The media charter launched by the Indian Society of Advertisers (ISA) to “safeguard the interests of brands in the advertising industry” has irked media agencies. Most of the agency heads e4m spoke to say the ISA neither consulted nor informed them about it.

While the ISA claims that the charter aims to promote fair and transparent practices in the advertising industry, media agencies are questioning the concerns that the advertisers have raised.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, the CEO of a major media firm shared, "Transparency is an acceptable request, but a lot of the other stuff, in my opinion, is nonsense. Advertisers want world-class strategy but would pay pennies to agencies, broadcasters and publishers. They expect absurd turnaround times, call for pitches and then award the mandate arbitrarily, want cutting-edge equipment and measurement, but will not pay."

The ISA Media Charter encompasses six crucial areas that, advertisers say, are of paramount concern to them—1) ISA Model Media Agency Agreement which establishes detailed and precise agreements between advertisers and media agencies, 2) zero tolerance to ad fraud, 3) Brand Safety, 4) Viewability, 5) Common Minimum Standard for First-Party Data and 6) Cross-Screen Measurement. The model agreement also emphasizes points like right to audit, fare share in rebates received by media agencies.

But according to another media agency head, if the ISA starts auditing digital advertising, it will impact these agencies in a massive way. “So far, most clients were auditing traditional media but not digital. We would ensure they get their KPIs at the promised cost and bargain from the vendors. Anyways our margins are so low,” he said.

“Marketers should consider raising the fee, and instead of saving cost, focus more on efficiency," he suggested.

Another media agency CEO said it is unfair as agencies are supposed to deliver whatever the clients want. “It is a very lopsided and unfair thing for the agencies. Agencies’ commissions have gone down considerably. Now they say advertisers should get a share in the rebate. It is wrong because rebate is based on a certain level of spend. If someone is spending only Rs 20-30 crore and asking for a rebate, it is not possible. You have to spend a certain amount and then we can pass on a share in the rebate.”

The CEO further highlighted that the ISA’s demand of auditing will have huge repercussions. He said they were waiting for the AAAI’s response on the ISA media charter.

Stating similar thoughts, another media agency head said agencies are not in a very good situation. “Agencies are struggling for revenues. When spending goes down, the commissions are so minute that the revenue also goes down. We put so much manpower behind servicing our clients and they have come up with such a contract. It is disappointing and not fair to the agencies.”

“The clients have reduced remuneration to such an extent that profitability is very low. Most of the media agencies work at very low margins of profit and that tends to have an impact on the quality of people and services that they can provide. This has existed as a practice all along. Unless the media entities are also part of it, they're not necessarily bound to open up their accounts for anybody.”