Guidelines for Buyers (Agencies and Marketers) When Doing Business with Diverse Media Suppliers

Over the past year there has been an increased impetus 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.

Areas covered include:

• Certification requirements
• Finding diverse suppliers
• Be open to alternative media metrics
• Payment terms
• Increasing limited inventory
• There will ultimately be two complementary sets of guidelines:
• For Buyers (agencies and marketers) when doing business with diverse media suppliers
• For Diverse Media Suppliers when doing business with buyers (agencies and marketers), which will follow