GroupM, the ad agency that buys about $74 billion in global media annually, has a set a new policy to prevent its buyers from taking extravagant gifts from vendors and suppliers: Execs can no longer take a penny more than $200 in gifts, gratuities, meals or entertainment.
Unless, that is, their bosses say it's OK.
"If it's greater than $200 pre-approval is required and it does have to be documented in a database," John Wolfe, a spokesperson for GroupM, told us. The database tracks all gifts received by GroupM employees.
Most companies, both inside and outside the advertising world, have policies that prevent their employees from receiving gifts from other companies' employees. The rationale is that it prevents conflicts of interest—the appearance that a company may not be best serving its clients or customers because it enjoys the largesse of its vendors too much. Those policies often limit gifts to items of nominal value (mugs and T-shirts) or things worth less than $25. (That's B.I.'s general policy, for instance.) Walmart has a famously strict gift policy that prevents any gifts, even T-shirts.
GroupM's $200 limit has been in place for six to eight months, Wolfe said, but its existence surfaced recently on SellerCrowd, a web site for media vendors to swap business tips and gossip. One user, under the screename Dur4, asked, "Has anyone heard about GroupM's new entertainment policy? Apparently they are required to log ALL vendor entertaining events, and get VP approval for anything expected to be over $200. And overnight trips forbidden all together."
That provoked this discussion of whether wining and dining GroupM's buyers amounted to paying "bribes" or not. A source on the site shared this copy of the text with B.I.:
Cilantro12 Even if the vendor is paying for it? That makes no sense
1 day ago
Chopin62 Try to only pitch events, trips, etc after work hours.
1 day ago
Narcissus30 makes total sense. most clients (advertisers) are appalled at - and some even have policies forbidding - the pay for play going on in NYC, in particular.
1 day ago
Petit3 I think the level of adoption among the teams varies quite a bit as well...some follow to a T, some literally do not care at all
1 day ago
Homer63 How new? The teams I work with don't seem to be aware of and/or abide by said policy. - GUILTY!
1 day ago
Delgado73 All agencies have classes in how to avoid taking what amounts to bribes. If you can't find a way around it you might consider a new line of work.
1 day ago
Delgado20 Yeah, I have to say this doesn't bother me, and I've heard of several agencies doing similar. If the only way you can get bought is by offering expensive dinners and tickets then maybe you should be focusing on your value proposition a little more.
1 day ago
Chopin88 exactly what Delgado said ...
23 hours ago
Cinnamon90 yep - i heard about a site that offered a trip abroad to some GroupMers and they had to decline it...team was crushed.
23 hours ago
Pinotnoir7 But even just a small team dinner is going to be over $200! Wow. There are definitely some cases I've seen where it's blatant that an agency is favoring a vendor due to relationship/entertaining...this business is hard enough w/out having that in the mix!
22 hours ago
Merlot10 There is a difference between a flat out bribe (world trip) versus an outing with people that you know and do business with and/or people that you want to get to know b/c then your value proposition really makes an outting - a true work outting. I know in the territory I run, I feel like spending money on clients that make sense is not a bad thing - they can always say no and often do. I think it does depend on the different groups but a lot has to do with your specific relationships too. Just my $02.
18 hours ago
Wolfe said the policy is intended to account for the way things often get done in the ad world—over drinks and dinner: "It's a way of doing business. It plays a role in set relationships, and it's a relationship business. People take each other out to lunch and it's being going on forever."
Looks like GroupM's execs will have to limit themselves to restaurants that charge less than $200 a head. Oh, the humanity.
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