Much heat was generated around Accenture Interactive’s recent announcement that they were entering the programmatic media buying business. (Rob Norman weighed in on this for MediaVillage.) Social media was full of posts from the media auditor community, and there was much harrumphing from the media agencies. (Accenture is of course a media auditor, and consultant, occasionally running pitches.) The media auditors’ concern was obvious given that Accenture’s auditing operation is a direct competitor. Any mud being flung around might stick. For the agencies, Stephen Allan at GroupM spoke for many with a piece on LinkedIn which argued that an auditor can’t be a buyer. The conflict of interest argument is an obvious one, and was picked up by several other agencies, as well as by their trade bodies in the U.K. (the IPA) and the U.S. (the 4As).
Accenture: Conflict or Competition?
