In this weeks #MediaSnack Tom Denford is joined by Matt Green, Senior Manager Media and Digital Marketing (a.k.a. "the voice of global media") at the global marketer trade body the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA). They discuss the role and membership of WFA, which includes global brand companies like P&G, Unilever, L'Oreal, Nestle and many others with a global marketing spend of over US$700bn. The WFA represents around 60 national marketing trade associations across the world and is the voice of marketers worldwide, representing 90% of global marketing communications spend – through a unique, global network. The WFA champions responsible and effective marketing communications worldwide.In the first part of the episode Tom and Matt discuss WFA’s most recent initiative - 'WFA's Compendium of Ad Fraud Knowledge for Media Investors'. The document identifies clear actions to enable brands to reduce their exposure to ad fraud in four key areas: Standards, People & Technology, Education & Communication, and Governance. In the second part of the episode Tom and Matt discuss WFA's perspective on the ANA's report into US media rebate practice, called “An Independent Study of Media Transparency in the US Advertising Industry” and written by K2 Intelligence. For information about the report watch #MediaSnack Episode 28. In Matt’s word’s the ANA report contains a lot of constructive comments and is a helpful step forward for their marketer members. He says "we endorse the document completely". Matt Green of WFA believes that the ANA media Rebate Report (#RebateGate) will be a "catalyst for behaviour change" on the client side because some client behaviours may have "provoked the transparency problem". Finally, they discuss WFA's most recent member’s survey on media transformation which highlights that Talent is becoming one of the biggest concerns amongst WFA members and how important it is to ensure that they have the right resources and capabilities to face the future. This month ID Comms completed the ID Comms 2016 Global Media Talent Survey, that will be published in the next couple of weeks and will feature on future episodes of #MediaSnack. 

Today’s special episode of #MediaSnack is devoted to the review of the ANA’s long-awaited report into media rebate practice in the US. Following a 9 month forensic study by corporate investigations firm K2 Intelligence, the report is an alarming wake up call to a global industry riddled with speculation about bad practice on behalf of some media agencies. The report calls media rebate activity “pervasive” and that they have evidence that agencies "across the spectrum” have been involved.We take a look at the report findings, consider the implications on the wider industry and discuss what should a media director be thinking right now after reviewing the reportBefore the report was widely released, we were invited to join a briefing call hosted by the ANA and K2 Intelligence for interested parties and journalists, on the call ANA President and CEO Bob Lionise stated clearly that “the media business is not transparent”. K2 then spent 20 minutes detailing the executive summary of findings and opened up to Q&A. We understand that the accompanying guidelines being drawn up by US media auditors Ebiquity will follow in a couple of weeks.There have been very robust responses from the large media agency groups questioning the integrity of the ANA’s approach and K2’s report. This has included an accusation from Publicis Groupe that the report has “diminished and maligned" the industry. Clearly battle-lines are being drawn and this is probably just the start of a bigger fall out between marketer and agency. Look out this week for The ID Comms “Post-K2 Media Manifesto” offering some initial practical guidance for marketers feeling exposed and unsure of how to react to the report findings. 

On this week's #MediaSnack - we review The Wall Street Journal reporting that the hotly anticipated report by the ANA into US media rebate practice will be published "imminently". On this week's #MediaSnack - we review The Wall Street Journal reporting that the hotly anticipated report by the ANA into US media rebate practice will be published "imminently". We discuss the likely fall out and some implications of the report. We share what we think US Media Directors should be thinking and preparing for including carefully managing the message internally and seeking a mandate from their boards on a considered and strategic view on how to apply better governance to media investments in the future. Next we review Tom's perspectives of the Media360 conference which touched on many of the same themes, notably Media Transparency, media agency business models and the so-called "Talent Tsunami". One of the highlights of the conference was a panel which debated the pros and cons of splitting media planning duties from media buying scope. One of the panellists from Mars, Marc Zander highlighted how their splitting of planing and buying globally had given them the benefit of greater transparency and worked for them. Finally we remind you that the ID Comms Media Talent survey closes today so please take 5 minutes to complete it if you haven't done so already. 

