Dive Brief:

• In response to the recent Association of National Advertisers (ANA) report on agency transparency, Accenture released a new report, “Optimizing Transparency in Your Agency Relationships.” 
• The report provides five steps for clients to follow in order to maximize the effectiveness of their media budgets, as well as specific recommendations to optimize transparency.
• “While the mechanisms may be complex, the underlying principles of trust and transparency are simple – and should never be compromised," Accenture concludes in the report. "Only with transparency and trust will agencies be able to continue doing great work, helping clients reach their media, marketing and business goals.”

Dive Insight:

Accenture's report comes in the wake of an ANA report that outlined rampant rebates that agencies were collecting via media relationships but not passing along to brand-side clients. The report sparked a controversy, with several major agencies, such as WPP and Omnicon Group, pushing the ANA to not release the full details.

The ANA went ahead with the report’s release and fully stood behind the findings, including the level of rebates in place between agencies and media companies where clients’ budgets were being spent. While a number of agencies condemned the findings, one anonymous marketer who attended the ANA briefing on the probe told the Wall Street Journal: "There was some belief that this was just one bad apple, but it seems to be pervasive."

Accenture hopes its report can help clients navigate their relationships with ad agencies. The report offers some recommendations for brands to follow, including conducting meticulous reviews of agency contracts, reviewing contract terms for full accountability of dollars spent, evaluating the value of agencies conducting the brands' media business, and understanding any potential conflicts of interest and what agencies receive from media companies in return for the brands' ad spend.

With these practices, Accenture makes it clear that transparency is the responsibility of all parties in the brand/agency relationship and marketers should be proactive in reviewing contracts, processes and audits to better understand how agencies are spending their media budgets.

Although agency cash rebates was the big news from the ANA report, other findings included uncovering non-transparent business practices that senior executives at ad agencies were aware of across media such as digital, print, out-of-home and TV.