In an effort to improve levels of transparency, ISBA, the body representing UK advertisers, has launched a new contract it hopes will “redefine relationships” between brands and media agencies.
ISBA, which represents 450 major brands, including Unilever, Coca-Cola and Santander, consulted with lawyers and media experts on issues advertisers felt had “undermined” trust between clients and agencies.
It found that many media agency contracts currently in use were “lacking in essential detail”, particularly on click fraud, viewability, verification and brand safety. ISBA said this has left media agencies “without a vital brief on client expectations.”
Other issues that surfaced, on which clients asked for greater contractual clarification, revolved around data ownership, rebates and the rights of brands to choose their own auditors.
“Our feedback on the new template terms from major brand owners has been extremely positive as it speaks to all of their major concerns,” said Debbie Morrison, director of consultancy and best practice at ISBA.
“It’s been 10 years since we last updated our media contract, since that point the market has rapidly evolved and the advertiser community now needs to pay much more attention to protecting and enhancing their rights in this more complex environment.
“This new framework will give them a great starting point for conversations around the issues and negations with their media agencies.”
ISBA worked with city law firm Fieldfisher to create the new terms, supported by five media consultants, including MediaSense, Ebiquity, ID Comms, Firmdecisions, and Financial Progression.
Graham Brown, director and founder of global media advisory firm MediaSense, said: “We believe [the new contract] sets out a framework for an open and transparent commercial relationship between a client and its media agency. It relates not just to financial transactions but, perhaps more importantly, to data control and access as well.
“If applied reasonably and responsibly by both parties, it will help to rebuild trust in what should be an important strategic relationship.”
Speaking to the Financial Times, Paul Bainsfair, director-general of the IPA, the trade body for UK agencies, said he was yet to review the new contract and so could not comment on its content.
“However, since the contract has been developed by ISBA for advertisers and solely from their perspective, it is highly likely that it will not be even-handed,” he said. “If this is the case we will not be recommending that IPA member agencies agree to use it.”
