“Transparency and trust form the bedrock of any relationship, and the client-agency relationship is no different” assured Nancy Hill, President and CEO of the American Advertising Agency Association (4As), in the context of the release of an important guide on media transparency.The guide, titled Transparency Guiding Principles of Conduct contains nine principles that cover transparency in work relationships between clients, agencies and media in three specific areas: client-agency relationships for media planning and buying services in the U.S.; Separate commercial relationships between agencies and media vendors and other suppliers; and Client/agency governance.The goal of these principals is to identify material media transparency questions or topics and address them with constructive dialogue and courses of action. The principles were created thanks to the contribution of leading advertisers and represent the views of the association. “It is critical for the industry to come together to formalize guiding principles to best serve clients and address these issues. We are confident these guidelines will serve as a solid foundation for continuing relationships based on trust between agencies and clients moving forward” said Hill.Although collaboration between leading advertisers and agency leaders set out to address the issues of transparency together, they didn’t reach an agreement on the language. The advertiser group wanted to go beyond developing guideline language into establishing contract language; but the 4A’s thinks that this should be left to be discussed between individual agencies and clients and that it’s not the role of an industry trade association.
