AAAA Unveils Media Verification Initiative.

A new initiative unveiled at the AAAA’s annual Media Conference and Trade Show will address media verification discrepancies and the escalating concerns they are creating within the industry.

At issue are inconsistencies between the schedules that run and the amount on the invoices that are billed by the media company.

The new initiative, authored by the AAAA Media Policy Committee, will analyze the scope of the problem and map out an ethical code of conduct, plus formal procedures, for ensuring the agreement between schedules and invoices. It was announced in a speech by Committee Chairman Renetta McCann, CEO of Starcom North America, at the tenth annual AAAA Media & Conference & Trade Show, which runs through March 7 here at the Riverside Hilton.

“Clients entrust their agencies with the stewardship of significant sums of money,” said O. Burtch Drake, AAAA-President-CEO. “The verification issue lies at the very heart of a pact between an agency and its client. I applaud the Media Policy Committee for addressing this key issue.”

Discussions between the AAAA and Ernst & Young have established the groundwork for a media verification audit that will scope the variances detected between the realized schedules and the invoices. The association will use this research to create permanent guidelines for the media owners and agencies to follow. Along with oversight from the AAAA’s Media Policy committee, a special task force headed by Carat’s Charlie Rutman will help manage this process.

Committee Chairman McCann said it is time for the industry as a whole to confront this longstanding issue. “We need to take a no-tolerance stance when the possibility of wasted client dollars is present,” she said. “This issue impacts us all: media agency, media company and client. It’s too big for a single company to conquer and that’s why we need to address it at an industry-wide level.”

Industry Involvement

The AAAA plans to invite the following media industry trade associations to join it in this media verification initiative: Television Bureau of Advertising, Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau, Radio Advertising Bureau, Outdoor Advertising Association of America, Magazine Publishers of America, Newspaper Association of America, Yellow Pages Integrated Media Association, and Syndicated Network Television Association. The four major broadcast networks will be also be invited.

The committee noted that the remedy could eventually incorporate existing proposals like the Ad-ID and XML-for-Media initiatives, championed by the AAAA, the ANA and our media association partners.

About the AAAA
The American Association of Advertising Agencies is the national trade association of the advertising agency business. The 1,245 member agency offices it serves in the U.S. employ 65,000 people, offer a wide range of marketing communications services, and place 75 percent of all national advertising. The management-oriented association helps its members build their businesses, and acts as the industry’s spokesman with government, media, and the public sector.

For more information at http://www.aaaa.org