A shift to digital advertising and the need for speed and efficiencies has seen the number of brands that have brought their agency needs in-house explode over the last decade a new report has found.
The study, albeit a US one, was conducted by global research firm Forrester and the In-house Agency Forum and found that advertisers with in-house agency capabilities had increase from 42 per cent to 64 per cent over the past 10 years.
The results, published on the Wall Street Journal, were based on findings from 325 US companies, 64 per cent who had internal capabilities, 30 per cent who didn’t, and six per cent who didn’t know.
According to the study, in 2008 the chief reason for bringing work in-house was due to cost savings and speed. Fast forward to 2018 and the chief reason remains pretty much the same while the shift to digital has meant in-house provides far shorter turnarounds.
Respondents to the study (some 25 per cent) also said that bringing the work in-house meant the knowledge of the brand stayed internal.
Interestingly, less cited things such as confidentiality as a reason to abandon external agencies.
However, the news wasn’t all doom and gloom for agencies. A majority of respondents said that they still used the services of traditional external agencies.
Respondents also acknowledged that external agencies tended to be more expensive, but that was typically to do with the higher overheads than anything else.
Commenting on the findings, In-house Agency Forum’s Marta Stiglin said: “You need measurement and analytics and insights to drive new programs and strategies,” she said.
“Knowledge of the brand and integrating at all points of contact, particularly with what’s going on with digital, is of paramount importance,” Stiglin added.
