‘Real transparency’ from media agencies too complex and expensive for many clients, says consultant
Transparency issues can, at least initially, be tackled by allowing marketers to stop paying agencies and publishers for input and start paying for output instead, says Nathan Hodges.
Many advertisers are incapable of managing “real transparency” in their dealings with media agencies nor can they afford it, a client-agency relationship consultant has suggested.
A “crazy flip-side” to the unfolding controversy over media agency transparency that followed a landmark report in the US last week is that many clients are “perfectly happy with the way things are,” Nathan Hodges, a former Ogilvy and TBWA executive now GM of TrinityP3, told Mumbrella.
The report from the US advertiser industry body found that “non transparent practices” such as kick-backs from media owners and reselling media at a mark-up to the client were “pervasive”.
Hodges said the implications of the report are global, later suggesting that the state of media transparency in many parts of Asia could be “in an even deeper quagmire”.
