Advertisers’ investigation into murky programmatic chain ready to report after fight for data

Tim Burrowes

March 1, 2020 1:28

One of the most comprehensive independent studies ever undertaken into what really goes on inside the programmatic advertising supply chain is set to be unveiled next month.

The exhaustive study, covering the digital advertising of 15 major advertisers, many of them global, has taken more than a year to complete.

Delegates to the annual conference of the UK’s peak body for brand marketers, ISBA – the Incorporated Society of British Advertisers – heard that the work being carried out by consultancy PwC will lay bare where digital advertising budgets really end up.

The culmination of the project, billed as a world first, comes as the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) gears up for its own 18-month investigation into the “murky” digital supply chain.

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Tim Burrowes

Tim Burrowes is the publisher of Mumbrella and Unmade. He co-founded Mumbrella in 2008 and sister title Unmade in 2021. He's worked in the UK, Middle East, Asia & Australia and has specialised in writing about the communications world for the last 25 years. He wrote the book Media Unmade, published in 2021, and became the presenter of MediaLand on ABC Radio National in 2025.

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1 COMMENTS

Asking the right questions?? 2 Mar 20

But these same advertisers will still pour a disproportionate amount of spend into Facebook on barely viewable/audible inventory, paying prices set in a completely unaudited auction.

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