Adland's carrot for growing up is here, but there needs to be a stick too
Welcome to an end-of-the-working-week edition of Unmade. Today we examine adland’s accreditation push and a slight improvement on the Unmade Index.
A quick note on our conference on the impact of artificial intelligence upon the marketing world, humAIn. The earlybird discount, which saves $90 per ticket, expires next week. Our speakers already announced include marketers from Optus, Afterpay, BoQ and CMC Markets. Unmade’s paying members get an additional 30% off.
After a 27-year break, adland is back in the accreditation game
Last night saw adland’s big bosses come together within the industrial chic of Publicis Groupe’s Sydney headquarters. The occasion was the formal launch of accreditation of the Advertising Council of Australia’s member agencies.
The new form of accreditation bears little resemblance to the old accreditation system run by the Media Council of Australia and broken up by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission back in 1996.
The previous accreditation system was a cosy one for the communications agencies that were a part of it. Accredited agencies (and only accredited agencies) could receive a commission from media owners for advertising booked on behalf of clients.
The ACCC, backed by the Australian Association of National Advertisers, went legal to end the anti-competitive practice. Agency bosses who were around at the time still bemoan its passing. It completely changed their business models, for the worse.
This time round, the only thing the new accreditation system has in common with the old one is the word.
The AANA’s CEO Josh Faulks was even on the panel launching the process. The Media Federation’s boss Sophie Madden was in the audience.
The new version is more benign. It’s a non-compulsory badge of certification for Advertising Council member agencies that choose to complete the process.
The requirements will not be onerous for a well run ad agency: having an up-to-date staff handbook; a formal employee assistance program; a mental health first aid officer on staff at bigger agencies; and a commitment to making the ACA’s codes and compliance training available to their employees. In addition, agencies will need to sign up for the industry body’s new member rules.
In the scheme of things, the new accreditation is a simple hygiene factor for an industry sector which is trying to improve its reputation for professionalism. During the pre-launch press briefing “perceptions” was used more than once.
As ACA’s CEO Tony Hale put it last night: “We’re overqualified coming in to the industry and underqualified coming through.”
Whether the process is actually demanding enough to raise standards remains to be seen.
However, the timing could not have been any better for the ACA. PWC, not a member despite its booming marketing advisory practice, is suffering the worst crisis in its local history after using confidential government tax briefings to win client business.
As Faulks said of PWC on stage last night: “They have hundreds of millions of dollars of contracts with the government and they just won’t work with them again.”
Plenty of agency bosses I’ve spoken to feel like there’s been a levelling of the playing field thanks to the PWC scandal (which it should be noted was not from within its CMO advisory department). Consultancies used to be up there with lawyers and accountants in the perception stakes, seen as being that little bit more trusted than agencies to maintain confidentiality. No longer.
Which brings us from the carrot of getting the badge, to the stick.
Member agencies that break the new code of conduct (not to be confused with the existing code of ethics) can, in theory, be kicked out. Whether it happens in practice remains to be seen.
Again. that’s timely for discussion. Today’s Australian Financial Review reveals that the PWC staff involved in the breaches may be disciplined by Chartered Accountants ANZ, which might seem them lose their rights to practice.
And word is that the relatively young Independent Media Agencies of Australia industry association has already ejected at least one member agency after bad behaviour came to light thanks to a court case.
For the ACA, the stick is less well developed than the carrot. The disciplinary processes and punishments for member agencies, including the ultimate sanction of being ejected, are undeveloped.
The organisation seems to be leaning towards keeping all such processes confidential.
As ACA develops that system, it could learn from Chartered Accountants ANZ. That organisation’s policy is to go public on investigations into members it is carrying out, if the conduct enters the public domain.
That would prevent the tricky potential situation of a member agency behaving badly, being disciplined, but the ACA being unable to say anything - creating exactly the sort of perception the accreditation system has been designed to avoid.
The carrot has been well designed. But it will only be as meaningful as the stick.
Unmade Index sneaks up
The Unmade Index had a day of respite on Thursday, with a slight improvement of 0.43% to 637.6 points.
Most of the large media and marketing stocks on the Unmade Index saw improvements, let by Seven West Media, which grew by 5.63%. The only exception from the big end of town was Southern Cross Austereo which fell by 1.83%.
Time to leave you to your Friday.
I’ll be back tomorrow with Best of the Week.
Toodlepip…
Tim Burrowes
Publisher - Unmade
tim@unmade.media
"Daylight is the best disinfectant" is a much better way of operating than "don't wash your dirty laundry in public". The subjects of the cleansing may not always agree, of course.