Digiday Research: In-housing saves money but retaining staff is tough
This research is based on unique data collected from our proprietary audience of publisher, agency, brand and tech insiders. It’s available to Digiday+ members. More from the series →
Talent remains the biggest challenge for brands managing their marketing operations in-house. In a survey of 53 brand marketers, all of whom have in-housed at least some marketing functions, 43% of them said they “disagreed” with the statement that in-housing has made it easier to hire and retain staff. Only 527% said they agreed strongly with that statement.
The survey also asked about some other effects of in-housing. Three-quarters of respondents said it had improved speed and agility, while 68% of respondents said it had reduced marketing overhead costs.
Marketers are doing more work in-house than ever before. In a survey of 67 brand marketers by Digiday this fall, only 17% of respondents said they were “mostly using agencies” for marketing tasks, while no respondents said they’re completely relying on agencies.
About 53% of respondents said they’re managing their marketing either 100% or “mostly” in-house.
These findings are mostly in line with the Association of National Advertisers, whose July report found that 78% of its members have an in-house agency, up from only 58% in 2013.
What brands are taking in-house varies. About 70% of respondents said they’re managing all brand strategy in house, while programmatic ad buying — probably the hardest function to build an in-house team for, is only being managed in-house by 23% of respondents.
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