More and more advertisers are taking their marketing functions in house. The Martin Sorrell's S4 Capital acquisition of Mighty Hive demonstrates the types of investments being made to capitalize on the trend.
According to CNBC and Adweek stories and confirmed by WPP's Chief Executive Mark Read, Walmart had decided to take its digital advertising in-house and away from WPP's agency Triad, a blow given the likely value of the Walmart business.
"It's the latest move in a trend that reflects the greater control brands want over their advertising teams: The Association of National Advertisers in the U.S. found that 78 percent of its members had some kind of in-house agency in 2018, versus 58 percent in 2013. Some brands are looking to in-source different elements of their marketing, including digital advertising, creative or design and media buying."
Data crunch
"For hotel reservation site Booking.com, running a lot of marketing using in-house teams makes sense because of the volume of online ads it needs to create...But Booking.com's Chief Marketing Officer Pepijn Rijvers said that while setting up in-house functions does carry a large outlay — he has around 50 people working on media planning, ad design and audience research — it's an investment that has been worth it."
"GDPR has also meant that some companies are bringing data marketing in-house, and because of the risks involved if something goes wrong, the C-suite is now more invested in data, says Manning at MediaLink. "It's actually at the heart of a company because the risk profile associated with it now is so great, particularly if you have a data breach, particularly if you infringe GDPR you can't afford (to take that risk). Data has now become a board level area of interest, as opposed to just being a marketing area."
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