{"id":1428,"date":"2021-02-04T12:37:28","date_gmt":"2021-02-04T12:37:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bjanda.com\/blog\/?p=1428"},"modified":"2021-02-04T12:37:28","modified_gmt":"2021-02-04T12:37:28","slug":"ethics-and-objectivity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bjanda.com\/blog\/ethics-and-objectivity\/","title":{"rendered":"Ethics and Objectivity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Disclosure: BJ&A has done work for the7stars, the agency mentioned below<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s time to talk about the E word: Ethics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The notion of ethics within media agency operations has been in the news this week with the release that GroupM has created a tool, called The Data Ethics Compass. This with some feedback (as \u2018Campaign\u2019<\/a> calls it) from Unilever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The issue of ethics and agencies is a broad one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

GroupM\u2019s initiative is based around the notion that using certain data in certain circumstances to do certain things can be unethical. No-one\u2019s going to contradict that. Indeed some, like Jerry Daykin from Glaxo SmithKline have been saying much the same thing for a while.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What GroupM has done is develop and formalise the thought, creating a tool that can be used to help guide their planners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In other words they\u2019ve rather elegantly created a tool that helps them decide whether or not it\u2019s ethical to use a tool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u2018Campaign\u2019 piece states that \u2018GroupM has been training its agencies and has identified champions at each firm to begin rolling out (the tool) to different teams\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

GroupM is moving to operationalise ethical considerations when using datasets, which is smart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maybe the role of these local \u2018ethics (tool) champions\u2019 could usefully be expanded from the external to the internal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the media themselves, and how they\u2019re evaluated offering opportunities for investment and innovation, where should the boundaries be drawn between buyer and seller?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, how should media agencies behave when their parent invests in a global partnership with a media platform, as WPP did with Tik Tok<\/a> earlier this week (and both Publicis and IPG have done in the past).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The headline on the WPP \/ Tik Tok collaboration prioritised brand safety, something we can all agree is A Good Thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The copy though makes clear this goes deeper. The partnership is \u201cfocused on developing new ad products on the video-sharing platform while bolstering its brand-safety measures\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At a corporate level this makes sense. Tik Tok is clearly hugely successful; WPP have clients who may well value new ways of using the platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The question is: how to remain objective and avoid an over-zealous use of the platform?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How about Finecast \u2013 the addressable ad business? \u201cFinecast enables advertisers to precision-target viewers across multiple on demand, linear and live streaming TV environments\u201d. This from the WPP Annual Report. Finecast is a GroupM company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Again \u2013 no-one will argue that a technology that offers advertisers the option to improve how they target TV messages is a bad thing, but any internal pressure from above on planners to use addressable TV repackaged and sold by a sister company would be unethical.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Remember how agencies screamed and shouted about conditional selling?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The media agency world is full of examples of clients being pushed towards a medium, a platform, a technology for no other reason than the agency in question either owns or has a mutually beneficial financial arrangement with the vendor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This detail usually escapes mention to the client.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Cog Blog has covered the linked issues of a lack of transparency<\/a> and the threat to objectivity<\/a> so often it\u2019s becoming monotonous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fortunately others are on the case too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scott Moorhead\u2019s Aperto Partnership wrote an excellent white paper<\/a> on the topic just last month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As they put it: \u201cThere are no circumstances under which a media agency should sell advertising space to their clients\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then there\u2019s this white paper \u2018From Transparency to Neutrality\u2019<\/a>, well worth downloading from the7stars\u2019 website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tricky blighters, ethics. Do the best for the client, the rest will look after itself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Disclosure: BJ&A has done work for the7stars, the agency mentioned below It\u2019s time to talk about the E word: Ethics. The notion of ethics within media agency operations has been in the news this week with the release that GroupM has created a tool, called The Data Ethics Compass. This with some feedback (as \u2018Campaign\u2019 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bjanda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1428"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bjanda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bjanda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bjanda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bjanda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1428"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bjanda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1428\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1429,"href":"https:\/\/www.bjanda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1428\/revisions\/1429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bjanda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bjanda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bjanda.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}