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Digiday UK: Deutsche Telekom media chief: ‘Attitudes to rebates are changing in Europe’

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Deutsche Telekom is two years into a massive digital transformation project. The goal: to take control of its media-buying practice and ensure it’s getting the transparency it wants on digital-media trading, a strategy driven by the continuing process of arbitrage. That’s fundamentally changed how it works with its agencies. DT has built an in-house ad tech stack, chooses its own tech providers, and controls its data.

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MediaPost: Does Independence Matter?

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We may never know what Dentsu Aegis Network paid to acquire independent agency trading desk Accordant this week, but whatever the price was, its Tokyo-based parent Dentsu will likely need to depreciate a significant part of it because they have effectively lost one of Accordant’s key assets: independence. At least that was one of the core positions the Accordant team sold to differentiate themselves in the market versus the big agency holding companies they competed with, including Dentsu Aegis’ Amnet, which Accordant is being folded into.

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Independent.ie: John McGee: Clients must wake up to the real value of advertising

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Jon Mandel has been described as the most hated man in advertising. In March 2015, the former CEO of the WPP-owned media agency Mediacom in the US, made a blistering address to a conference organised by the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) in Florida.

Read More Independent.ie: John McGee: Clients must wake up to the real value of advertising

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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.
Read More MediaPost Agency Daily: Wild Card In Agency/Client Relationship: Trust

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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.

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

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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.

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

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

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Warc: ANA Seeks Talks with 4A’s

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The Association of National Advertisers (ANA) is seeking to address the “profound disagreement” about non-transparent practices in media buying by inviting senior leaders from the 4A’s (American Association of Advertising Agencies) to meet in October.

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Digiday: IAB chief – Brands Can’t Pass the Buck on Policing Media Issues

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The Association of National Advertisers long-awaited report on lack of transparency in the media industry cast much of its blame on the convoluted way the industry is structured, giving cover to bad practices.

Read More Digiday: IAB chief – Brands Can’t Pass the Buck on Policing Media Issues