Over in Australia, an investigative audit found media agency MediaCom engaging in
foul play, creating fake campaign
reports for three of its clients -- Foxtel, IAG and Yum Brands -- and selling free and heavily discounted ad time back to clients at market rates. The agency has since refunded the money to
clients.
The investigation claims that after some of the agency's campaigns ended, employees altered original demographic targets to make it appear buys were more efficient than they
actually were. Those employees -- 12 of them -- have since left the agency.
Of the embarrassing findings, GroupM Chairman John Steedman said: “This incident has had a devastating
impact on our business, on me personally, on [MediaCom CEO Mark] Pej[ic] personally and on a number of other people in the organization.”
The agency itself employed auditors to dig
into the problem once management learned of the discrepancies.
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