The backlash to Accenture’s
announcement that it’s getting into the
programmatic media-buying business surprised me. Not because Accenture is diversifying, but because some pundits see a problem with that.
The chief argument seems to be the most
classic one: that you don’t want a fox counting the chickens in the henhouse. Or, as MediaCom Worldwide Chairman-CEO Stephen Allan posited in a post on LinkedIn: “They can’t police transparency and measure performance for clients while also competing
with those of us who provide media services.”
Allan’s argument is that auditing is one of the services Accenture provides as a classic management consultant. I suppose
that’s a valid argument if Accenture were retained to audit its own programmatic media buys, but I have a feeling that’s not what it or its clients have in mind. It’s simply a
diversification play, because it has the expertise to diversify, and it’s no more of a conflict than a company like MediaCom sister unit Xaxis buying programmatic media and reselling it for a
profit to its clients.
The key with all of these relationships is that they are fully disclosed, not that a single entity can't provide a variety of services representing a variety
of interests. And it’s only logical that consultants diversify into programmatic.
In his note downgrading WPP’s stock to “hold” this morning, Pivotal Research
Group analyst Brian Wieser cites Accenture’s move -- along with an even more pervasive shift, client’s “in-housing” their own programmatic media-buying capabilities -- as one
of the major threats potentially facing big agency holding companies like WPP.
A more pressing concern, he cites, is the kind of conflict of interest for agencies arbitraging, taking
kickbacks or taking positions in the media they buy for their clients -- highlighted by this week’s launch of journalist and author Ken Auletta’s new book, “Frenemies.” The book opens with former MediaCom chief Jon Mandel’s whistleblowing at an
Association of National Advertisers’ conference, and examines the issue of media-buying and fee “transparency” in depth.