Brand owners are beginning to reap the benefits of ditching marketing agencies and moving more and more of their digital operations inhouse, with nearly three-fifths (58%) of client marketers witnessing a positive return on investment from the switch.
According to the creative management platform Bannerflow’s second annual “State of Inhousing Report”, in partnership with Digiday, only 3% of clients say they have seen no ROI from the change.
What was once a trickle has now turned into a torrent of inhousing, with 85% of marketers having started the move within the past 12 months.
This year’s report found that brands are having success in numerous areas, and, as a result, businesses are developing their teams and adapting their external digital marketing requirements from experts and agencies.
Increased transparency, cost-saving and greater agility were the top three benefits listed by businesses. Over a third (35%) also stated they now have full digital competency available to them in their team, up from 23% in 2018.
However, there are still challenges facing those who wish to move to an inhouse model, the report warns. Marketers have cited a lack of support internally for this transition, a lack of existing talent to build a strong in-house team and gaining buy-in from management as the biggest hurdles.
In order to help tackle some of these issues, brands are turning to digital transformation agencies and specialist consultancy firms to help them through their inhouse “journey” – 34% are using digital transformation agencies regularly, on a monthly basis.
In a further swipe at their former marketing agency partner, over three-fifths (63%) of clients say creativity has increased through inhousing, over a third (37%) say they are now able to react quicker to marketing trends, and over two fifths (41%) say they can now use data more effectively.
Bannerflow chief executive Nicholas Högberg said: “More than 8 out of 10 marketers are now working inhouse. We have seen that inhousing is being rapidly adopted to improve ROI, boost creativity and increase agility within marketing teams.
“Brands are also learning when to ask for help, as digital transformation agencies are becoming the major missing puzzle piece.”
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