NEW YORK—The Association of National Advertisers (ANA) is launching what it calls a comprehensive study of the programmatic media buying ecosystem to look into issues it believes exist like thin transparency, fractured accountability and “mind-numbing” complexity.
ANA has taken the first step of the study by issuing an RFP seeking the services of a consultant to conduct the study. The study is already supported by the Incorporated Society of British Advertisers and the World Federation of Advertisers.
In the RFP, ANA claims that worldwide programmatic advertising spending is on pace to exceed $200 billion, with digital media accounting for 56% of all global advertising spending. However, only 40-60% of digital dollars invested by advertisers find their way to publishers, ANA states.
“Marketers do not have a fully transparent line of sight into their programmatic supply chains,” said ANA CEO Bob Liodice. “The lack of full transparency for ad delivery and ad quality is diminishing marketers’ ability to fully optimize investments and drive greater business growth. We believe this lack of transparency is costing advertisers billions of dollars in waste.”
The goals of the study, per ANA, are:
- Drive business and brand growth through the elimination of wasteful and unproductive spending;
- Make the digital media supply chain understandable, highly transparent and analytically rich;
- Institute corrective solutions and industry standards that have long-term sustainability;
- Determine whether industry oversight bodies are needed to ensure the integrity of the programmatic ecosystem; and
- Improve marketers’ decision-making
ANA says that the study will provide the first full analysis of the programmatic marketplace. It also aims to share remedies to the current issues of the supply chain.
The RFP submissions are due by early June, with a winner expected to be announced over the summer. For more information, read the RFP online.
