Agencies audit programmatic partners
Omnicom, Publicis and WPP are commissioning audits of programmatic vendors—The Trade Desk among them—as clients and holding companies push for transparency on fees and yield. Separately, Boots hired Ingenuity+ to review its WPP relationship, underscoring that major advertisers are demanding tighter accountability from agency partners. (performancemarketingworld.com) (campaignlive.co.uk)
Publicis’ internal audit was conducted by third-party firm FirmDecisions and led Publicis to tell clients it would “no longer recommend” The Trade Desk on March 17, 2026 after alleging violations of its master service agreement. (adage.com) The Trade Desk has publicly disputed FirmDecisions’ findings, saying it has not “failed” an audit and pointing to SOC 1 compliance and confidentiality limits on sharing some audit materials in its response. (marketing-interactive.com) Omnicom notified clients this week that it has engaged an independent third party — reported to be a Big Four accounting firm — to examine billing and contractual arrangements with The Trade Desk, while its initial internal check reportedly found no client-impacting issues. (adage.com) Market reaction has been swift: shares in The Trade Desk slid roughly 7–8% in late March after the Publicis and Omnicom audit actions were reported, prompting analyst downgrades and heightened investor scrutiny. (247wallst.com) Separately, Boots commissioned Ingenuity+ on March 25, 2026 to run a review of its relationship with WPP, hiring Ingenuity+ as an intermediary for agency review and pitch management services. (campaignlive.co.uk) Boots is part of Walgreens Boots Alliance, which has previously worked with WPP as its global marketing partner, underscoring that this Ingenuity+ appointment targets a high-spend retail client relationship rather than a local campaign-level audit. (advfn.com)
