John Foss, former president and chief executive officer of the Association of Canadian Advertisers, has started a consultancy service called The Intermediary.

Foss says, based on his aca experience, he decided to focus his consultancy around advertising management services on the client side, specifically the direct relationship between client and agency.

He says clients need help to understand how advertising agencies function, and why all levels of the company should be involved for the client/agency relationship to work properly.

He says some of the concerns of clients, especially in upper management levels, are compensation, evaluation and accountability of agencies.

According to Foss, he wants to help advertisers find out where the problems are, and restore the agency/client relationship to a performing level.

Foss stepped down from the aca last fall after 14 years, but continued to work on projects for the association until May. PS