Decideware’s Agency Management Big 8 - August 2017

Below are the August articles of interest from key trade publications, with excerpts highlighting key take-aways. This month's selection includes articles on improvements in media transparency issues, how marketers would reinvest one month's worth of ad spend, as well as how digital consultancies are making inroads.  We hope that you find this month's selections informative and valuable.

1. ANA survey finds 60% of agencies taking steps to improve media transparency issues

http://www.thedrum.com/news/2017/07/31/ana-survey-finds-60-agencies-taking-steps-improve-media-transparency-issues

The ANA has reported that the industry is working to improve the basic nature of the media transparency within the advertiser/agency relationship with more than 60% of agencies having indicated that their company had taken action steps to address the transparency issue.

2. Mad Men vs. Organization Men

Digital consultancies are making inroads with marketers against traditional ad agencies.

Robert Schwartz, global leader of agency services at IBM iX, is convinced that two factors have brought the marketing community to a decisive existential moment. "Simply put, we see this as the single greatest time to be a creator," he says, citing the power of technology and a never-before-seen ability to overturn brands and disrupt entire industries and categories. Conversely, and as a direct result of that first factor, it's also the most difficult time to be a business, Schwartz says, "especially if you have existing infrastructure, brands, products, or services."

3. New ANA Report Claims Non-Transparent Production Practices at Agencies

http://adage.com/article/agency-news/ana-report-claims-transparent-production-practices/310061/

A report set to be released Wednesday by the Association of National Advertisers claims that advertising agencies and holding companies engage in non-transparent practices when it comes to the production of commercials, music, events and other materials — such as asking independent post-production houses to submit bogus, inflated "check bids" so that agencies can route jobs back to their in-house production shops.

4. Where Would you Reinvest One Month's Worth of Ad Spend?

http://www.ana.net/magazines/show/id/ana-2017-04-asked-n-answered

With Tax Day behind us, it's now refund season for the average American — a time when a little extra money back from the government goes toward a new piece of clothing, a vacation, a home repair, or gets squirreled away for later. That got us thinking, what would marketers do with a little extra in their budget?

5. Consulting firms muscle in on media planning in transparency fallout

https://digiday.com/marketing/consulting-firms-muscle-media-planning-transparency-fallout/

Management consultancies are turning the trust problem between advertisers and their media agencies into an opportunity to muscle in on the number of budgets increasingly prioritizing planning over buying.

There’s growing unease about the lack of transparency in media. As a result, management consultancies see a bigger role for themselves in helping marketers spend their money.

6. ANA Pushes $50 Million Digital Media Pilot to Combat 'Ad-Tech Tax'

http://adage.com/article/cmo-strategy/ana-p/310151/

After years of complaining about digital media fraud, brand safety and other problems, the Association of National Advertisers hopes to do something about it, starting a six-month pilot with what it hopes will be 35 marketers and more than $50 million in spending for 30 premium online publishers.

The goals include better measuring how much money ad-tech and other "middle players" are siphoning out of the digital media marketplace between advertisers and publishers.

7. WPP Will Barely Grow This Year - Sorrell Points to Packaged-Goods as Culprits

http://adage.com/article/agency-news/packaged-good-giants-culprits-wpp-s-growth-downgrade/310212/

Blaming spending cuts from major consumer packaged-goods marketers who provide 30% of its revenue, the world's largest holding company, WPP, slashed its full-year forecast today to miniscule growth of zero to 1%.

In a call with U.S. analysts, CEO Martin Sorrell cited a "trifecta of digital disruption, zero-based budgeting and active investors" that is pressuring ad spending from major consumer packaged-goods marketers in particular.

8. McDonald's Taps Publicis.Sapient, Capgemini for Global IT 

http://adage.com/article/agency-news/mcdonald-s-taps-publicis-sapient-capgemini-global/310267/

Even as consultancies continue to encroach on ad agencies' traditional assignments from marketers, agencies are increasingly fighting for turf that once belonged to consultants.

Publicis.Sapient, in partnership with global consulting and technology services company Capgemini, has beat out Accenture for an assignment to help McDonald's create the restaurant experience of the future, according to Publicis Groupe.