Posted by Chris Hering, Director, Vertical Market Lead, Advertising, Media and Publishing

Brand/Agency negotiations are at the front of the conversation. "Buyer beware" isn’t how corporate marketing managers have traditionally thought of their ad agencies. But marketers have been asking tough questions, especially amid talks of ad fraud and recent charges of pervasive agency kickbacks. They want tangible proof of their ads' impact and greater transparency into the process. Research from Internal AudienceScience finds that an average of 24% of a customer's advertising budget is spent on delivering the right product messages to the right consumer, in the right context. Which means, on average, 76% of an advertiser’s budget goes to middleman fees and waste--such as fake ad views created by 'bots!

The need for transparency is one of the key industry trends that will be addressed at the 2015 ANA Advertising Financial Management Conference, April 26-29 in Phoenix, AZ. The show brings together top client-side advertising buyers and agency-side finance professionals to discuss ROI and ways to maximize the returns on ad spend.

NetSuite will be at the show and hosting a Happy Hour cocktail party for NetSuite customers and prospects, on Monday, April 27 at 5pm (Contact Chris Hering if you haven't yet received an invitation and wish to attend). This will be an opportunity to meet advertising finance professionals and CFOs, compare thoughts on industry trends, and learn from other successful companies that are leveraging NetSuite's analytics to gain visibility into real-time performance data and bigger ROI from their ad strategies.

While digital ad spend is at an all-time high - reaching close to $60 billion in 2015 across Desktop and Mobile per Statista- advertisers are questioning the success of their investments. See below statistics about Advertiser concerns about Transparency per an ANA & Forrester study.

As more brands create internal programmatic Trading Desks to manage media buying in house, the demand for transparency has become more acute. Brands have turned to both internal and 3rd party data to measure and independently verify how their advertising campaigns REALLY perform.

Speakers at the ANA advertising finance conference will discuss these advanced technologies, and how brands, agencies and their technology partners can work together - to increase the ROI and transparency of ad investments - and building trusted relationship between the 3. Marketing and finance experts from leading companies like Intel Corp., Nestle, Wells Fargo Securities, OgilvyRED, State Farm and Comcast AdDelivery will share their advice on dealing with current industry issues and insight into the ad industry's future.

For more info or to register, visit the ANA's 2015 Advertising Financial Management Conference website.

Hope to see you there!