In-housing has evolved. It’s no longer seen just as an easy way to cut costs and churn out creative assets. Brands across the world are increasingly taking control of their creative output, looking for tighter integration of suppliers, clearer accountability and simpler, outcome-based measurement. They prize the increased flexibility of an in-house team in the face of always-on social media and e-commerce.
In a break with previous perceptions, in-house creative agencies are also becoming attractive places for talent. Some new arrivals say they are fleeing agency burnout and instability, while others are drawn to the ability to work on specific creative assets and be part of teams that are increasingly winning awards on the global stage.
This boom in in-house agencies is raising fundamental questions about control, collaboration and creative friction.
The change is not necessarily a threat to agencies. Brands typically want to be the conductor, not the entire orchestra. Running agencies is difficult, as some high-profile U.S. companies have recently discovered (“unhousing” or severely reducing their in-house operations).
Which is why overwhelmingly, brands are relying on the hybrid model. This provides the best of both worlds with agencies offering scale, breadth of experience, specialist knowledge, and the ability to inject beneficial creative tension, while in-house teams bring a deeper understanding of customer and company goals, data management and more speed and agility.
So what should the industry make of these changes? How can brands get it right? And how will new technologies such as AI and live-streaming e-commerce change the game again? In its latest market report, Campaign Red dives into the details of how in-housing is changing in Asia, EMEA and North America, with interviews from key players and the latest data to find out what’s really happening with the inside job.
Find out:
1 How brands around the world including Asahi, Brooks Running, Channel 4, Citi, Innocent Drinks, Kraft Heinz, Mastercard, Marriott, Miniso, Saje, Sky and Wealthsimple are structuring their in-house operations and why.
2 Why most companies are settling on the hybrid model in order to get the best of both worlds and guard against “groupthink”
3 Why the stigma of working brand-side is evaporating and how to guard against the danger of “groupthink”
4 What Asia’s e-commerce livestream boom may mean for you. The Asian market is “3 years ahead” of Europe and North America on livestreaming. Find out how it is radically reshaping in-house creative teams.
5 “If you drop AI into a broken system, you just get chaos faster”. Why governance not technology is the key to AI success.
Subscribers with market report access can read the following chapters on Campaign Canada:
Why some brands are rebalancing or "unhousing", and why the hybrid model will be the future
How in-house agencies are moving up the value chain
"Pilot purgatory": Why in-housing's AI ambition rests on governance, not technology
Click here to access the full market report, The Inside Job, on Campaign Red.
Please note: The full report is only available to subscribers with market report access. To purchase an individual report, or add the market reports to your corporate package, please fill out this form and a member of our team will be in touch. For those who have access through their corporate package, please sign in as usual.