Never one to forgo an opportunity to harangue client-side Procurement and Finance professionals, Sir Martin Sorrell couldn’t help but single out those two groups during a session at the Cannes Lions International Festival. While the topic was client payment terms, Mr. Sorrell suggested that their influence on marketing decisions is putting pressure on the system and the supply chain.
For the record, I am not an advocate of marketers extending payment terms. The reason is simple, the savings are illusory as those costs simply get factored into the “cost of doing business,” it incents bad behavior and the trickle-down effect of such policies negatively impacts a range of marketing suppliers in the creative, production and media sectors.
However, for the agency community in general, and Mr. Sorrell in particular, to rail on the client-side procurement and finance teams for the actions of a handful of advertisers who have extended payment terms to their agencies seems disingenuous. Why? For years agency holding companies, such as WPP have exerted their influence which is a bi-product of their increased size and clout to arbitrarily extend their payment terms to 3rd party vendors. The difference between advertisers such as P&G, Mondelez, AB-InBev and Johnson & Johnson and their counterparts in the agency community is that they at least went public with their policies.
Agency income from float, the interest earned on the agency’s between the time a vendor invoice is due and when funds are actually dispersed by the agency to pay that vendor, can be significant. As part of our contract compliance auditing practice, AARM conducts billing reconciliation and days-payable-outstanding analysis pertaining to agency payments to 3rd party vendors. It is not uncommon to see average day’s payable levels in excess of 75 to 90 days. When one considers that most agencies bill their clients upfront, on an estimated basis, the interest income that can be earned by agency holding companies on their use of client funds is rarely, if ever, openly discussed or factored into agency remuneration. Unfortunately, save for a small number of large multi-media conglomerates, suppliers downstream simply have no recourse when agencies extend their days-payable-outstanding.
Thus when the chairman of one of the world’s largest agency holding companies intones that client-agency relationships are “in danger of being eroded” due to a handful of advertisers extending payment terms it rings shallow.
Regardless of whether an advertiser views their ad agency suppliers as “partners” or “vendors” is immaterial in the context of this discussion. One thing everyone should agree on is that the ad agency should never be put in the role of “banker.” Clients should structure payment terms so that their funds are on hand for the agency to pay 3rd party vendors when those invoices come due. To extend this concept further, client-agency agreements should contain language requiring agencies to promptly reconcile all 3rd party vendor activity and to process payment to that community within a pre-determined timeframe.
There are numerous opportunities for advertisers to improve treasury management practices when it comes to the handling of their marketing investments. However, issuing edicts to extend agency payment terms is short-sighted and belies the ripple effect that this practice can have on inflating the cost of doing business for those advertisers. It is time for advertisers and their agencies to deal with the issue of payment terms; client to agency and agency to 3rd party vendors, in a constructive and transparent manner. The fact that either side would look to achieve a financial edge at the other’s expense when it comes to the disbursement of funds is not where the focus should be. As Voltaire, the noted French philosopher once said;
“When it is a question of money, everybody is of the same religion.”
The focus, lest we forget should be on leveraging that marketing investment to build brands and drive consumer demand for the client’s product and service offering.
Interested in learning more about improved treasury management practices when it comes to agency stewardship and 3rd party vendor payment processing? Contact Cliff Campeau, Principal at AARM at ccampeau@aarmusa.com for a complimentary consultation.