In-housing most likely on social channels, says IHAC, while media trading remains an external gig
While most Australian brands (96%) said social is the channel they are most likely to manage in-house, more than half (53%) tended to task traditional media trading activities to external agencies, according to an In-House Agency Council (IHAC) study.
The industry body partnered with consultancy Lution and surveyed 24 IHAC members to understand the capabilities and challenges of the in-house model. Brands that participated in the survey include AFL, Asahi, Betfair, Employment Hero, Keypath Education, MYOB, Optus, Seek, Specsavers, Sportsbet, and Treasury Wine Estates.
IHAC founder and chairman, Chris Maxwell also founded and is managing director of Lution.
Following social, around 80% of respondents said they manage channels like digital video, search and digital display in-house. The report noted that digital channels overall are most popular with in-house agencies.
However, traditional channels like TV, OOH, radio and print are less likely to be managed by the brands (between 20-40%).
With external agencies, brands said apart from traditional media trading, they are also likely to seek services such as media ROI / marketing mix modelling (47%) and communications & media strategy (47%).
Overall, 83% of respondents said they work with an external agency in a hybrid model, with 17% doing everything in-house.
Maxwell said: “In our research we found that the benefits to brands bringing media in-house are many and varied, and while there are some challenges, consensus is that the benefits far outweigh the challenges.”
The most common challenges for in-house work include difficulty in staying abreast of trends and innovation, cost of tech and recruiting and retaining talents, but there are benefits like increased effectiveness, improved efficiency and improved agility.
Regarding the outlook for in-house agencies, zero respondents said their scope was reduced in the last 12 months, and none expected it to be in the next 12 months.
Speaking at Mumbrella360 last year, Maxwell said external agencies who push against working with internal agencies are set to “lose” in this industry.
“As an industry – whether you’re on the client side, or you’re on the agency side – you should know this is coming. The businesses that figure out how to partner well with in-house agencies with their clients will be the ones who’ll win,” he said.
“And if you’re an external agency and you’re pushing against this trend, it’s not going to be good for you, I can tell you that.”
IHAC was launched in 2021 with the objective of helping marketers maximise their in-house agencies by attracting the best talent, building capability, benchmarking and sharing industry best practices, and acting as an advocate for the in-house agency marketing model.
Got a tip?
Darcy Song was a reporter at Mumbrella, covering media owners, adtech and social platforms. She left in October 2023.
Linkedin
I don’t think 24 respondents counts as a study
User ID not verified.
Have your say