A new study by the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) – a trade body that represents some of the planet’s biggest ad spenders such as Proctor & Gamble, L’Oréal and Emirates – has found that almost 90 per cent of the advertisers it polled are reviewing their programmatic advertising contracts and wanting more control and transparency with their media agencies.
The study follows on from yesterday’s revelations – reported on B&T – that Proctor & Gamble’s global chief branding officer, Marc Pritchard, had described media agencies as “antiquated” and a “media supply chain that is murky at best and fraudulent at worst”.
For the WFA study, 59 of its members, with a reported global ad spend of $US70 billion per annum, were asked their views on programmatic trading (which represented about 16 per cent of spends). That means that around $US2.9 billion worth of ad spend is under review.
The study also found the advertisers wanted better transparency, had genuine concerns around fraud and bots, and agencies who sell back discounted media space they have bought for an inflated rate. It found that only 29 per cent of respondents were happy with the transparency of their media agency; however, that figure had risen from 21 per cent in 2014.
Matt Green, the WFA’s global lead for research, said: “We call it media transformation, where we’re seeing our members in those media roles refreshing a lot of what they do. Part of that is about transparency and part of that is about technology.
“Programmatic has expanded rapidly and it’s no surprise that the market and mechanisms that big brands use to spend through this channel are evolving,.
“The rise of in-house, hybrid models and independent trading desks demonstrates that the original trading model left much to be desired. The second generation of trading models is now being built and while agency trading desks still take the greatest share of digital spend there are now real alternatives being developed that give brands more control over data and technology alongside the wider push to ensure greater transparency,” Green said.
