Ebiquity

Agencies Weigh Turning Compute Tokens into Media Bets

Advertising holding companies are exploring treating AI compute tokens like principal media inventory — buying tokens in bulk, pricing the risk, and reselling with a margin — to recoup rising AI costs that agencies have been absorbing on their balance sheets. The idea is divisive: a small Digiday poll of 58 respondents found 42% oppose agencies becoming token futures markets, fewer than 10% support it, and 36% are conditional on transparency. Proponents argue bundling token costs into principal media deals gives clients certainty and helps agencies fund infrastructure; critics warn of opacity, procurement benchmarking problems, conflicts of interest, and a failure mode where improved efficiency leaves agencies stuck with overcommitted token volume.

Mediasense, Consultancies Brace for Busy Second Half

Digiday's Media Buying Briefing reports that consultancies that run agency review processes are preparing for increased activity in the second half of 2026 after a wave of account moves in H1. The article names consultancies — including Abintus, ID Comms, Mediasense, Flock Associates, Mercer Island Group and Ebiquity — as firms often hired to orchestrate prolonged media and creative partner reviews. It also notes that large advertiser activity (with Coca-Cola mentioned as potentially in play) could drive more review work. The briefing is part of Digiday+’s weekly Media Buying Briefing for industry subscribers and highlights the importance for agencies of knowing the main consultancy players if they want to be considered for pitches.

ANA revisits K2 report on agency rebates

Digiday reports that the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) revisited the decade-old K2 report in a June 3, 2026 webinar, re-examining opaque media-agency practices such as holding rebates and selling principal media under unclear contracts. Participants included ANA EVP Bill Duggan, Jon Mandel, Keri Bruce (Reed Smith), Richard Plansky (Kroll) and Nick Manning (formerly Ebiquity). The discussion noted progress — about 60% of surveyed marketers updated media-agency contracts in the past year — but persistent gaps in addressing non-transparent media and rebate clauses. Panelists flagged the ongoing commercial incentives and governance failures that enable hidden rebates and problematic principal-media deals, and highlighted contract-template and governance changes ANA and counsel have promoted (including replacing 'principal media' with 'non-transparent services').