Are you planning to in-house or in-source your advertising or media?

One of the big trends amongst advertisers continues to be “in-housing” – the process of bringing in-house some functions or skills previously managed by out-sourced suppliers; predominantly agencies. 

The recent WFA study reported the following:

• Growth in digital opportunities has led to a rise in in-house agencies, with 74% being established in the last five years. In just the past year, businesses like Nestlé, Hertz and Anheuser-Busch have jumped on the trend.
• Brand marketers are pursuing in-housing for predictable reasons, such as cost efficiencies (30%), better integration (64%) and better brand knowledge (59%).
• Covid-19 has accelerated in-housing. One side effect of the Covid-19 outbreak has been the need for brands to function with more agility and more efficient working practices. It has therefore exacerbated many of the challenges that already led brands to consider-in-housing resources.
• The pandemic has therefore not led to cut-backs in these agencies, but actually the reverse. According to the report, in-house teams are receiving more work, with 82% claiming their workloads have increased over the past year.

Flock have advised on many in-housing projects for media, data and analytics, design, creative and production. We carefully assess many aspects and look for benefits, risks, dependencies, enablers and alternatives. We take an objective independent point of view in presenting options.

One key issue at the heart of choosing the right model(s) will be deciding whether to in-house or in-source the talent. In-housing is where you, as the advertiser, hire the teams directly. In-sourcing is where you “rent”, housed in your offices, a team provided by an agency or consultancy.

We can introduce you to other advertisers and clients who have used each of the models. And, you will be able to see “under the hood” of each type of solution, meet the leaders that transformed their teams, and understand some of the following pro’s and con’s.

Still debating what’s right for you? Please contact us so we can discuss and help to answer key questions: