As marketers demand more transparency in the programmatic media buying process, media holding companies are trying to meet their needs. Omnicom "clients are opting for an 'unbundled' deal structure,
'which puts us in a position of treating it as if we were their agent and not selling them a product,' [said] Omnicom Chief Executive John Wren on an earnings call last month," according
to a
Wall Street Journal report. "An unbundled model typically involves itemizing costs instead of the approach in which media costs are bundled with agency and tech costs. That has had an
impact: the company said first quarter revenue from digital ad buying group Accuen was 'basically flat' and 'down slightly' in North America -- a shift from previous quarters of growth," the
Journal reported.
Read the whole story at Wall Street Journal »
In a system where your ad might appear of 200,000 outlets, transparency can only help so much. The fundamental problem is with media fragmented so badly that you (or your team) will never see the ad in the real world, you've given up far too much control. It's a dilemma that transparency can't solve (though it CAN help you identify bad middlemen).