Media360 India: 'Agencies that offer lower rates are generally picked': Vineet Sodhani

Speaking at Media360 India, Vineet Sodhani, CEO, Spatial Access had tips on how the client-agency relationship could improve.

 

He started the talk by stating why the relationship between the two has been going downhill and why  trust has become a big issue.

 

“We see frequent pitches. Part of this is related to trust. Then, there’s the lower rate issue. Agencies that offer lower rates are generally picked. When we audit firms, we see a lot of ‘undisclosed incomes’. And finally, we see the finance team getting more and more involved with taking marketing decisions.”

 

He spoke about two recent instances where he saw a lack of trust.

 

One of them was:

 

“A large DTH brand was struggling with clauses. The clause was that the contract didn’t allow media audit. The head of the agency was okay with the client calling for pitches every two years but he wasn’t allowing an audit.”

 

Another reason for lack of trust between agencies and clients according to Sodhani was when the media buyer is the seller too. He explained, “We’ve had multiple instances where agencies are buying in bulk and resell to clients at another price.”

 

He ended his talk with four points the industry could do to get back the trust:

 

1: Be transparent

2: Pay a fair fee and demand a heavy penalty.

3: Go public with offenders and criminalise

4: Create an ethics committee