Let’s just call out the elephant in the room: everywhere we look, the term “in-housing” is cropping up. It generally connotes something brands equate with triumph and agencies with losing business. In its purest definition, in-housing describes the transition from agency-led media buying to the brand being in partial or full control of activation. Somewhere along the way, the industry has started applying the term to brands giving the old heave-ho to their agency partners for reasons surrounding lack of transparency, hidden fees and mistrust over whether the brand’s best interests were being considered. Brand marketers are also facing more pressure from the top to deliver ROI, especially as they increasingly amass more share of technology budget.
While the role of a media agency will change over time as the ecosystem evolves and technology improves, there are significant benefits to strategic involvement of external partners. The operational complexity of media buying makes the scaled and specialized workforce of an agency a requirement for many brands. Institutional knowledge also benefits the agency’s clients. External partners see more scenarios across more brands and industries than an in-housed team, and they can make parallels from those experiences to a given brand’s situation to correct problems and find incremental gains.
Today, we have launched the playbook “Tech & Talent: Four Models for Managing the Evolution of Your Programmatic Media” to help you discover your operating model for success in the world of paid marketing—and most of the models we present actually involve your agency partners.
Find your operating model “type” and how to secure the resources to get you there
Download this guide to learn:
- Why brands are re-evaluating their media-buying models
- What operating model is right for your brand
- Where to find help if a change in model is in order