This comment was originally published in Campaign.
Campaign’s question of the week explores the benefits and drawbacks for advertisers considering setting up an internal agency in a recession.
As the economy flounders and inflation remains high, advertisers looking to cut costs may scrutinise more closely their spending on outsourced services – and that includes agencies.
With the latest CPI rate of inflation at 9.9%, one of the options available is to bring work that previously would have been provided by a partner into the walls of the business itself, by creating an internal agency.
So is the temptation to create an in-house agency function likely to catch on as the economic uncertainty continues? Gill Huber, Managing Partner at Oystercatchers, shares her thoughts:
Client requirements are not “one size fits all” as they continually look to evolve their models; for some, it offers a full or part solution. Nonetheless, bringing any work in-house has an impact on costs, people, existing and new relationships, and processes, with work required to ensure success. During difficult times when clients’ messaging needs to cut through, agencies’ creative and media specialisms, centres of excellence and variety of talent will be vital to support brands.
Clients should strive to make their existing partnership work as hard, efficiently, and effectively as possible – true partners will work closely with clients to unlock their processes, structures, and services to get the right result.
To read the full article, visit Campaign.