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Agency Transparency Issues, Audits and Reviews Projected to Increase Sharply in 2017

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Adding fuel to the fire

The gap in client-agency relationships widened when, in March 2015, allegations by former Mediacom CEO Jon Mandel of widespread U.S. media agency kickbacks during the Association of National Advertisers Media Leadership Conference led to an eight-month investigation conducted by K2 Intelligence for the ANA. The resulting K2 report, issued in early 2016, generated criticism on the reports validity by the agency community but got the attention of U.S. marketing and procurement professionals alike.

While no one will say whether this issue drove the spate of high profile media agency reviews over the past year, the timing is certainly hard to ignore. And it was definitely the reason behind some assignments Continue reading→

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Ad Agencies Under Investigation for Rigged Production Bidding Practices

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According to recent articles by The Wall Street Journal and Advertising Age, the Department of Justice has launched a probe into advertising agency practices around the production bidding process. The inquiry focuses on whether or not agencies are engaging in unfair business practices in order to award more work to their own in-house production departments – potentially violating antitrust laws which prohibit price-fixing and bid-rigging.

In this alleged rigged bidding process, according to the Journal, agencies are purported to seek inflated bids Continue reading→

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Choice Hotels Launches Brand Refresh

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Choice Hotels Boosts Ad Budget by Double Digits, Launches Brand Refresh…New Campaign Encourages Face-to-Face Connections

Choice Hotels International is boosting its ad budget by 13% this year, as it undertakes a brand overhaul… The spot, which uses The Clash’s “Should I Stay or Should I go?” employs an approach… read more

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