Investigative firm Kroll and TAG, an information sharing and analysis organization co-created by the 4A’s, ANA, and IAB will also be involved in the study.

In a statement, Bob Liodice, chief executive of the ANA, described the ad tech supply chain as “riddled with material issues, including a lack of transparency, fractured accountability, and mind-numbing complexity.” He added, “These issues impair critical decision-making, leading to wasteful and unproductive media-buying decisions.”

The investigation will consist of two phases; the first is scheduled to kick off this month and examine how advertisers’ budgets are distributed among programmatic players across the open web, while phase two will investigate the ad tech set-up within the industry’s walled gardens.

Derek Baker, principal, marketing and media transformation, at PwC, told Digiday the planned study will also seek to explore, or “dimensionalize” as he put it, how different media models impact transparency levels. He explained, further, “So, how does the supply chain look for brands that exclusively use [media] agencies versus brands that might have in-house teams executing the buys.”

Baker further detailed how PwC is on course to publish the results of its findings in October at the ANA Masters of Marketing Conference with the company also planning to draw up guidelines on how marketers can better minimize waste in their online media spend.

With digital continuing to account for an ever-growing share of brands’ advertising budgets — eMarketer forecasts spend to grow from $455 billion this year to near $646 billion by 2024 — accurately assessing the ROI of such investments is crucial for marketers. This is especially the case now that many marketers have their employers’ procurement departments peering over their shoulders.

Previous studies had limited impact

Observers of this sector of the industry will also recall how a 2016 ANA transparency study, conducted by K2, unearthed non-disclosed practices among brands’ media supply-chain caused much rancor among marketers. And more recently, a study conducted by PwC along with ISBA, the U.K. trade body that most resembles the ANA, found that, on average, for every £1 an advertiser spent via the programmatic ecosystem, around half that amount — 51 pence — made it to the end publisher.

PwC’s Baker told Digiday the upcoming study will take a more comprehensive look at how each tier of the ad tech ecosystem absorbs marketers’ budgets. “If you look at the first ANA study, it primarily focused on the demand-side, and the ISBA study looked at demand- and the supply-side,” he said. …read more

Source:: Digiday

Author: Aaron