#MediaSnack Ep. 26: She OWNS A Cool Media Agency by ID Comms

On this week's episode. We review some fascinating data published by AdAge, Agency Report 2016 which for the first time really brings the threat of “consultant” businesses to the traditional agency business into stark focus. Based on annual revenues, the somewhat tyranny of the “Big Six” which for many years has been WPP, Omnicom, Publicis, IPG, DentsuAegis and Havas has been broken. Accenture Interactive is now the sixth largest global agency by revenue having achieved $2.9bn in revenue for 2015, edging Havas Group out of the top six. We consider this trend, look further down the ranking and realise that the majority of the top ten digital agencies by revenue are now owned by consulting firms like Deloitte and PwC rather than WPP and Publicis. What impact is this making on the industry and is this the beginning of the end of the agency holding model and their historic dominance of the agency market?Next we look at SAP XM, a new media trading technology launched this week. Its another fascinating disruptor to the traditional media agency model, giving marketers self-serve tools at scale to connect them with media inventory in a transparent market place.Finally we address an article written by Dominic Grounsell (the Global Marketing Director of Travelex) called “Why the marketing industry is failing to attract the best and brightest talent”. He suggests that the talent question should be keeping marketers awake at night.We also announce the launch of our latest 7Ts Investigation into the 7 drivers of competitive advantage in media: Talent. Today please check out the ID Comms 2016 Media Talent Survey which is open until 3rd June 2016. If you complete the survey you will get priority access to the results when published in a few weeks time.

On this week's #MediaSnack we look at breaking news that drinks giant Diageo has launched the first 'mega-pitch' of the year putting their $2bn media account up for tender and sending a shock to incumbent agency Dentsu Aegis Network who have held the account (within network Carat) for many years. Could this indicate a change of fortune for DAN who have had a strong business performance the last few years? Looks like Diageo will be the first major global brand to really stress test agencies organisational model and financial model this year. David discusses what he would be thinking as a Diageo exec and the likelihood that this pitch is prompted not just by financial imperatives but also a desire to design a new blueprint for media agency scope and service. Next we talk about “The Most hated Man In Media” the one and only (and infamous) Mr Jon Mandel, the ex-CEO of MediaCom in US who was arguably the catalyst for the current ANA media rebate investigations and task force after his revealing presentation at the ANA’s Masters of Media conference in 2015. His recent interview with Nic Christensen at Mumbrella makes for entertaining reading (unless you’re a media agency CEO I expect) and Jon raises some new perspectives worth reviewing. It ends with a sad indictment of media agency management that they risk "killing the industry" with their short-term thinking, we are inclined to agree. Finally we mention more talk of trust and transparency from two industry stalwarts, Keith Weed the CMO of Unilever and Michael Roth, CEO of IPG who in the last week or so have both made public statements on the importance of trust and Transparency to their respective businesses. We also link to the recent ID Comms 2016 Media Transparency survey and Media Transparency webinar, check them out.

On this week's #MediaSnack we go live on Google Hangouts whilst Tom and David are in different countries. Tom is reporting live from the ANA's massive Advertising Financial Management conference in Florida.The big highlights of the conference are the ongoing concerns over media transparency, the CEO of ANA Bob Liodice sets out his big media concerns and updates the 700 assembled marketing procurement clients on the progress of the K2 Intelligence investigation into media rebate practice in US. He also interviews Michael Roth, the global CEO of IPG one of the world's leading marketing services companies who (in contrast to the same conference last year which featured GroupM's Irwin Gottlieb) took questions from the audience and seemed very open to discuss matters especially around transparency. His bold claims of IPG's openness on this area are refreshing but he fears all agencies will be "tarred with the same brush" if the K2 report is damning on agency practice.Next we look at some clouds gathering over another smaller agency group called MDC in US who have been in the headlines for the wrong reasons again. Last year their CEO was forced out amid an expenses scandal that saw him having to repay $21m back to the company he founded. This week they are in the news again because their struggling stock has been shorted by a notorious investor, betting against their future growth. We consider the implications of this and wonder what parallels may be drawn.Finally we announce the first in a series of Webinars on Media Transparency as a follow up to our very successful Media Transparency survey and report published last month. In next week's webinar we will talk you through the results and give more analysis and commentary about the data you need to know. If you have any interest, whether as a client, agency or anyone else in the topics of trust and transparency around media then please schedule an hour next Wednesday to join the free webinar. It will be worth it.

