Bringing digital marketing functions back in-house will come at the cost of creativity and productivity due to a lack of access to technology and skilled professionals, a new study published by Mailjet and the Data and Marketing Association (DMA) has found.
While some brands are aiming to manage certain activities internally again during the next 12 months, the stated goals of supporting enhanced creativity and better output are not actually coming to fruition. On the contrary, the move can lead to a 15% and 11% drop in productivity and creativity, respectively.
However, there are certain functions that many would not consider bringing in-house. Four in ten respondents believe that “content and copywriting” are best executed by a third-party agency and a similar number said the same for “creative and design”. Nine in ten are also planning to maintain their current levels of agency investment.
DMA’s Head of Insight Tim Bond believes that brands can mix and match activities and that deciding what is best to tackle internally is a crucial decision as a lack of time or resources can result in a drop off in efficiency.
He added: “In-housing is not a binary choice. It’s not either/or. Our research shows one in 12 organisations are using what we have called a ‘blended’ strategy – combining the two.”
Working with an agency remains a priority for companies as more than a third say that they would be concerned about the absence of agency expertise if they went it alone, while 37% believe that they need third parties to support their search engine optimisation efforts.
