A fourth agency network, which wouldn't speak for attribution, also said it was working to reign in its ad-tech vendors. Demand for transparency from clients, privacy regulation and the need to reduce costs are forcing the world’s biggest ad agencies to cut the number of adtech companies they work with, particularly those that provide third-party data. Havas Group cut the number of providers it uses by as many as 45 and a number of ad agencies have acquired companies that help collect data, the biggest of which was Publicis’s $4.4bn acquisition of Epsilon. Agencies are also scrutinising data collection practices used by adtech firms. The European Commission has launched an investigation into whether Facebook is violating EU competition rules over its use of personal information in advertising targeting.
Demand for transparency from clients, privacy regulation and the need to reduce costs are forcing the world’s biggest ad agencies to cut the number of adtech companies they work with, particularly those that provide third-party data. Havas Group cut the number of providers it uses by as many as 45 and a number of ad agencies have acquired companies that help collect data, the biggest of which was Publicis’s $4.4bn acquisition of Epsilon. Agencies are also scrutinising data collection practices used by adtech firms. The European Commission has launched an investigation into whether Facebook is violating EU competition rules over its use of personal information in advertising targeting.