Transparency, Cannes and Trust

In my opinion trust between marketers and agencies is at an alltime lowamp160 There are many reasons for thatamp160 Two primary ones are the continued aftershocks of the K2 Intelligence report commissioned by ANA and opaque programmatic media buying practices where the agency is principal rather than agentamp160 Two years after the K2 report there is still widespread denial among the agency community that rebates even existamp160 And when the agency is principal the marketer should rightly ask quotWhen is my agency working for me and when is it working for itselfquotNonetheless there has been progress in improving transparency since the K2 report was released on June 7 2016 amp160Most importantly marketers are reviewing and updating their agency contractsamp160 One of the biggest insights from the K2 report is that many agencies believe the clientagency relationship is quotdefined by the contractquotamp160 Agencies and their holding companies are literally quotcontract expertsquot amp160with visibility into literally hundreds of contracts across all their clients and agenciesamp160 For agencies the clientagency contract is a point of intense focusamp160 Marketers meanwhile are quotcontract novicesquot amp160they know only their own agency contractsamp160not the hundreds that their agency holding company seesamp160 And while the clientagency contract is indeed important to marketers it is just one of the many contractual relationships marketers have with partnersamp160 Therefore marketers do not focus in on the agency contract in the same way that agencies doamp160 But that is changing as more marketers realize the fundamental importance to the transparency debate of their agency contractsAnother area of progress ANA has seen is in programmatic buyingamp160 A speaker at our recent Advertising Financial Management Conference declared quotYou will not find a vaguer outpost in the media industry than programmaticquotamp160 Many marketers are now declining programmatic arrangements where the agency is principal and transparency is therefore reduced in favor of more traditional quotagentquot relationshipsamp160 There is also the wave of marketers taking programmatic inhouse for ultimate transparencyANA is thankful to the other strong voices in the transparency discussionamp160 Most recently those are McKinsey ampamp Coamp160and author Ken AulettaIn May McKinsey released a report entitled quotTruth in Advertising Achieving Transparency with Media Rebates to Fuel Growthquot which noted that quota significant portion of media spend amp160in the form of fees and rebates amp160is not recouped by the marketerquotAuletta released his bookamp160Frenemiesamp160earlier this month and itamp160generated considerable conversation both at Cannes and elsewhereamp160 Transparency is an important part of the book and arguably the impetus for the book being writtenIt39s important that ANA keep the transparency issue top of mind among our members as well as the industry overall as continued awareness and understanding drives progressClick the social buttons above or below to share this story with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers amp160amp160

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Transparency, Cannes and Trust

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Bill Duggan

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