Has in-housing backfired on marketing teams?
Don’t ask me why, but I'm diving back into what used to be a hot topic, in-housing. It feels like it’s time to assess how well in-housing worked. Yes, I might be a tad biased since I’m agency-side, but I do understand the mixed feelings about agencies, especially those that haven’t been transparent or make big promises that they don’t deliver on.
“In-housing” is often a term that’s as clear as mud. I mean, what does "in-housing" really mean? Is it just bringing a bit of tech under your roof, or are we talking about a full-on marketing takeover by an internal squad? For this piece, I’m leaning into the deep end — thinking about companies that went all in, handling most of their marketing in-house. For some, it is starting to look like things aren’t going to plan.
Why’s that? For starters, marketing today is getting increasingly technical with automation doing the heavy lifting. Remember the days of manually tweaking every ad bid and refreshing ad copy? Those tasks are now waving goodbye thanks to smart tech that handles the grind in the background. Then there's the data, AI and automation revolution. The skills needed to make these strategies work are in high demand, pricey, and honestly, for many companies, not needed full-time, which can lead to knowledge gaps and idle investment.
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But let’s not toss in-housing into the “fail” basket just yet. There’s a silver lining here. Taking control and having transparency? Huge wins. Owning your tech? Smart move. And having that in-house expertise to make sure you’re picking the right partners and nailing project briefs is gold.
So, what’s the future look like? It’s about finding that sweet spot — the "right house" solution. Figuring out what to keep in-house and what to hand off to partners. Companies need to weigh up the real value of in-housing versus partnering, and, on the flip side, agencies need to stay nimble, adapting services without trying to take over what businesses can handle just fine on their own.
Has in-housing backfired? Sometimes, yes. But it started from a good place, and with the marketing landscape changing fast, it’s time for businesses to reassess and adapt.
Chief Growth Officer at Incubeta UK
6 个月The topic which always comes back round! No one is ever truly one or the other. Great article DB
Head of Tech & Services
6 个月Companies that in-house everything may in the short run feel like they are gaining in terms of being more cost-effective, and more in control, but in the long run they will lose out. Brands are only exposed to what they are exposed to, whereas agencies have the privilege and benefit in working with many clients of all shapes and sizes, and gaining very specific insights on each in the process. The ideal setup is somewhere in the middle - a partnership between brand and agency where both challenge each other on their respective viewpoints. Regular checkins from the agency into the client's business challenges and goals should provide the red thread for all engagement going forward. To look beyond the current scope and campaigns is to understand the bigger picture, and understanding the bigger picture is a key requirement in ensuring agencies don't try to sell an oil change to a Tesla owner. "You understand SEO and are in the top-ranking in your vertical? Great! You've got that covered, we won't touch it. You struggle to understand where you should invest in your Paid Search to not cannibalise on your organic ranking? Let's chat and see how we can support you on that."
Group Head of SEO @ Kingfisher (B&Q, Screwfix, Trade Point, Castorama, Brico Depot) | 15+ Yrs Ecom/Retail Experience (M&S, Moonpig, Debenhams) | Judge For UK & Europe's Leading & Largest Digital & Agency Marketing Awards
6 个月In my career I have made some pretty big decisions to move away from agency-led services in favour of in house solutions driven by cost cutting exercises, specific marketing priorities at the time, or quite frankly, agency underperformance vs expectations. Time and time again however I have seen the greatest success through a hybrid model with agencies supporting very specific needs of the marketing team, adding value and plugging gaps in in house expertise, rather than a more binary, either one or the other implementation. In housing certain technologies and decision making that requires in depth business/product knowledge has always served me well, speeding up implementations and creating greater internal trust but there have been numerous cases in my career where the extra voice of an agency, extra angle on strategic thinking and certainly inspiration when it comes to more creative solutions around things like automation and data has proven critical for growth.
Managing Director at Incubeta UK
6 个月Very interesting topic Damo, I think perhaps the biggest bug bear for me is when we are informed of the decision to in-house where we could have added value to the discussion and plan to execute. We’ve helped many of our clients to in-house parts of their digital marketing, and the best outcomes have been when we’ve worked together on that plan, setting out clear milestones from validation to in-house, team mapping, resource analysis, training and offboarding to name a few. I believe it’s a modern day responsibility and skillset for agencies to embrace inhousing and work with clients to achieve there objectives, in some cases the outcome of the process will see some scope remain for the agency, be it ongoing training, reporting, measurement, creative, campaign support, or consultancy.