Earlier this week The Association of Independent Creative Editors (AICE) posted a statement dealing with untoward agency business practices in the area of in-house production services on its website.
This action was enough to get the attention of two important industry stakeholders; AdAge who wrote an article entitled; “Trade Group Blasts Agencies for Shady In-House Post Practices” and the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) which voiced support of the AICE for going public with their concerns in an association blog post.
The AICE’s claims include the claims that “agencies lack transparency, ethics and fairness” when it comes to securing business for their in-house production units. While the AICE may have a certain level of bias, the directness of their statements and the allegations being leveled should cause advertisers to reflect on this particular agency service offering.
In our agency contract compliance auditing practice, one of the trends that we have noted over the last several years has been the increased level of advertiser billings which are running through agency production services groups. Perhaps more importantly, beyond the publication of a “rate card” for select production services, there is little in the way of transparency into the composition or competitiveness of those rates. Yet here to for it is an area that has attracted little in the way of advertiser attention.
Interested in learning more? You can read the AICE’s post in its entirety by clicking here.