MFA engages PwC to advise on transparency
The industry body representing media agencies has hired consultancy PricewaterhouseCoopers to interview key industry stakeholders on the practical steps that can be taken to make the sector more transparent.
The Media Federation of Australia (MFA) confirmed today it had retained PwC to help them on “practical solutions” involving the trust between clients and agencies.
“The MFA has been exploring how it can provide some practical solutions for both advertisers and media agencies on how to obtain greater trust in the advertiser / agency relationship,” said Sophie Madden, CEO of the MFA.
“This has included a robust process conducted by PwC on behalf of the MFA, to better understand the issues related to media transparency, the main areas of concern and how these are impacting our industry.”
It is understood that a report advising on these steps will be released in the coming months.
The MFA said the decision to retain PwC was in no way related to the recent controversy involving Mediacom, over misreporting of TV audiences and so-called “valuebanks”.
In a separate process the MFA has also engaged the major client association the Australian Association of National Advertisers (AANA) through its Media Forum for advice.
“The MFA are working closely with the AANA and this is one of the top priority areas for our joint AANA MFA Media Forum Group and we look forward to sharing outcomes in the coming months,” she said.
Let’s hope PwC can see through the issues.
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Why hire accountants? PWC and the other big 4 firms are not experts in transparency: in fact the opposite. They advise government on how to tighten tax laws, and also advise clients how to get around them. They audit businesses for solvency, and remain untouchable when those businesses go broke. They advise government on tenders for schemes, [Edited under Mumbrella’s comment policy] They are not experts in transparency or accountability. They’ll probably give the MFA some excellent advice on how to APPEAR to be more transparent (so agencies can continue to serve competing clients) but appearing to be transparent and ACTUALLY being transparent are two very different things.
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