A principal media side-effect: avoiding the word ‘agency’ in contracts with clients

Much has been written in the last year about how principal media has grown in use among major holding company agencies — and how little clients seem to know about the practice. Even though it’s been going on for years, the topic has grabbed headlines as it has had a significant role in profit generation for some of the leading holding companies.

One overlooked aspect — but symbolically important — is the increasing avoidance of the word “agency” in contracts being struck between those agencies and clients, according to five people who spoke to Digiday for this story.

The pursuit of principal media has ended up affecting how holding company agencies draft contracts with sizable clients, said Steve Boehler, who runs agency consultancy Mercer Island Group. Agencies that buy inventory directly from media sellers, then sell that inventory to its clients, are in effect no longer working as agents for those clients, he and many others argue.

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