On this week's #MediaSnack we are joined by Mark Finney - newly appointed Director of Media and Advertising at ISBA. Mark talks about the important role ISBA play in championing the key immediate and future facing issues concerning the advertising community in the UK. Mark shares his perspective on the main initiatives that he has inherited from his predecessor, the legendary Bob Wootton and also highlight the topics that he's looking forward to addressing in the future.Next, we couldn't resist discussing the recent launch of the new ISBA Media Framework Agreement. This media contract template attempts to provide greater protection to ISBA members in their contractual dealings with their media agency partners, it will looks to redress the balance in favour of the brands. Here at ID Comms we are excited to have been part of the working group who contributed to this new agreement and look forward to improvements in media transparency as a consequence of it being implemented.Finally, we discuss the upcoming ANA Financial Management conference in Florida next week, and whether the ANA will have any new juicy bits of information to share with the industry regarding the rebate investigation that has recently concluded.

On this week's #MediaSnack we get rather excited by Alexandra Bruell’s most recent article from AdAge in New York. In it she brings attention to principal-based media buying approaches, its well worth reading if you currently (or ever intend to) invest any money in media in the US. The piece highlights (the perfectly legitimate and legal) practices by media agency groups buying media inventory at their own risk, in advance of client requirements and then selling it on to clients for an undisclosed profit. The client has to typically sign away rights of transparency in order to gain potentially cheaper media inventory. We consider the implications of this practice, how it blurs the lines further of what an agency is (as per Irwin Gottlieb’s comments at ANA’s Advertising Financial Management Conference in 2015) and how it might lead to significant changes within agencies as they decide how transparent they are going to be for clients. We look ahead to this year’s Advertising Financial Management Conference which takes place in two weeks time. Next we discuss that last week CNBC launched in-house agency called Catalyst under the leadership of Max Raven the SVP of CNBC Internatioal. We had a chance to attended the launch event where CNBC also announced a new TV series called "Marketing. Media. Money." which will feature industry leaders discussing current trends and issues of the marketing business. Launches 5 May. Finally, this week we are pleased to hear about a new media agency global network comprising independent agencies into one force. Local Planet is a network of local media agencies. We consider the benefits, opportunity and challenges of such a business and why it's a welcome addition to a heavily consolidated agency landscape. 

On this week's #MediaSnack we discuss news that the newly formed Publicis Media has marked a significant new business win in the UK, picking up Asda supermarkets UK media and creative business which have been handed together to Publicis UK. There was no pitch, the entire £90m ($130m) account was awarded without a review, meaning Carat UK have lost a significant and long standing client which will be a blow. Its good news for Steve King, Iain Jacob and the new Publicis Media team as they work to launch their new agency proposition, with a big UK advertiser now validating this will give them a huge boost. Next up Tom details his time spent at the recent FT Digital Media Conference in London, paying special attention to a fireside-chat interview with WPP boss Sir Martin Sorrell, he talks about the scale of the group’s media buying, what he thinks are their differentiators from other agency groups and finally makes a bold statement about the likelihood of further consolidation of agency groups. Last up we bring attention to a great piece in Campaign written by Jenny Biggham founder of independent media agency The 7 Stars, she follows up on the transparency and trust issue, referencing the recent ID Comms research and gives marketers her top tips on how to improve transparency levels with media agencies and hopefully rebuilding trust over time.