Communication Breakdown
While solutions exist, myriad problems continue to erode the trust between clients and their agencies
When media agency executive Jon Mandel alleged from the stage at an ANA national conference in March 2015 that media rebates were widespread in the U.S., he started a fire that is still burning today — and causing a fair share of agita within the marketing field.
Mandel’s comments illuminated a problem that’s plagued agency/client relationships for decades: trust — or a lack thereof.
Mandel’s explosive claims led the ANA to commission what’s become a landmark study titled “An Independent Study of Media Transparency in the U.S. Advertising Industry.” The 2016 study was conducted by K2 Intelligence; it took the pulse of 150 business professionals, including marketers, media suppliers, ad tech vendors, current and former advertising and media agency professionals, trade association executives, industry consultants, attorneys, barter company employees, and post-production professionals. The study concluded that rebates were “pervasive” in the U.S. media supply ecosystem.
The study’s findings reverberated throughout the U.S. advertising, media, and marketing industries and served to exacerbate already strained client-agency relationships. In the ensuing four years, both marketers and agencies have taken a wide range of steps specifically designed to regain trust on both sides, and many executives say there have been significant improvements. However, others claim that despite best efforts, significant problems remain.
A separate ANA survey of 188 respondents conducted last fall showed that media rebates were the top issue contributing to the breakdown of trust in the advertising ecosystem. ANA partnered with its outside counsel, Reed Smith, on the study, which showed that 32 percent of respondents cited media rebates as “a big problem.”
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Other issues cited in the study as contributing to the breakdown of trust included invalid traffic and digital ad fraud, data confidentiality, and agencies reselling media to clients with an undisclosed markup — all labeled “a big problem” by 30 percent of the respondents. The 2016 K2 report also listed the aforementioned concerns as existing throughout the industry.
“The 2016 ANA/K2 Intelligence report validated longstanding concerns about nontransparent rebate behavior, but it also illuminated marketers’ lack of discipline to keep their media contracts fresh and updated,” ANA CEO Bob Liodice said in a press release announcing the study. “While significant progress has been made since then, this new survey indicates the persistence of those issues.”
As part of a possible solution, in March 2019 the ANA created the Trust Consortium, an alliance among ANA members and their partners designed to be a voice for brands on transparency, measurement, auditing, digital fraud, and brand safety.
Among other efforts, the Consortium creates white papers on best practices and key issues, FAQs, templates, and industry standards for marketers, agencies, and suppliers. Its focus covers both demand-side and supply-side platforms, including media buying agencies, trading desks, and publishers.
“The Trust Consortium is designed to help marketers advance the interests of their brands and provide them with the tools they need to keep supply chain participants honest and transparent,” Liodice added, in the statement. “Trust is the foundation of growth and will be restored through full transparency and integrity — not through realignment or prenegotiated positions.”
Transparency, Laced with Generosity
Yet despite the Consortium’s efforts, problems persist that continue to erode trust between clients and their agencies, according to industry experts.
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