AFFINITY has declared war on media waste with the launch of Media+.
Media+ is a new approach to media planning and optimisation by independent marketing agency AFFINITY. It provides marketers with a free calculator to see if their media plans are producing wastage, and then offers strategic advice on how to improve wastage for brands and budgets of all sizes.
“We needed to do something and we decided this is actually war against waste. It’s not war against marketers, it’s not war against agencies. We want to effectively create a movement where we’re tired of reading about ad fraud,” AFFINITY CEO Angela Smith told B&T.
With budgets spread across hundreds of platforms, formats and data silos, and an estimated 70 per cent of spend now in digital channels, plus the pressure to do more for less, and quickly, media waste is a significant problem in the industry. B&T has heard cases of marketer apathy, where they know it is occurring but accept it as a ‘cost of business’.
Smith, a former lawyer, said AFFINITY was compelled to tackle waste after encountering too many cases in recent years.
“We are the only industry that effectively says, ‘it’s okay. Let’s just give it a nice, sanitised name, IVT (invalid traffic). Let’s just look the other way if some of the platforms are doing dodgy things around attribution. If I was an accountant or a lawyer, you would go to jail for turning a blind eye to fraud.”
AFFINITY said that it is harder than ever to pinpoint what’s truly driving growth, citing the old adage from retail magnate John Wanamaker: “about one-half the money I spend for advertising is wasted, but I have never been able to decide which half.”
Matt Batten, AFFINITY exec creative director, told B&T the agency now knows which half, and wants the industry to clean up its act.
“It’s probably true still today that half of brand’s media is working. Difference is we now know which half is working and which half is not. More pointedly, Australian businesses are wasting an average of 20 per cent of the media budget across all channels. In digital, it can be as high as 48 per cent budget. Given what Australian brands spend on media each year, that equates to roughly $6 billion,” he said.
The first part to the solution is the Media Waste Calculator, a free and easy-to-use online tool that provides a quick assessment of how much of a brand’s media investment is potentially being wasted. It is important to note that Affinity defines wastage as any portion of a media budget that is not generating the result that it is expected to.
It’s not just about minimising dodgy digital media inventory; AFFINITY also looks at measurement waste, signal waste and minimisation waste in helping brands navigate the complexity.
Developed entirely by AFFINITY, the heart of the Calculator is an algorithm that models its assessment on the research on media wastage from data sources, including System1, Next&Co, Amplified Intelligence, and OneDay.
“We are the first one to collate all of that information into a single source. We use annual media budget, what’s the breakdown in brand performance split across channels, and it instantly returns an estimation of how much you could be wasting of your budget. Typically we’re seeing around 25 per cent for most people who use it—a quarter of their budgets are being wasted,” Batten said.
For those confronted by the calculator’s initial assessment, AFFINITY also provides a premium diagnostic and managed service to pin-point the specific media waste in their marketing mix, with a comprehensive report of the findings in a matter of days or a few weeks depending on the media scale.
“Too often, marketers assume uncovering inefficiencies requires expensive econometric modelling or months of analysis,” Smith said.
“We’ve changed that. Now, any brand can access a clear, data-backed view of where waste is hiding, without complexity, cost or risk. Even a modest five to 10 per cent of hidden waste can mean millions of dollars lost in opportunity and competitive advantage. This is the urgency behind our war on media waste.”
Media wastage has been a persistent issue in Australia for years, especially across the digital ecosystem. Despite ongoing conversations about transparency and efficiency, there’s still a noticeable apathy within the industry. There’s often a sense of resignation, as if waste is simply “the cost of doing business.”
Part of that hesitation comes from fear. Calling out inefficiencies can make teams look bad internally, particularly to CFOs who might respond by slashing budgets rather than investing in solutions.
Talking to the root of the problem Smith emphasised, “It’s about the entire system itself, it’s become institutionalised. It’s almost become, well, we all kind of know. That can be said for a lot of problems, but doesn’t it make us part of the problem?”
AFFINITY said that a “perfect storm” has led the industry here, and they are now declaring war on it.
