It’s not funny: Ad agencies decry clients who pay their invoices late

An alliance of advertising industry associations has called out some of the world's largest firms for spending US$20 bln annually in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs, even as they pay their suppliers late.

VoxComm represents industry associations in Malaysia, Hong Kong, Europe, the US, Brazil, Mexico, Australia and others, and says "companies bully agencies into longer payment terms or just flagrantly flout contractual payment terms. The unintended consequences mean agencies in-turn struggle to meet payroll, often 75% of their costs. Then have to delay paying their freelancers and sub-contractors who have been hired to work directly for these clients".

For these sub-contractors, "Their fees are their salaries. It is what pays the rent and what puts food on the table."

Delaying payment was "directly at odds with [the companies'] avowed policy of CSR", VoxComm said. Full story here.

For Simon Littlewood and Mark Laudi, this is of course all too familiar.

In this podcast they discuss the issue and what you can do about it - and end with a rather unorthodox way of getting paid on time.

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