In-house Vs. Agency: It's Time to End the Argument
No matter what industry you work in, no matter what product or service you provide, it’s fair to say that a harmonious relationship yields the best results.
In the creative and marketing industry, there’s a common, if perhaps rarely mentioned, argument about whether companies should outsource their efforts to an agency or build an in-house team. And as with everything in life there are pros and cons to both sides.
But why not have the best of both worlds?
A common gripe of ours, and replicated across the industry, is organisations advertising for a role that requires a
plethora of skills and extensive experience in all of them.
It’s impossible! Put simply, an individual that is creative, analytical, understands digital/print and a whole host of other disciplines just doesn’t exist.
So what’s the solution?
A committed and harmonious working relationship between agency and client. It’s easier said than done but having a marketing professional on the client-side, supported by a talented agency really does bring the best results.
We know this from personal experience. Clients that employ a marketing manager shouldn’t be seen as
encroaching on your patch, and vice versa.
The clients we work with, that have a dedicated representative responsible for coordinating activities, or at least can report back to senior management and have some signing-off power, makes the process much slicker. It also allows us to produce fantastic creative at a much higher rate.
It makes sense from the client side too. Building a team can be a very expensive process, it can be difficult to find the right people and you need to have the volume of work to keep everyone busy and make it worthwhile.
Of course, we, as most agencies will do, endeavour to provide the client with an excellent service and there are examples where the relationship with a client that doesn’t have a dedicated marketing professional can be highly fruitful too.
But, ultimately, having spent many years in the industry it’s clear that having professionals on both agency- and client-side is the recipe for creative excellence.
