• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, January 25, 2017

Mediasmith, the San Francisco-based independent agency that withdrew its membership from the 4As in September, has joined the Association of National Advertisers.

Mediasmith Founder and CEO David Smith alluded to such a move when he announced the agency was pulling out of the 4As due to the agency trade association’s failure to support the ANA’s media-buying transparency initiatives.

At the time, Mediasmith also published a “Client BIll of Rights” that it welcomed other agencies to consider.

While it is not unprecedented for agencies to join the ANA, it has long had several as associate members -- and Empower MediaMarketing also joined the ANA after withdrawing from the 4As, citing similar principles.

"When we generated our Client Bill of Rights, we realized that we were more closely aligned with the advertiser community than the agency community,” Smith said in a statement announcing the move. ”This ANA membership closes the loop for Mediasmith in the journey we have taken in the last year.”