Media Committee

In a world where the media landscape is constantly evolving, the role of media practitioners has never been more critical. Today's marketers are charged with deploying substantial budgets to reach and engage consumers in an era of seismic shifts in technology, platforms, content distribution, and audience behavior.

Join the Media Committee and stay at the forefront of the industry's most critical media trends and build connections with peers who are driving integrated strategies within their organizations and shaping the future of media. The Committee covers actionable strategies, compelling case studies, cutting-edge insights, provocative perspectives, and critical connections to media peers.

This committee helps program the annual ANA Media Conference. Presentations and event recaps from the latest Media Conference can be accessed here.

Please note that in 2025, meetings will be held both virtually or in-person.

Co-Chairs:

• Marla Skiko, Senior Director, Global Media and Strategic Partnerships, Ford Motor Company

• Mairi Fogle, Performance Media Lead, Kimberly-Clark

Contact the ANA staff managing the Media Committee:

• Julie Weitzner, Senior Vice President
• Leah Marshall, Vice President

Discussion Topics:

The Media Committee is open to all client-side marketer members.

Request to Join

Thought Leadership

• Media Transparency: How Far Have We Come? (June 2026)
  Media transparency has been a topic for discussion and debate in the advertising industry for well over a decade. How far have we come? Results of a new ANA survey confirm that marketers have made some progress addressing media transparency issues, but not enough. Concerns about media transparency are pretty much the same in 2026 as they were in 2014. Download the report to learn more and what steps marketers can take today for greater transparency.
• Media Briefing Practices & Guidelines (May 2026)
  Many organizations still face a fundamental challenge: inconsistent and incomplete media briefs which can lead to misalignment between teams, inefficient use of resources, and weaker campaign performance. Any lack of clarity or organization within the brief can affect the entire Media Planning process. To help address these challenges, this report introduces a clear, actionable framework for media briefing. It outlines the key elements that should be included in every media brief, along with additional practical guidance to support greater consistency and collaboration between brands and agencies.
• Influencer Marketing Agency Compensation Report (February 2026)
  This report reveals the experiences of 84 client-side advertisers who lead influencer marketing at their organizations. Drawing on both quantitative and qualitative data, the research uncovers a landscape marked by a lack of compensation transparency, with only 51 percent of marketers having full visibility into the exact payments provided to influencers. Marketers are increasingly reassessing their agency relationships, with over half likely to change their compensation approach in the coming year.
• Understanding the Role of Direct Contracts in the Programmatic Supply Chain (January 2026)
  The ANA report, Understanding the Role of Direct Contracts in the Programmatic Supply Chain, was released as a follow-up to its 2023 landmark Programmatic Media Transparency Supply Chain Study. The study found that only 36 cents of every programmatic ad dollar ultimately reaches the consumer. The new report goes deeper into programmatic transaction costs and examines how direct contracts with supply chain partners can help marketers reduce fees, improve transparency, and limit media waste. Key findings include that 45% of marketers now contract directly with at least one DSP, primarily to retain account and data ownership, gain clearer insight into metrics like fraud and viewability, and ensure data portability if agencies change. The report also outlines best practices for all marketers, including demanding access to supply chain data, rationalizing the number of SSPs used, and leveraging log-level data for optimization. By following these recommendations, ANA estimates marketers have an opportunity to improve efficiency so that at least 50 cents of every programmatic dollar reaches the consumer.
• Programmatic Transparency Benchmark: Q1 2025 Benchmark Findings (May 2025)
  The latest Q1 2025 results showed that benchmark participants now direct 41 percent of their programmatic budgets to effective ad impressions — those delivered by publishers meeting their quality requirements. This marks a significant improvement from 36 percent in 2023, largely driven by a decline in low-quality Made for Advertising (MFA) placements. However, considerable inefficiencies remain. The new TrueCPM Index reveals a 37.8 percent optimization gap, indicating that over a third of open web ad spending still goes toward impressions that don't meet standard quality metrics (non-IVT, measurable for viewability and viewable). This report covers the above findings and additional recommendations.
• Understanding Usage and Attitudes on Broker/Agent Versus Principal Media Buying Models (May 2025)
  The agency media buying model is changing. It is important for advertisers to know when their agency is purchasing media for them as an agent versus selling them inventory on a non-transparent basis or that has been acquired as a principal. Principal media buying and other non-transparent services are increasing rapidly and advertisers need to be aware of and take safeguards. This report covers watchouts and recommendations.
• Programmatic Transparency Benchmark Findings (December 2024)
  The ANA has released a new wave of findings from its 2024 Programmatic Transparency Benchmark Study, marking another step in empowering brands towards full visibility into their programmatic supply chain. This latest analysis included CTV, highlighting the sector's rapid growth and providing a more comprehensive view of the totality of programmatic media buying. Key findings from the study reflect combined ad spend productivity growth of 22%. In the context of a $104 billion open web programmatic marketplace, this improvement translates to an additional $8.2 billion in ad spend productivity.
  
