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An eight-month probe by a marketing trade group revealed that ad agencies in the U.S. are accepting rebates from media companies, said people familiar with the matter, findings likely to stoke concerns about transparency in the industry.
Read More Wall Street Journal: Probe Said to Find Rebates Lurking Behind U.S. Ad Deals
Several people who rightly chose to remain anonymous talked to The Wall Street Journal about the Association of National Advertisers’ eight-month probe of the relationships between ad agencies and their media partners. The piece just went live, and it is a mess.
The report is set to be made public early next week by the Association of National Advertisers, which includes companies such as Apple Inc., Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and General Motors Co., according to a person close to the investigation. Read More Bloomberg: Ad Firms Padded Profit at Client Expense
A new report slated to go public as soon as tomorrow is expected to find that agencies are collecting media rebates from vendors based on deals they make in the U.S., according to industry executives. The results are the product of an eight-month investigation by the ANA.
Read More Advertising Age: Industry Braces for ANA Report Expected to Reveal Rebate Collection
The Association of National Advertisers, whose members control $250 billion in ad spending, will release the results of a wide-ranging investigation into whether ad-buying agencies are pocketing undisclosed “rebates” from media companies, a source told The Post.
Read More New York Post: Madison Avenue Bracing for Results of ‘Kickback’ Probe
The report on agency rebate practices is the result of a monthslong investigation by K2 Intelligence and Ebiquity and is likely to bring into focus how advertisers conduct audits of their agency partners.
A bombshell trade report lands next month which will reveal whether US advertising agencies accept rebates from media companies, and whether those agencies are transparent about disclosing them and passing them back to their clients.
Read More Business Insider: An Explosive Report on Kickbacks
Bob Liodice, CEO of the Association of National Advertisers, made the declaration just weeks out from the release of what is tipped to be an revealing report by intelligence firm K2 into the controversial topic of rebates given to media agencies by media owners.
About 14 months ago the the former CEO of GroupM agency Mediacom in the USA got up on a stage in front of an audience of marketers at an ANA event in Hollywood, Florida, and turned the world of media agencies on its head.
Read More Mumbrella: Is this the Most Hated Man in Advertising?
At last year’s Association of National Advertisers financial management conference, GroupM Chairman Irwin Gotlieb publicly acknowledged that the relationship between media agencies and clients had gotten to the point that the term “agent” no longer fits. “You cease to be an agent the moment someone puts a gun to your head and says ‘These are the CPMs you need to deliver,'” he said.
Read More AdAge: Risky Business: Why Media Agencies Are Betting on Principal-Based Buying