Transparency is one of the ad industry’s favorite pet topics.
Today’s marketers spend sleepless nights puzzling over how much of their budget is lost along the mazelike programmatic supply chain, if they can trust CTV middlemen, or whether supposedly epoch-defining AI tools are in fact Mechanical Turks.
The disinfectant of sunlight, in theory, provides a means of resolving those concerns. But as more agencies put proprietary software tools and data platforms (like Havas Media Group’s Converged or WPP Media’s Open Intelligence) at the center of their appeal to new clients, agency execs are toying with the shades.
How much credibility can they gain from proximity to tech kingpins, when most marketing services groups work with the same big firms? How transparent should they be around vendor partnerships, their own commercial deals, and how they develop the tools giving them an edge? How much information is too much for marketers burdened with their own workload?
Let’s talk it out.
