IPA expresses serious concerns over ISBA's anti-agency narrative over Media Services Framework

Says Richard Lindsay, IPA Director of Legal & Public Affairs:

Agencies tell us that advertisers have been led to believe that the Media Services Framework is 'industry agreed', with agencies having been consulted on, and broadly agreeing to, its terms. This is simply not the case. Agencies have provided comments to ISBA from time to time, but they have largely gone unheard. If agencies had genuinely been part of the consultation process, the MSF would be balanced, coherent and fair. It isn't, in our view. Hence the inordinate amount of time - and money - spent by advertisers and agencies negotiating it. It is not surprising if agencies were unable to comply with each and every one of its provisions. How could they? Nick is right in one respect: "It is challenging to fully comply with these terms." And that is putting it mildly.

The Campaign article focuses on inventory media. What it doesn’t explain is that inventory media benefits all parties in the supply chain: the media owner receives payment upfront and guaranteed income, clients get better pricing, and the agencies, although taking the risk of the purchase, retain a benefit too. Nick's suggestion that agencies profit from non-compliance with the inventory media terms of the MSF is disingenuous.

The article, and the introduction to the MSF, paints a misleading picture of how agencies operate, and serves only to perpetuate the myth that agencies are acting against the interests of their clients. Nick seems to be suggesting that all media agencies are engaged in some form of systemic malpractice around inventory media. That could not be further from the truth. Comments like those published in the article just fuel mistrust in our industry and reinforce to advertisers the baseless impression that all media agencies are duplicitous.

Media agencies work hard to provide an excellent service to their clients. They invest a huge amount of time and money to do so, while fees are cut to the bone and their businesses subjected to ever-increasing, invasive scrutiny. It's about time that they were recognised by ISBA for the fantastic, highly complex, work they do for advertisers.