The advertising world has turned upside down in recent years, turning the Digital media into one of the main ones, in fact, with the impact of the pandemic it has turned out to be a winning media, even advertisers who did not see this media as an alternative converted it in the preferred media to communicate.
The digital media is changing the way consumers engage with brands, it´s a media that allows you to interact with your consumers in real time, get immediate responses, and it allows you to reach your target in several ways at the same time and with a high level of attention and response.
This evolution brings with it a lot of concern to planning and marketing teams as they seek to optimize their investments much more with less budget. One of the changes that are becoming stronger in Europe is the management of Inhouse Digital media.
In Europe, 85% of advertisers are moving or have already moved their operation, planning and execution of the digital media to Inhouse (according to a 2020 study by Bannerflow).
Some of the main reasons for making this change are: direct connection with the brand, cost reduction, intellectual property, transparency when handling data (privacy), negotiations with publishers, and the integration and arrangement of the team. In turn, it is a reality that this model is not suitable for all types of advertisers, which is why it is necessary to carry out a series of analyses before making this type of decision. For several years now, at Media Auditors we have clients who have made the change to this type of model, and the results have been remarkable.
85% of advertisers are moving or have moved their digital operation inhouse*
A question that seems important is to know if the advertiser aims to place all the digital team in-house or if it prefers to keep outsourcing in some areas, using a hybrid model that is increasingly common. For example, managing social media is somewhat easier to implement in-house, while programmatic purchase requires a much more significant investment.
The strategic decision of the model to follow should be accompanied by a cost & benefit analysis, in order to understand the impact of the new model on the entire business.
Once the decision of the role model has been made, the advertiser will have to face the challenges of:
1. Create the Digital Inhouse team:
- Where will the new team be housed
- Who will recruit the new team?
- Who will lead the new team?
- Who will train and give support to the new team?
- How to ensure the quality of the work developed by the new team.
- How to define the size of the team, if possible, to have a specialist per area.
2. Prepare infrastructure:
- What legal implications does the transition process have?
- What kind of deals do current agencies have with third parties and what should be incorporated into the new business form.
- How to choose the most suitable platforms (CMP, CDP. DSP,…).
- How to choose the most appropriate CRM System to streamline data management.
- How to manage the team’s workload, it is important that there is a person responsible for distributing the work and defining priorities.
3. Develop post implementation support:
- How to keep the team motivated.
- How to ensure that costs are really optimized in the new structure.
- What methods to establish to ensure continuous improvement.
- How to face the eventual lack of knowledge of the Digital environment at the general management level.
SOME BENEFITS OF IN-HOUSING ARE: TRANSPARENCY, GREATER AGILITY AND COST OPTIMIZATION
Another topic that has evolved over time is the Pitch or Technology Contests. This point arises, like the previous one, due to the perception that many advertisers have, of a lack of transparency in the agencies about their digital purchases; and particularly in the Programmatic Purchase. It is not a secret that there is a lot of uncertainty about where the total money that advertisers pay for their purchase goes. As a result of this, the Technology Contests arise, in which advertisers make their negotiations and direct payments to their suppliers, these contests can include the direct hiring of DSP, DMP and/or Adservers, all this to try to guarantee that the money invested go through fewer hands (and thus create transparency).
Another of the main reasons for these contests is privacy when handling data. In order to do this type of contests, it is not necessary to have the Inhouse planning and execution team, some advertisers choose to continue with their team in the Agency but with the direct negotiation, payment and benefit contact of the technology provider. This guarantees that if the client were to change agencies, their technology belongs to them and the transfer would be direct and without complications.
Undoubtedly, we are in times of change, and the evolution in technologies marks the path of digital marketing. This is why some models have been deprecated and more and more advertisers are opting for a change at the level of message control, budget optimization and data management. At Media Auditors we have supported many clients during this change, since we have an accompaniment and consulting service, in which advertisers have in us an advisor for the development of the business case, we are the managers of the different phases of the process, we assess the proposals submitted and most importantly, we monitor and analyze the results of the project.
