• by Tom Hespos , January 17, 2006

Many times, when my company gets inquiries from marketers unhappy with their agency, it's because the marketer picked an agency that was really a media seller. For years, I've criticized the companies that sit on the fence between agency services and media sales, playing to whatever angle happens to be convenient in a given moment. And my stance hasn't changed: one cannot ethically be both a buyer and a seller.

Among a media agency's duties to its clients is the obligation to present media recommendations that are unbiased. If you also happen to sell media space, you simply cannot make unbiased recommendations. It's really that simple.

But that doesn't stop many companies within the interactive media maze from playing both ends of the business. Now that the interactive media business has experienced a renaissance, these dotcom boom relics are re-emerging and burning many of the marketers who need interactive services. I can't think of a quicker way to poison the well and ruin the business for the agencies that adhere to higher ethical standards.

I'm not speaking here of the sellers who go directly to clients and offer to give them ideas for how to best make use of what they have to sell. Such things are perfectly appropriate if a marketer isn't represented by an agency. Rather, I'm referring to the companies that represent media services as unbiased and on par with that of media buying firms, while the very same company (or a close corporate cousin) offers site representation or media sales services.

I have very low tolerance for such companies. I've had a few companies lately call my clients directly to pitch agency services, and upon being referred back to us, pitch us on specific site packages for media properties they represent in the open marketplace. Basically, my approach to such situations is to ask whoever is pitching me whether their company is an agency or a seller. If they can't answer the question, or if they try to straddle the fence, I end the phone call.

If some of these companies are to be believed, however, there are quite a few agencies out there that use these hybrid buyers/sellers as subcontractors. If you're a marketer, it may make sense to talk to your agency and ensure that there aren't any biased recommendations coming through from a subcontractor who ought not to be in the agency business. If you suspect you're getting second-generation work from a seller, it might be time to look around for a more trustworthy agency.

If agencies and marketers don't give these firms work, we won't have to tolerate their shenanigans going forward. So be sure you're not a source of income for buyer/seller hybrids, so you know you're getting unbiased recommendations and not lining the pockets of the ethically challenged.