Transparency Rules

The Media Buying industry has had a couple of rough years and an end is not in sight. It really started in 2016, when the Association of National Advertisers accused large national agencies of practices that are potentially harmful for their clients:

“The report highlighted ‘non-transparent’ practices, including agencies’ collection of cash rebates from media vendors to selling research services that don’t have much value as a way for media to send a check to an agency and get free media inventory credits.”

Similar accusations have persisted until today. Federal prosecutors are said to currently probe agencies to look into the same accusations from 2016:

“[…] the probe is likely focused on the digital media buying practices at agencies, particularly in programmatic and rebates.”

Needless to say, the current scandals surrounding Facebook are just adding to the problematic relationship between agencies and marketers. Industry-experts agree that only complete transparency can repair trust in the medium and long-term. It is vital for elements within the media buying chain to be open about pricing models and what exactly clients can and cannot expect, especially in a complex digital media environment in which there aren’t perfect definitions of crucial terms like OTT or geofencing.

Please feel free to give us a call to ask about Media Link Software’s® capabilities regarding transparency. We’d be more than happy to guide you through the system via a webinar.