- Ad agencies are getting rebates from media companies based on spending a certain amount on behalf of marketing clients, an eight-month trade-group investigation is showing.
- That practice is widespread in the sample it looked at, the WSJ reports that the Association of National Advertisers found. The report is due for full release soon, and may cast doubts on ad industry transparency (and raise fears among marketers that agencies don't have their best interests at heart, a trust that has been fraying in recent years).
- Accepting rebates is common elsewhere, in Europe and China, but historically not part of the ad business in America, and agencies have said publicly they don't accept rebates.
- Leading ad agencies: WPPGY, OMC, OTCQX:PUBGY, IPG, OTCPK:HAVSF