The talk of the town in digital marketing is of brands in-housing. Read any headline and you’d be forgiven for thinking the key driver for doing so is cost, followed by agency partner frustrations.
Not so: dig a little deeper and there are three other ‘c’s that are driving this trend – control, compliance and clarity. Brands are realising that the way they may have worked with agency partners isn’t fit for the future – but they know too that they cannot successfully take ‘everything’ in-house.
For many, the solution lies somewhere in between: today’s ‘in-houser’ wants to be at the centre of the digital equation, closer to and in greater control of the data, with more flexibility to act on the fly.
Clarity – or transparency – is the third connected piece: with every extra layer of administration an outsider in charge of the data brings comes a degree of opacity.
Why compliancy matters more than ever
In 2018 there was a seemingly endless string of emails from brands wanting to remain in touch. It was all down to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) updating consumer rights around data privacy.
It introduced massive fines of up to 4% of global turnover for mishandling customer information, prompting many companies to evaluate all third party partners for risk.
Moreover, today’s marketer is more aware of the value of the data it owns or seeks to own. And that is where the tech comes in.
The tech factor: controlling your data is key
By using its own tools a brand can take a more customer-centric and dynamic approach. Ceding control of the adtech to a partner, however trusted, means putting it through someone else’s filter; inevitably, the insights you can garner dilute.
If you then decide to replace that partner you effectively press pause on what should be a continual drive towards more holistic and personalised communications.
Data sits within the technology: owning the tech means you have more control over it and that brings extra confidence and assurity.
Clarity of fees
When advertisers look to take more control of their data and tech an important factor is the transparency it brings to fees. It is not that they distrust their agency partners per se, but it does make disentangling management fees from tech fees that much harder, giving rise to manipulation.
That’s not to say that everyone will see massive reductions in their tech fees from in-housing. Many might expect to see substantial cost savings in doing so, but it is often a false economy: agencies have access to block buying power and will often have better direct rates than a single advertiser can command.
The right blend of in-house and outside expertise
It is why we’re seeing savvy marketers take a balanced approach to in-housing: bringing together the benefits of being closer to the actions while leveraging the expertise of agency and consultancy partners. It is not a choice of either/or, but the best blend of both for a business’s particular needs.
Today, companies are self-serving in many areas, such as email and search marketing, and they’ll likely have taken back control of their data.
It means that agencies are having to evolve new ways of working to remain relevant to brands who can go direct to advertising technology vendors as well as the ad networks their messages will appear on. Their strength lies in the highly skilled jobs of planning and executive digital advertising campaigns and coming up with great creative ideas as well as being on top of new and evolving opportunities.
Forget the all-or-nothing headlines: the real success story is altogether more subtle and better for both brand and agency. Let’s celebrate the new in-house rules.
By James Sleaford
James Sleaford is managing director at DQ&A by Incubeta