101: Delivering accountability in media

2026 brings an updated 101 Knowledge Session programme available for all ISBA members. The sessions - curated in partnership with Pete Davis, MD of Getmemedia.com - deliver valuable insights and learnings from industry experts and address the whole media landscape and communications process.

This 101 session explores how advertisers can deliver accountability across their media investment. We’ll look at why media performance and contract compliance audits have become essential in an increasingly complex and opaque media ecosystem, and what questions these audits are designed to answer.

The session explains how performance audits assess media value, quality, and effectiveness, how compliance audits ensure agencies are operating in line with contractual agreements, and how regular auditing can create a cycle of governance, learning, and continuous improvement in client–agency relationships.

What you will learn:

• Understand why media accountability has become critical in a complex, opaque ecosystem.
• Learn the difference between media performance audits and contract compliance audits.
• See what questions audits answer (pricing, quality, neutrality, delivery)
  understand what good auditing looks like in digital vs offline media
• Use audits as a governance and improvement tool, not just a cost recovery exercise

It’s about control, value, and trust in agency relationships, not content accuracy.