"Comply or Die?" - P&G threatens digital advertising with budget withdrawal

TLDR: A remarkable speech in every sense of the word by Mark Pritchard, Chief Brand Officer of Procter & Gamble, the world's largest advertiser. At the IAB's annual meeting in the U.S., he did not engage in the usual and inconsequential lament about the untenable state of the digital ad world. Instead, he admits his and other advertisers' complicity in the "digital crap" - and draws all the conclusions that P&G alone can draw. All US agencies, publishers and adtech-dealers have one year to fulfill 4 demands - "or we vote with our dollars". Chapeau!

 

4 points and an ultimatum - a speech that packs a punch.

  • Introduction
    Digital technology has opened up greater freedoms than ever before. But they have been used to choose "craft or crap".

    The main problem is the lack of growth in digital advertising - the opportunities of digital technology have been squandered in favor of a non-transparent media supply chain that criminals are helping themselves to.
  • 3:36
    An industry that is 21 years old (iab since 1996) is adult enough in every way to take responsibility for itself. It's time to be adults. Time to act
  • 5:99
    The confession: P&G has believed it can be "first mover" without common standards for measurement and verification. We've believed the illusion that "digital is different." It isn't.

1. requirement for suppliers: ONE standard for viewability

  • 7:48:
    First requirement for future suppliers: ONE cross-channel and cross-platform viewability standard, the 2010 MRC minimum standard.
  • 9:00
    We know MRC is not perfect, but finally accept something as imperfect as the Nielsen ratings.
  • 10:00
    Enlightening analogy: a football game under the rules of digital advertising.
  • 11:00
    We will not continue to tolerate the complexity of different viewability standards.

2. requirement for suppliers: an EXTERNAL test standard

  • 11:36
    All options for 3rd party verification are there, we will no longer accept "self-reporting".
  • 12:40
    Every elementary school student learns that you should not let the fox guard the chicken coop.
  • 13:50
    Hundreds of millions of USD are not a lot of money for digital advertisers, but for P&G it is. We will stop investing it if media suppliers don't implement our two demands (pt 1 and 2) within 2017. We know this is work, but we already made this demand a year ago - and enough is enough.

3. requirement for suppliers: TRANSPARENT agency contracts

  • 15:00
    Concealed discounts etc. are anchored in over-complex and non-updatable contracts. Who takes responsibility for the entire contract chain?
  • 17:20
    We don't do good business with agencies that can't deliver services profitably. That leads to all the things we don't want. We will again link fees very closely to services.

4. change for future suppliers: CERTIFICATION by TAG initiative

  • 17:35
    Our business is diapers and other packaged goods; we have no chance against criminal digtal experts with your knowledge and their capital and have decided to outsource the fight against the criminals.
  • 18:40
    P&G outsources to TAG, a cross-association initiative against ad fraud. Every supplier has to certify in 2017.

5. warning: "We will vote with our Dollars".

  • 19:26
    Summary of all 4 changes
  • 20.00
    Each supplier has now (2017) time enough to set up their systems to our requirements.

Pritchard