If you were a “gamer” (in the days when board games were the norm) that implicitly trusted both the banker and the individual who controlled the distribution of the real estate properties when playing Monopoly, than this article isn’t for you.
On the other hand, if you are one who turns a wary eye toward those in control of assets, particularly your assets, then we would like to pose one question: “Do you know what happens to your company’s marketing funds once checks have been distributed to your agency partners?”
In our experience, few if any individuals within an advertiser organization have a clear perspective on the disposition of approved funds once an agency invoice has been paid. The primary reason for this is that the industry still operates largely on the concept of “estimated” billing and the pre-payment of funds from the advertiser to the agency. Over the years the resulting transparency gap has been compounded by the fact that few if any advertisers require their agencies to provide copies of all third-party vendor invoices with their final project or campaign billing. Most advertisers have document retention and audit rights clauses in their agreements, but few act upon these contractual rights.
As contract compliance auditors, we review thousands of agency bill-to-client invoices as part of our hard copy vouching and testing process. In general, the lack of specificity contained on these invoices, particularly when one recognizes that there is often little accompanying back-up can be startling. For example, imagine coming across an invoice for the production of television commercials for a major seasonal advertising campaign that simply stated; “Holiday Campaign TV Production – $785,000.” Was that for one commercial or six? Were these :15 second spots or :60’s? Is this for a U.S. campaign or a global effort? Apparently, answers to those types of questions aren’t always required to process payment for that invoice… as long as the invoice amount doesn’t exceed the approved purchase order, if there is an approved purchase order.
Do you know if your agencies are abiding by the contractual guidelines for competitively bidding jobs? Do you know whether or not the agreements with the agencies in your network even requires three bids or at what spending threshold? More broadly, do you know which of your third-party vendors are actually related to your ad agency partners (i.e. shared financial interests, investors or corporate lineage)? If so, was this disclosed in advance of work being awarded to those related parties?
If you’re like most advertisers, you are billed in advance of production or media commitments being made on your behalf, or at least prior to the activity occurring. Likely, your company pays that invoice within 45 days of receipt. Any idea how much time elapses prior to your third-party vendors being paid or whether their billing to the agencies is scrutinized for accuracy? Let’s assume there are credits issued by third-party vendors or approved funds that are not spent by the agencies, how long does it take for the agencies to identify and return those funds to you? Who is involved in determining the disposition of those funds? Marketing? Or are checks cut and sent to finance?
Do you compensate one of more of your agency partners based upon a direct labor model, with estimated monthly fees tied to a contractual staffing plan predicated on the hourly time investment of specific individuals? How often to you see time-of-staff reporting from the agencies? Monthly, quarterly, annually, ever? Have those fees ever been reconciled to each agencies actual time investment? Have you ever tested your agencies time-keeping systems to assess the accuracy of the reports that may be shared with your team?
We have good news for you, news that can provide answers to each and every one of these questions. There is a proven means of closing this transparency gap and providing your organization with the processes and controls necessary to assess the disposition of marketing funds at each step of the advertising investment cycle.
It is called agency contract compliance auditing, it is an industry best practice and it will provide insights, answers and recommendations that will benefit an advertiser’s agency stewardship efforts and their agency partners’ financial management performance.
If you still have some apprehension about this complex ecosystem called marketing, consider the words of former Supreme Court Justice, Oliver Wendell Holmes when weighing the pros and cons of a contract compliance audit; “When in doubt, do it.”
Interested in learning more about safeguarding your firm’s marketing investment? Contact Cliff Campeau, Principal with AARM | Advertising Audit & Risk Management at ccampeau@aarmusa.com for a complimentary consultation on how to implement or enhance your organization’s marketing accountability initiative.