Digital Marketing Moves In-House

Companies Taking More and More Digital Marketing In-House

Ten years and more ago, digital marketing was seen by many companies as a nice-to-have but not a must-have stream of their overall marketing effort.

Accordingly, the digital marketing practitioner was, back in those early days, something of an exotic species: usually a talented outside consultant who would come in and sprinkle his or her magic stardust over the more banal, quotidian diet of “traditional” marketing activities concocted by the in-house team.

But those days are now long gone as a striking new survey published this week by the advertising platform Bannerflow and Digiday reveals.

It finds that 91% of brands are moving toward in-house digital marketing. This is a stunning finding that has important implications both for the structure and staffing of the in-house function but also, of course, for the consultancy sector.

The move to conduct digital marketing campaigns in-house reflects a number of interesting trends.

First and foremost, the march of time: what was out of the comfort zone of many senior marketing folks back in the early and mid-2000s is now seen as a standard skillset for an aspiring professional. That means deep knowledge of different digital and social media platforms and the metrics used to evaluate them is now expected of anyone going into the field.

Second, digital marketing is an increasingly dominant part of the marketing mix. Back in the days when it was a fun add-on, it didn’t matter so much that some eccentric outside consultant was handling it. Today, when it is the critical core of many a marketing campaign, it sure needs to be closely managed and monitored by the in-house team who have the responsibility and accountability for the overall strategy.

Third, cost is increasingly a decisive factor. Having outside consultants do the heavy lifting of a big and ongoing marketing campaign is often just too expensive nowadays.

Certainly, in the Bannerflow study, cost efficiency, greater control and increased transparency are amongst the biggest reasons given by corporate brands for in-housing.

So the trend makes sense of course. But what does it mean for the sky-high hourly rate outside consultant? Are their days numbered?

The answer is: not necessarily. But if they want to make a living in today’s marketplace they better be pretty good.

Companies are no longer going to pay a lot of money for boilerplate solutions and templates. They can implement those through their much cheaper in-house employees.

However, one thing will nearly always be in short supply inside a big company: and that is creativity. Indeed, creativity and originality as well as forward thinking in terms of trends are now what the outside consultancy needs to offer. If they can keep their clients ahead of the trends and, above all, if they can keep coming up with ideas to use the evolving digital landscape that sell more widgets, then they will survive – and some may even thrive.