It is also found that no advertisers believe they are utilising media technology very effectively.

One of the biggest pieces of advice we give to clients when assessing their agency portfolios is to shift their focus from managing agencies to managing the capabilities that they need their agencies to provide. Rather than inventory agencies and the capabilities they offer, inventory the full list of capabilities you need to deliver your marketing strategy, and identify which agencies are responsible for delivering what.

From an optimization standpoint, this exercise will help identify zones of overlap where multiple agencies may be delivering to the same capability. One area where there is often redundancy is in defining your overall marketing strategy, with each agency defining the target audience, competitive landscape and strategic goals from the point of view of their specific expertise. Focusing on capabilities can also help you identify opportunities to consolidate. If an agency is delivering a single capability that could be covered just as well by another agency in your roster, consider streamlining the number of agencies you must manage and support.

Based on responses from 53 advertisers with an approximate annual global spend of US$83 billion, the study found that three out of four in-house agencies have been set up in the last five years. It is also added that in-house teams are attracting more work, with 82% saying workloads are increasing in the last year.

Respondents said that moving creative work in-house delivers cost efficiencies (greater than 30% in some instances), with 64% citing better integration and 59% citing increased brand and business knowledge as other benefits. Additionally, 55% of respondents also reported that in-house teams had quicker and more agile processes. 

The overall satisfaction is high when it comes to in-house teams, with 82% of respondents stating that they are either satisfied or completely satisfied with the output of their in-house teams. The top KPI used to assess the effectiveness of in-house agencies was quality of output (81%), followed by cost savings (52%) and speed to market (38%).