Hiring a Marketing Agency vs In-housing

Last week I was at an event organised by my Mailjet, Exponea, DMA & Google. The main topic of discussion concerned the pros & cons of having marketing and media teams in-house.

The subject resonates with me at different levels having worked at global media agencies, in clients’ offices and more recently talking to a lot of smaller businesses following the founding of Mediatative.

DMA, has surveyed some brands and asked their opinions on the subject:

What Were the Thoughts of Big Brands?

• Brands were in favour of in housing as it brings their business consistency, control and transparency and helps them to save cost.
• Brands found outsourcing marketing work to agencies challenging because of lack of understanding and knowledge of their business.
• Brands have limited budget to adopt new technologies.
• They were concerned that during the transition of bringing the marketing team in-house they will see a dip in performance.

What Were the Thoughts of the Panel of Marketing Experts?

• In-housing is currently seeing a lot interest amongst brands.
• Finding the right talent and skill-set would be incredibly difficult for brands.
• Talent would need the right technology to be able to deliver successfully on their job demands.
• Brands may never have sufficient budget to facilitate this level of technology.
• Brands would find it difficult to provide their media & marketing talent with an opportunity to grow and develop in the industry.
• New ideas can come from a ‘fresh pair of eyes’ outside the business and having an agency would bring that potential to the table.

Concluding Thoughts

Understandably, the size of a business matters and needs differ according to the stage of business development. However, if you have an expansive vision for your business, my own experience of working on large accounts suggests that if brands want to move Everything in-house, it’s almost impossible for them to have the same level of experience, talent and quality of relationships with media and marketing partners. The technology and the skills that are needed to handle an account, providing high quality analysis, and spending sufficient time using insight to optimise performance are not only essential but vital to make sure the media spend on giant advertising platforms is utilised to its maximum potential. And after all, in order to be a successful customer-centric brand requires shaping a service or product around customer experience, and support from the experts is crucial.