• ANA Programmatic Media Supply Chain Transparency Study: Complete Report (December 2023)
  This study delves deep into open web programmatic advertising. Using data from 21 brands across 11 categories with a total ad spend of $123 million, it found that only 36 cents of every dollar that enters a DSP effectively reaches the consumer. That means $22 billion in efficiency gains are available to client-side marketers. The study includes recommended action steps to help optimize investment in programmatic media leading to a greater percentage of every ad dollar reaching the consumer.
• Guidelines for Buyers (Agencies and Marketers) When Doing Business with Diverse Media Suppliers (May 2022)
  Over the past year, there has been an increased commitment from the ad industry to support diverse suppliers. The purpose of this guidance is to help buyers (agencies and marketers) and diverse media suppliers improve their ways of working together. This work was created by a cross-industry collaboration. The 4A's, the ANA, and AIMM, with input from our respective members, drafted the initial guidelines. We then reached out to diverse suppliers for input and improvement. While this guidance has been developed with diverse media suppliers specifically in mind, much of it is also relevant for diverse suppliers in marketing/advertising overall.
• Decoding CTV Measurement: An In-Depth Look at Reach, Frequency and ROI (September 2021)
  ANA partnered with Innovid on a study to help marketers better understand the opportunities with CTV and simplify the intricacies of measurement. Twenty leading advertisers participated with CTV campaigns running between January and April 2021 with total spend of $35 million. Key findings: (1) the depth of unique reach for CTV has yet to be unearthed and (2) CTV’s frequency problem is highly exaggerated.
• Media KPIs That Matter (May 2021)
  Media KPIs have been identified by the ANA Media Leadership Growth Council as one of its areas of interest due to the direct connection between KPIs and business results. The group was interested in learning more about: the most used KPIs for media; the most important KPIs for media; new/emerging KPIs for media; and KPIs considered to be "head fakes" — KPIs that may be endorsed by a media partner but aren't really useful and may even be potentially deceptive. Thirty-nine (39) KPIs were identified. A key finding is that the most important KPIs are generally not the most used KPIs.
• Data Sources for Media: A Buyer’s Guide (May 2020)
  A tremendous amount of money is spent on data for media buying decisions, specifically third-party audience data. This paper recommends criteria for advertisers to focus on when evaluating data and provides a checklist to use when considering a new data partner. This is an initiative from the Trust Consortium, launched by the ANA in partnership with Reed Smith, the ANA’s outside legal counsel.
• The State of Connected TV Report 2020 (January 2020)
  Seventeen major marketers participated in this ANA and Innovid study, running a total of 60 million impressions. Key findings: connected TV significantly extends reach, provides more interactivity and increases earned time over standard ad experiences.
• Issues that Contribute to the Breakdown of Trust in the Advertising Ecosystem (September 2019)
  The ANA launched the Trust Consortium in partnership with our outside counsel, Reed Smith, to help address the issue of trust between marketers and the advertising ecosystem. To identify future focus areas for the Trust Consortium, a survey asked client-side marketers to rate a number of issues on how they contribute to the breakdown of trust.
• Media Agency Compensation Practices (September 2019)
  Given the rapidly changing digital, social, and programmatic media landscape, the ANA fielded this survey to delve into the topic of media agency compensation practices and the related issues of performance incentives, programmatic compensation/transparency, as well as rebates, discounts, and principal-based buying. ANA is well known for our triennial reports on agency compensation, which cover all types of agencies.
• 2018-2019 Bot Baseline: Fraud in Digital Advertising (May 2019)
  For the fourth time, ANA and White Ops partnered on a study to measure the amount of fraud in the digital advertising ecosystem. Fifty ANA member companies participated in the study. Results show that the war on ad fraud is succeeding and measures designed to block fraudulent impressions are working. The report includes a number of recommendations for marketers.