AANA MEDIA CONTRACT
One of the AANA’s strategic pillars is to inspire and equip marketers to build stronger brands and therefore businesses. In a media landscape that is experiencing rapid change, this challenge is becoming more complex. We believe that strong contractual relationships, together with capability-development to manage ongoing media agency relationships, are the keys for advertisers to obtain greater transparency and build more trusting and enduring business partnerships.
We have produced the AANA Media Contract Template and the AANA Media Contract Guidance Notes to help advertisers obtain greater transparency over the return and effectiveness of their media investment. We are committed to providing advertisers with guidance and tools to enable them, as the buyers of agency services, to take primary responsibility for carrying out their own due diligence and contract execution.
The AANA Media Contract Template has been written to equip advertisers with a comprehensive starting point for each element of the contract negotiation. We believe that appropriately detailed contractual agreements together with capability training are the keys to achieving transparency in media buying. The AANA Media Contract Template draws on the Media Contract Template published by the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) in the US recently and has been specifically adapted for the local market by our legal advisors Bird & Bird in Australia.
The AANA Media Contract Guidance Notes support the template, providing marketers with a ‘long-list’ of considerations and questions that should be addressed, to enable them to reduce or eliminate non-transparent and non-disclosed practices that relate to the their media spend. They are designed to ensure that all revenue earned by agencies and related parties is detailed in the contract, unless explicitly agreed otherwise.
The AANA intends for the AANA Media Contract Template and Guidance Notes to be a helpful starting point for advertisers in facilitating a final contract that adequately defines the parameters of value allocation in the media buying flow and reflects the values of the partnership advertisers seek with agency partners. We also plan to conduct capability training for our members from early 2017.
As an additional resource, advertisers should also refer to the materials published by the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) in the US, on which the AANA Media Contract Template was based.
Note that there is no obligation on advertisers or AANA Members to use this template. Advertisers are free to negotiate whatever terms and conditions they deem appropriate. The AANA makes no representation or warranties as to the content of this template. Anyone using this template is advised to consult with experienced legal counsel before adopting the template in whole or in part.