It is unusual for individual advertisers to contribute to media industry debate. When they do, their comments are generally made anonymously and via their trade bodies: organisations like the ISBA in the UK, the ANA in the US, and the WFA globally. Furthermore, those engaging via the trade bodies tend to be few in number and drawn from a small pool of engaged and well-informed practitioners. So the recent announcement from the WFA (World Federation of Advertisers) on digital trading, quoting several prominent advertisers is certainly worthy of note.<\/p>\n
The WFA has done what trade bodies should do \u2013 it\u2019s issued a set of guidelines prepared by those with specialist knowledge to help the broad membership. The specific this time is how to make the most of programmatic trading. Further, these guidelines aren\u2019t the result of one or two evangelists banging a particular drum, they emerge from research on what a broad sample of advertisers think about digital trading.<\/p>\n
The headline is that advertisers see great merit in programmatic trading, but they don\u2019t like the way the cash flows around the ecosystem. Furthermore, they increasingly don\u2019t trust the major agency trading desks to act in their (the advertisers\u2019) best interests.<\/p>\n
The bald facts are that what seems to have become within adtech land an accepted need to keep the legions of middle men in the manner to which they\u2019ve become accustomed, means that of $100 invested by the client, only around $40 finds its way to the end publisher. Factor in fraud, bots, lack of viewability and the rest and that number reduces still further. This so-called technology tax is a bad state of affairs \u2013 and has a great deal to do with the lack of trust so many advertisers feel towards the online business.<\/p>\n
As Mark Butterfield, now at the pharmaceutical giant Boehringer Ingelheim and a man who knows a thing or two about the media business says:<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have little or no clear understanding of what percentage (of digital spend) is being delivered to the media owner and what is being taken in fees from either the agency or middle men. There needs to be clarity in the value chain otherwise clients will continue to question the validity of the digital buy.\u201d<\/p>\n