All About... Media auditors

More than a few noses were put out of joint at Universal McCann last month when the media agency was informed by long-time client MasterCard that a consultant would be brought in to review its global media buying activities.

Boffins from Accenture Marketing Sciences are now pouring over the numbers UM generates when it buys spots and space to make sure the credit card company’s buying agency is, says its Asia-Pacific marketing director Natalie Lockwood, “operating in the most efficient and productive way”.

UM’s senior managers are, says a source at the agency, not overly pleased that “a bunch of accountants who know little about media” have been asked to check whether the agency is doing its job properly.

For its part, AMS insists that it has a critical role to play in helping clients like MasterCard keep a closer eye on how its marketing dollars are being spent. Worldwide CEO Jeffrey Merrihue says: “For too long media agencies have played judge and jury. Few would go back to their clients after post-campaign analysis and say we should have done a better job. We’re here to highlight what they are doing well and, where there’s a shortfall, help increase ROI.”

Fair enough. But how?

1 AMS is the world’s biggest media auditor, having acquired Media Audits in the UK in 2005. AMS, and others like it, look at how a client’s marketing budget is spent and the sales that result from that activity. They then advise them on how they might redistribute that spend to get better results.
Media auditing is AMS’s foot-in-the-door service. It also offers other ‘sciences’ such as digital marketing and retail optimisation.

The firm has a much better reputation for auditing TV spots than other media, but its recent acquistions of Maximine and Memetrics have boosted its digital credentials.

However, AMS and its peers remain a frugily used resource in Asia. While in the UK (where media auditing was pioneered) 70 per cent of media is audited, AMS estimates that in China audited media barely amounts to three per cent of the total.

2 Is AMS better at analysing media than media agencies? Every agency in town claims to have the best tools at measuring ROI. But Merrihue suggests that, as an IT systems integrator with two decades of experience, Accenture’s “business intelligence” systems are difficult to match.

“We use 17 different metrics - five cover cost, 12 cover quality. It’s quite scientific. We’re not brought in to look at a painting and say whether we like it or not,” he says.

3 As an independent third party, Accenture - and rivals in agency evaluation such as R3 - set a market price on agency fees and media. This is useful for clients who don’t have the time, skills or experience to do it themselves.

4 Media auditors tend to charge a premium compared to media agencies, but Merrihue insists that AMS “charge a fraction of what we intend to save you”. Media agencies grumble that consultants feel obliged to say that there’s an issue, even if there isn’t one, to justify their fee.

5 AMS has a global team of 450 consultants, most of whom are seasoned media practitioners. Merrihue was formerly CEO of Initiative UK and regional director of Initiative Europe, while president of international James Walker has been entrenched in his role for more than 20 years.

But media agencies snipe that all too often consultants are people who couldn’t hack it in media agencies. “It’s distressing when you encounter an auditor whom you’ve fired six months earlier,” says one regional agency head.

True or not, one consultant argues, “the reality is that the Accenture name is far likely to get you through a CEO’s door than Starcom, OMD or MindShare.”

6 Media auditors are here to stay, no question. While other industries have become increasingly measured and tested over the past 50 years, marketing has escaped such scrutiny - until now. Auditors are a fact of life, says Mark Patterson, the COO of GroupM Asia-Pacific. “As long as all three parties are absolutely clear and in agreement on the audit objectives and the methodologies used we have no concerns at all.”

Patrick Stahle, the regional CEO of Aegis Media would agree. He concludes: “More focus on ROI is  welcome in the marketing business. But the sad part is the feeling that clients don’t trust us.”

What it means for… 

Media agencies

- They will have to do more to push their skills at evaluating the most effective marketing mix for their clients. This has historically been their area of expertise - not that of auditors - and if they don’t prove themselves to be more than media planners and buyers they will fall behind in the client’s boardroom.

- Agencies are going to have to become even more obsessed with effectiveness than they have become already if they want to stand their ground against auditors.

- Waving goodbye to cushy deals that earn handsome kick-backs.

Clients

- More transparency. An auditor gives clients a clear indication of what they are paying for media compared to the average market price. They also help establish agency fees and expose processes which generate money the client often doesn’t know about. Like rebates.

- Higher ROI. Media agencies have tools to achieve this too, but the likes of AMS claim its systems are better at boosting effectiveness by overlaying media buying data with sales figures to track how well a client’s marketing budget is performing.

- A concern for clients, however, is that auditors may use media buying data to gain an unfair advantage for other parts of their business. Worse still, an auditor will collect data from one client, then use it to help a competitor.