In the free enterprise system, advertising drives competition, innovation and consumer choice as marketers promote their products to connect with potential customers and build brand value. Ironically, these same advertisers--according to the Independent World Producers Alliance--are being denied the benefits of unfettered competition in the production and postproduction marketplace as ad agency holding companies, looking to boost their bottom line, favor their own in-house production and post operations. This contention is front and center in an open letter to advertisers--dated today (4/16)--from the Independent World Producers Alliance, a consortium of 25 associations representing the interests of independent production and postproduction companies around the globe. Among those in the consortium are such organizations as the AICP in the U.S., the European Producers Association, Canada’s ACCP, APRO (the Brazilian Association of Independent Production Companies), AMFI (The Asociacion Mexicana del Filmadoras, the Mexican association of film production companies), the CPA (The Commercial Producers Association of South Africa), and IRPII, the official association representing Indonesia’s commercial film and advertising production houses. Signatory members of the European Producers Association span groups in the Baltic countries, Belgium, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the United Kingdom. The letter authored by the Independent World Producers Alliance cautions marketers to pay close attention to the holding company in-house production and post offerings of their advertising agency partners, and explains the value of preserving an open,... Read More