WPP to boycott media pitches supervised by Accenture auditors: Report
Agencies give auditors their media data when an advertiser wants to see how competitive the prices are, or if they want to compare the rates with that of other agencies
WPP has announced that it will stop participating in any media pitch supervised by Accenture, starting in 2020, according to a report by a leading UK-based media portal.
The report states that the agency has refused to share its data with Accenture for an audit claiming that Accenture “could use that information to undercut WPP’s prices on pitches for lucrative ad budgets.”
Citing an email from unnamed ad executive working with WPP’s GroupM buying arm, the report claims that “WPP had already threatened to withhold cost and qualitative data on its media investments from some global pitches overseen by Accenture’s auditors.
The report quoted the executive as stating, “It’s due to Accenture Interactive acting as both an auditor and a media agency of sorts with its pitch to help advertisers take their ad tech in-house.”
Agencies give auditors their media data when an advertiser wants to see how competitive those prices are, or if they want to compare the rates with that of other agencies.
Neither WPP nor Accenture have verified the claims made in the article.
