The Growing Trust Deficit

Advertisers and agencies have a complicated relationship, and trust makes a key part of it. However, in recent years, there has been a decline in the trust that an advertiser has in its agency partners. Only 10 per cent of advertisers globally trust their agency partners, according to a recent survey by ID Comms.

- Shubhi Tandon

TRUST LEVELS BETWEEN advertisers and their media agency partners have fallen further in the last two years, according to a new research report.

The ID Comms 2018 Global Media Transparency Survey shows that just 10 per cent of advertisers rate levels of trust with their agency partners as high or very high. By contrast, the number of those that believe that trust is low has increased from 29 per cent to 40 per cent, and of those that believe it is average has fallen by 12 per cent.

The findings are disappointing considering that the previous media transparency survey was conducted at a time when the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) was investigating media rebates in the US and advertisers’ concerns that agencies were benefiting from un declared income streams were at their height.