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After a few months of relative quiet, the issue of transparency is once again rearing its ugly head, thanks to a recent report by the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) titled “An Independent Study of Media Transparency in the U.S. Advertising Industry.”
Read More MediaPost: The Hypocrisy Of The Transparency Debate
The local heads of four of the five major media agency holding companies have failed to answer questions about whether they operate ‘value banks’ and other controversial media rebate practices in Australia.
Stocks for Omnicom, IPG and WPP all closed slightly higher at market close Tuesday, underlining how difficult it is to really quantify the impact of the Association of National Advertisers report that found that non-transparent practices existed in many corners of the media agency landscape.
Read More Digiday: Wall Street Shrugs at Agency-Transparency Report
To understand the ramifications of the investigation by the Association of National Advertisers into “non-transparent” practices by agencies, one has go back 30 years to 1986, at the start of the agency arms race. Needham Harper Worldwide, BBDO International and Doyle Dane Bernbach merged to create Omnicom Group, the largest advertising company in the world. Saatchi & Saatchi, previously No. 1, countered by buying Ted Bates Worldwide, thus becoming the world’s largest agency again.
Read More Forbes: Will The Advertising Payola Land Some Madison Avenue Honchos Behind Bars?
A new report released this week by the Association of National Advertisers makes some bombshell claims about how agencies and media buyers are using rebates and other means to receive kickbacks. Ad agencies, along with the group that represents them, responded fiercely.
Read More Associations Now: Advertisers’ Report Puts Extra Scrutiny on Transparency Issues
The highly anticipated Association of National Advertisers report looking into rebates and other nontransparent practices in the advertising business finally dropped on Tuesday, and it’s threatening to really sour the rosé ahead of the annual ad confab in Cannes this month.
Read More Wall Street Journal: CMO Today – Ad Business Rebate Study Rocks Industry
Jim Price, CEO of Cincinnati-based Empower MediaMarketing Inc., wants the Association of National Advertisers to reveal which ad agencies allegedly took kickbacks or volume rebates from media companies at the expense of advertisers.
The Association of National Advertisers said its probe of the advertising business found that rebates and other nontransparent practices are “pervasive” in the U.S., raising alarms about how ad agencies conduct business throughout the industry.
Read More Wall Street Journal: Ad Business Full of Nontransparent Practices, Study Finds
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.
“Short-sighted”, “inflammatory” and “unsubstantiated” – the world’s largest holding companies have some strong words for Association of National Advertisers (ANA) as they try to distance themselves from the damming 58-page report into the long-running issue of agency rebates.
Read More The Drum: WPP, Publicis and IPG slam ‘sensational’ and ‘inflammatory’ ANA report