Advertising: Who Cares?

Consider low levels of viewability and attention ad fraud MFA sites unverified and often unbelievable audience data agencies who make more money from their suppliers than from their clients thus threatening the very objectivity theyamp8217re hired for in the first place bland creative generated by AI and an audience that increasingly resents our workArticles speeches and tweets from those who make money at armamp8217s length from the actual advertising whilst not caring a jot for anything except shortterm revenue are everywhereNick Manning ex Manning Gottlieb and Ebiquity and I share concerns over this sorry state of affairsWe see two choicesWrite yet another article give another conference speech and accept the headlines whilst knowing in our hearts that nothing will changeOr at least to try to start to change things for the betterIt is easy to dismiss us as two old gits whose time of influence within the industry is past and who now can do little else except meet up for a moanThis would be true but for one rather inconvenient fact There are many who seem to agree with us who are neither old nor past it but who are worried Most feel unable and literally cannot afford to speak outNick and I care about the ad business We donamp8217t care about pay checks future jobs or mortgagesSo as planners weamp8217ve hatched a planThere are a number of inconvenient truths in adlandThe first is most of us know whatamp8217s going on Yet noone in any position to influence anything talks about the issuesTake media agencies Here we should acknowledge those independents who have for years made transparency in media selection and fees a point of difference from the networks Valuable though they are itamp8217s the networks who drive the market and whose behaviours create the weatherEveryone at any level of seniority in every agency in the land knows that ad fraud is a massive problem Everyone knows about MFAsEveryone knows that too much advertiser money is spent on unproductive adtech and that the network agencies are forever looking for new ways to make undisclosed marginsBut noone wants to talk about these issuesThe reason for the silence is obvious For years the largest network media agencies have made more money from their suppliers be they media vendors fraud detection specialists or adtech companies than they have from their clientsHolding company revenues are largely dependent on revenues from their media arms amp8211 whose margins are high Anyone running a holding company media operation is all too aware of the pressure to deliver high margins their parent simply canamp8217t survive without themSo amp8211 do a deal with a fraud detection business adtech vendor specialist research supplier pretend to the client that everything is under control and donamp8217t rock the boatThe problem is that courtesy of all sorts of interfering soandsoamp8217s the cat is now well and truly out of the bag Clients are asking difficult questions questions which cannot in all truth be answered without compromising a valuable supplierConsequently and we can argue which came first chicken or egg trust between client and media agency has erodedRespectable media vendors have found themselves disadvantaged unless they play the game No matter their quality brandsafe environment their valuable audiences unless they play in the agenciesamp8217 sandpit they simply canamp8217t generate sufficient revenue to fund their uniquely valuable contentSome of our trade press too largely ignores these issues amp8211 thereamp8217s a symbiotic relationship between journalists adtech vendors platforms and agencies Thereamp8217s advertising to consider and pitches to get excited aboutWhat about independent auditors Too many still rely for their bread and butter on oldfashioned cost grids and audits based on the same dodgy principles that were around in my and Nickamp8217s day Thereamp8217s much talk but the truth is theyamp8217re not sufficiently tooled upTrade bodies and the verification organisations Take the IPA as an example itamp8217s wellfunded but it faces a dilemmaIf the IPA is to represent and protect the interests of its members what is it to do if those membersamp8217 interests are not necessarily aligned with a healthy trusted ad businessStay schtum seems to be the answer When did you last see an employee of a major agency break cover to comment publicly on ad fraud and keep his or her jobWhat can two old guys who do care doWe intend putting on an event whose shape and scale will be driven by the interest we generate Maybe weamp8217ll need a conference venue maybe a large table maybe a small deskIf there are costs for the venue for example we will charge a modest fee to attend with any profits being passed on to the advertising charity NABSWe will not accept sponsorship although we will approach a select few to ask for practical assistanceWe will select speakers on the basis that they will be wellinformed and prepared to speak the truth Everything will be on the record We wonamp8217t pay speakers nor will we pay ourselvesWe will invite journalists from serious business titles as well as advertisers From early soundings we think many will attendWe will publish who weamp8217re inviting weamp8217ll invite all the big players who attends and as importantly who doesnamp8217tWe will produce a set of actions from the eventThis post is our first attempt to gauge interestIf youamp8217re interested you can comment as usual or if you would rather remain anonymous for now you can mail me at brianbjandacom or Nick at nickencyclomediainternationalWe hope that interest will win out over apathy and that the seriousness of the situation weamp8217re all in will overcome shortterm concernsWeamp8217ll seePosted at MediaVillage through the Thought Leadership selfpublishing platformClick the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friendsThe opinions expressed here are the author39s views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillageorgMyersBizNet

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Advertising: Who Cares?

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