Why in-housing doesn’t have to be a dirty word

Some agencies are finding the trend presents opportunities for collaborating with clients, instead of competing with them.

Media agencies might get a shiver down their spine when they hear about in-housing as an accelerating trend among clients. And a knee-jerk negative reaction makes logical sense any time a piece of business could be taken out of their hands.

But for some agencies, they have found more opportunities for collaboration than competition.

Devon MacDonald, president of Cairns Oneil, says clients in-housing work was a key trend before the pandemic, specifically in digital execution, and continued throughout it.

“We don’t see clients as a competitor, though, and support them in their decisions,” MacDonald says. “We have a number of clients with in-house capabilities and it’s a great opportunity for us to collaborate further and share more of our own expertise to bolster their work and ambition. The tools and experience we offer as an agency across all channels are a key part of our clients being successful with an in-housed model.”

Quebec-based Desjardins has created an in-housing hybrid model with its media agency Glassroom that it calls Oneteam. Rather than speed to market being the main driver – as is often assumed of in-house teams – Desjardins media director Raphael Metter-Rothan says transparency and control were the main reasons for creating Oneteam, made up of both Desjardins and Glassroom employees acting as one unit.

“It’s really that approach to collaboration, building teams that really work together as teammates, but not necessarily by removing the Desjardins culture or the Glassroom culture,” Metter-Rohan says. “Instead, what we build is the common ground between both cultures. In terms of technology, all the licenses, all the tools are owned by Desjardins, but we have people from both teams operating together in the platform at the same time with one single process.”

Even though speed wasn’t the main reason for creating Oneteam, Metter-Rothan says there has nonetheless been more efficiency and innovation. “We are able to respond more quickly to the market, when there is an adjustment. You can’t understate the agility aspect of it. We invest a lot of time to make sure that our major products, our technology, processes and our standards are at the right level to have better results.”

The key to in-housing successfully, says Metter-Rothan, is really about making sure you have a strong vision for the next three to five years, making sure you can engage people, and helping people manage the change. “It’s about making sure that you bring your people with your vision, making sure that they understand where you want to go. Collaboration becomes the new marketing superpower. What’s interesting is as large as the organization is, our success is really based on the individuals on the team, and how well they work together. It really humanizes the process.”

Sarah Thompson, president of Dentsu Media Canada, says the agency works with clients considering in-housing on their roadmap to setting it up, providing insight on what’s important and how it is designed. “For us, it’s a lot of foundational stuff – do you share common language about how you think about audiences; do you have a common data and technology point of view? If you’re in-housing programmatic, you need to have a common foundation in measurement and audience in data and tech and operational excellence.”

In addition to programmatic, she says, some clients have also been building content studios so they can have more rapid content development. “It’s a bit of like a speed to market reaction, but it’s not a small endeavour depending on the size of the organization. You also need to pay very close attention to talent and upskilling.”

Whether the media practitioners are working for the client or the agency, can go both ways. Thompson says Dentsu has had situations where the agency’s employees have begun working with the client but then the client was able to free up revenue to be able to hire them full time once they realize the needs of their organization. “Sometimes it’s a transition. But they start with having our people on site, and then they hire them full time. It’s become pretty standard, and I would say we’re seeing it a lot more.”