Omnicom is the latest holding company to launch an audit of demand-side programmatic ad platform The Trade Desk. 

The latest audit follows word last week that Publicis Groupe advised clients it was no longer recommending TTD as a programmatic service provider after the firm “failed” an audit by FirmDecisions. Publicis said TTD had also violated its master agreement among other transgressions. 

TTD denied all of Publicis’ allegations including the failed audit.  

It wasn’t immediately clear how far along the Omnicom audit process was or which firm or firms would be conducting it. Omnicom declined to comment on the matter. 

TTD, however, did issue a statement, suggesting that Omnicom’s audit was part of ongoing due diligence.  

“The Trade Desk has a successful and long-standing relationship with Omnicom, that continues to go from strength to strength based on mutual goals of transparency, innovation and performance,” per the TTD statement.  

“Omnicom has a rigorous and detailed approach to managing their contracts, governing campaigns and evaluating performance. They routinely monitor all campaign activity on TTD. As outlined in Omnicom’s email to clients, Omnicom Media's analysis and reviews have not uncovered any issues whatsoever.” 

The Publicis-TTD embroglio sparked a weeklong industry discussion about transparency, hidden fees and other issues related to the digital advertising supply chain. 

ID Comms executives Tom Denton and David Indo hosted a live podcast on the issue last Friday and offered advice to advertisers about what to do amid the controversy including taking steps to review recent activity with all DSPs. 

Crossmedia Global CEO Kamran Asghar weighed in this morning in an exclusive commentary on MediaPost, drawing a distinction between transparency and neutrality, among other points. 

“Transparency is not the same as neutrality,” he wrote. “It can provide visibility into processes, pricing, and decision-making. But it doesn’t fully account for the incentives that shape those decisions in the first place.” Read more about what he had to say on the topic here.