Unilever and P&G have announced they are reducing their adspend by nearly 60%, as a reaction to lack of transparency and trust in media spend. esbconnect MD, Suzanna Chaplin, outlines why in her view this has its roots in the demand for Reach from these brands.

Roll back twenty years and brands routinely spent obscene amounts on advertising with no real proof of whether it was viewed by relevant audiences, or what results it drove. However, twenty years later, technology has got a lot more sophisticated and we have the ability to pinpoint audiences across multiple segments, tracking all interactions from view to click to transaction. So why after all this tech development, are Unilever and P&G reducing adspend because it lacks transparency? How can millions have been spent in the adtech space to improve transparency, and yet two of the biggest brands in the world pull adspend because it lacks it?