned into court by Group M, WPP’s media buying agency. And WPP CEO Martin Sorrell argues that Ebiquity, the media auditor working with the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) and K2 Intelligence on the U.S. media transparency report, is ”heavily conflicted” because its subsidiary, FirmDecisions “audits whether agencies have complied with their contracts with advertisers while other parts of the business manage pitches for clients, advise them how to ‘secure better prices’ and audit media spend,” according to Gideon Spanier, writing on US Campaign.
Read More MediaPost: Creating Distraction From The Real Media Transparency Issues
With the Association of National Advertisers preparing to release working guidelines for its members, it’s time to cut to the chase on the issue of agencies padding their compensation in ways that are not transparent to their clients. Notice that while I say it’s time, I do not say it will be easy, particularly for global marketers.
Read More AdAge: How to Navigate the Agency Rebate Thicket Going Forward
Consultant Accenture, which has a huge media audit division as well as a fast growing digital marketing practice has weighed in on the transparency debate, in response to the ANA’s report on the subject that was issued last month.
Read More MediaPost: Accenture Weighs In On Transparency Debate