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K2 Intelligence, the firm behind an explosive report revealing that nontransparent practices are pervasive in the advertising industry, is starting a division dedicated to helping marketers investigate whether their ad agencies have done anything improper.
Read More WSJ: K2, Firm Behind Explosive Rebates Report, Launches Media Transparency Division
Among advertisers and agencies alike, many hoped the June release of “An Independent Study of Media Transparency in the U.S. Advertising Industry,” a report prepared for the ANA by K2 Intelligence, would deliver the coup de grace in a controversy that’s been worsening for at least five years. Such was not to be the case, however.
Last week Nancy Hill, president and CEO of the 4A’s, issued a statement rejecting guidelines that were developed by the ANA in conjunction with Ebiquity, an independent marketing analytics specialist, and its subsidiary, FirmDecisions.
Read More Shoot: 4A’s Rejects ANA/Ebiquity Guidelines On Agency-Client Relationships
The main thrust of the advice was to ensure that transparency in the US media landscape, especially with regards to the issue of media rebates – a practice more commonly ‘accepted’ in the UK, but much more controversial/unspoken of on the other side of the Atlantic.
In the wake of a report that revealed ad agencies were receiving media rebates without passing them on to clients, the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) has released a new report on media transparency with a set of guidelines for advertisers and agencies.
Read More Marketing Dive: ANA Releases New Transparency Guidelines for Agencies and Advertisers
The Association of National Advertisers is calling for marketers to diminish “non-disclosed agency activities” in long-awaited transparency guidelines prepared on its behalf by auditor Ebiquity.
Read More AdAge: ANA Issues Long-Awaited Agency-Client Transparency Guidelines
A month after publishing a scathing report outlining transparency shortcomings in the advertising industry, the Association of National Advertisers has released a new set of transparency guidelines for agencies. The new guidelines were largely greeted by agency executives with a collective shrug.
Read More Digiday: ANA Publishes New Guidelines on Agency Transparency; Ad Execs Shrug
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.
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