• by Joe Mandese , May 17, 2022

The Association of National Advertisers (ANA) and the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4A's) this morning released a new set of media-buying guidelines to "strengthen" the diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) of brand marketers.

The recommendations, including 20 explicit guidelines, which can be downloaded via "Guidelines For Buyers (Agencies and Marketers) When Doing Business With Diverse Media Suppliers," were created by the ANA, the ANA's Alliance for Inclusive & Multicultural Marketing (AIMM) and the 4A's. They include:

• Accept Alternative Media Metrics that may be more representative of diverse media suppliers and their audiences.

• Avoid extended payment terms that can create hardships for diverse media suppliers.

• Certify diverse media suppliers via third-party authentication to remove the burden of confirming their legitimacy.

• Hike investment in the diverse media supply chain in order to increase the supply of inventory.

• Identify diverse media suppliers, including utilizing resources developed by the 4A’s, the ANA and AIMM:

• • The 4A’s Diverse Owned Media Companies Resource List
  • The ANA/AIMM list of Certified Diverse Suppliers
  • The MAVEN MC&I Media Ownership for Marketers Report from AIMM and Media Framework.

The ad trade associations said there ultimately will be two "complementary sets of guidelines," one for advertisers and agencies and another for diverse media suppliers that will be issued later this year.