Category: Media Transparency

Much is in place to improve transparency now and incrementally over time – but only for those advertisers that care enough to make it happen. Find out more.

Just look at the headlines of the trade media and ask yourself “Do we have an industry trust problem?”

Advertisers are demanding transparency from their media agencies and media providers. But simply saying you are transparent does not make it so. In fact many are transparent about the fact they are not transparent.

Yes the media supply chain is murky and measurement is unpredictable and organised crime is making billions with ad fraud. So why are many in the industry pointing the finger at everyone else rather than getting on with fixing the problem?

2016 was, generally speaking, a difficult year for the world. Brexit, the US election, and a number of iconic world figures dying, and various natural disasters, have not made for high levels of morale or happiness. So can we at least spread a bit of cheer in our tiny little corner of the world, that of the marketing industry? Unfortunately not; the past year has given us very little to cheer about. If advertisers are looking for some relief from the challenges and issues of the past year, I suggest they make sure they are well rested going into 2017 based on the biggest issues we have noted in 2016.

There is a lot of discussion regarding the importance of transparency in media, especially in regards to digital media and programmatic buying. The discussions in the US between the advertisers, represented by the ANA, and the agencies, represented by the 4As, led to open public disagreements and calls for apologies.
The same discussions are being held between their various counterparts around the world. Even in Australia the Media Federation representing the media agencies developed and provided guidelines on transparency with their advertisers counterpart the AANA. But it is interesting having discussions with advertisers on an individual basis regarding media transparency. It appears that on an individual basis the attitude is more aligned with the famous ad man Bill Bernbach “It’s not a principle until it costs you money.”

With the rise of trading desks and programmatic buying for digital media trading there has been a corresponding rise in concern from advertisers regarding the the level of transparency in their dealings with their media agency. Certainly the Mediacom revelations of last year and the confession of the ex-CEO of Mediacom in the US fuelled this concern. Even though media rating company RECMA announced Mediacom as the highest rated media agency network in the world. But beyond concern, what are advertisers doing to bring greater levels of transparency and accountability back into their media agency relationships? What can advertisers and their procurement teams do to ensure they are getting not just the best media value but also the best performance from their media invest?

If you’re adhering to the 4 C’s, it will make it easier and more logical for your agency to do so, which will make it easier for you both to move forward. Sharing the same value system will generate a tighter relationship. To consider how this works in practice, we’ll now explore a number of behaviours, approaches and actions you can take to become 4-C Compliant.

The perception of media agencies as lacking in transparency, and therefore trustworthiness, has long been a challenge. The events of the last twelve months, centred around the well-publicised issues at Mediacom, have sparked huge debate on the topic of agency transparency in the Australian market and beyond. In this session we discuss ways in which trust barriers could be overcome, and what you as a marketer need to consider in order to build a better relationship with your media agency.

For those of you living in an industry-proofed cave over the last week, The Mediacom Saga has once again run red hot […]

The issue of media transparency has got to the point where the World Federation of Advertisers has had to develop a Media […]