The Split Account System and Japans Advertising Industry
Brian Moeran
INTRODUCTION
Any discussion of the structure and operation of any advertising industry in any part of the world should, strictly speaking, begin and end with its account system. There are two reasons for adopting such an approach. In the first place, advertising agencies are service industries whose prosperity is totally determined by the prosperity of their clients, the advertisers (Jones, 1999, p 9). When clients have money to spend, agencies flourish; when they dont, they struggle. Second, it is the distribution of accounts by companies wishing to advertise that permits...