ANA: More companies opting for in-house marketing

Published September 5, 2013 at 11:18 pm

For many years, if companies wanted to take advantage of direct marketing services, they had to connect with an outside agency. However, with the rise in technology, more businesses are searching for cost-effective ways to create their own unique advertising approaches.

According to a recent survey by the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), 58 percent of companies now use in-house advertising. When the study was first done back in 2008, that number was just 42 percent.

ANA group exec VP Bill Duggan explained to AdAge that in-house advertising departments have also expanded their capabilities, and are able to handle a much broader workload than they could in the past. For example, Duggan said that when the most recent survey was conducted, businesses said that channels such as digital, social and mobile were all being taken care of by in-house options.

Duggan added that based on his discussions with ANA members and others in the industry, in-house departments have often had the reputation as not being as strong as outside agencies.

“But I do believe that’s changing,” he said. “Increasingly there are in-house agencies that are doing better work, and there’s some degree of talent migration from traditional to in-house agencies. “The continual emphasis on the bottom line and cost-savings has accelerated the in-house agency.”

Additionally, in-house options are no longer just “fast and cheap,” he said, but are continuously delivering quality products. In some cases, they are doing work comparable to outside agencies.

A direct marketing program that is within a business will also be more beneficial in that those agencies are closer to their internal brand groups and internal decision groups, Duggan explained. Any conversations pertaining to ad campaigns can be done in the hallway, rather than through phone or email.