02/08/2021
Can marketers restore trust and transparency in agency relationships?
Marketers are becoming increasingly disenfranchised by the lack of transparency in agency relationships, but there are steps that can be taken to help restore trust.
In 2016, a bombshell investigation into media trading by the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) uncovered a severe lack of transparency pervading the US advertising ecosystem, including cash rebates to media agencies. Senior agency executives were found to be not just aware of, but mandating that duplicitous behavior.
One of the most striking observations in the report was of a “fundamental disconnect” between advertisers and agencies regarding the nature of their relationship. Advertisers generally believed their agencies were duty-bound to act in their best interest, but while some agency executives felt similarly, others saw their relationship as solely defined by the parameters set out in their contract.
As a result, transparency rose significantly up the list of priorities for marketers, with the 2017 edition of the World Federation of Advertisers’ (WFA) regular barometer survey seeing 47% of marketers pinpoint it as their leading concern.
Shortly after the publication of the report, ISBA released its first ‘Media Services Framework’ in the UK, a template contract designed to provide advertisers with a basis upon which to build their relationships with agencies.
Yet, as advertisers have sought greater transparency on media rebates, new practices have emerged. In particular, ‘inventory’ or ‘proprietary’ media, in which media agencies buy advertising space from media owners, before reselling it to their clients at a marked-up price.
