Creative services are heading in house. Here’s why your creative agency partners could be the key to making that transition a successful one.
Follow our LinkedIn page for the Upward Spiral newsletter, featuring new blogs and more.
“Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change.”
In the ever-changing landscape of creative services, the ability to adapt isn’t just intelligent – it’s integral to remaining relevant and at the sector’s cutting edge.
There’s no doubt that we’re seeing some big changes in the creative sector. Remote working is now commonplace, sustainability is high on the agenda and generative AI is transforming the way we all work.
We’re also seeing a growing trend towards organisations ‘in-housing’ creative services. Rather than outsource creative requirements to external agencies, organisations are assembling their own in-house creative teams. A range of potential or perceived benefits are the drivers for this change, including cost savings, increased efficiencies, reduced turnaround times or increased control over talent and expertise.
In a visual-centric, content-hungry world, controlling your means of production is an appealing idea. But are the days of relying on the expertise of outside agencies really numbered? Or are we in fact seeing a more positive shift from agencies being outside service providers to integrated strategic partners more able to focus on ideation and the bigger picture?
If you’re thinking of in-housing your creative team, your agency partners could still be an important part of any change. Let’s explore the drivers behind the in-housing trend – and where agencies like Spiral fit in.
The more a business comes to rely on a creative agency, the more it’s likely to spend with them. These costs can come into question if increased profitability becomes a key driver behind a strategic change-of-direction. The business might feel it can get more for less by moving to in-house creative services.
Before any business takes the plunge into in-housing creative services, they should consider the investment and commitment required to build and maintain such a team. The time and money required to build the business case, the operational plan, to recruit, onboard and manage the team will all be substantial. Of course, the team will need hardware, software, ongoing training and remuneration too.
Even when a financial inflection point is reached and the in-house operation starts to return a net saving to the business, are other factors such as quality, speed and service levels comparable? Working with an agency such as Spiral ensures you get best value for money instead of undermining your creative output in pursuit of cost savings.
Depending on the incumbent or proposed structure of a business, greater control over the production process or better integration with internal strategic and management teams could be a big benefit. After all, who better to understand a business’s brand identity and values than an in-house team?
The challenge is – how does your team stay innovative and trend-aware with only one client? An external agency like Spiral works with myriad clients and can bring their evolving experience and an insightful outside perspective to every new piece of work.
With our shared digital systems and cooperative onboarding, seamless integration is a proven reality. When you work with Spiral, it’s a lot easier to stay creative and in control.
A common motivation for in-housing is responsiveness. By cutting out the ‘agency middleman’ it’s often thought that work can be turned around more quickly. But this is highly dependent on the capacity and capability of your team. A high capacity and capability team comes with a high cost, which is then at risk of inefficiency during quieter periods.
Spiral already operates as a support or ‘overflow’ agency for a number of our clients. Our responsive ways of working ensures that in-house teams can upscale with us to maintain their quality and delivery. This gives our clients consistency whilst actually reducing their exposure to capacity and cost risk factors.
Attracting and retaining the best talent is a challenge for any organisation. Bigger businesses are able to leverage highly competitive salary and benefits packages to do this. This kind of employee value proposition can be very attractive for creative professionals looking for stability and career progression.
Resourcing a high quality in-house team is eminently feasible for big business in particular. But it’s crucial that best practice operations are developed to get the best out of any new in-house agency. We know that some degree of in-housing might be right for your business, so Spiral offers strategic consultancy services that are individually designed to help you build your creative capacity in ways that retain talent and produce the best work.
How Spiral is adapting to the rise of in-housing for the benefit of our clients
You might think that this trend poses a kind of threat to creative agencies such as Spiral. But in reality there are some fantastic opportunities and benefits to be realised – for both Spiral and our clients exploring the idea of in-housing themselves.
Spiral has been around for over 30 years now – something we’re incredibly proud of. Some of our clients have been with us since the start of our journey – we’re proud of that too.
We’re already working with a wide range of clients as their dedicated in-house support. These clients are all at different points on their in-housing journeys – but each one of them is already benefiting from our years of experience and insider knowledge, built up through our long-lasting strategic partnerships.
As the corporate and creative sectors continue to evolve, in-housing will present new opportunities and challenges. You’ll need a thorough understanding of the pros and cons before you make any changes.
We believe that embracing an outsourced overflow agency approach is a strategically beneficial safeguard. This way you can reduce risk, and increase scalability, velocity and quality.
It’s also important that you recognise the true cost of building in-house creative capability. You will need to balance cost efficiencies with the necessary long-term investments in talent and infrastructure that outsourced agencies have traditionally shouldered.
Collaboration between in-house teams and overflow agencies is essential too. By leveraging the unique strengths of both internal and external resources, your business can foster a partnership culture of innovation and creativity.
The best of both worlds
Ultimately, the goal of in-housed creative services is to deliver quality and value to customers and stakeholders. As a strategic agency partner, these are our drivers too – and we have seen that by combining the full potential of in-house capabilities and external expertise, businesses can benefit from the best of both worlds and take their marketing and customer support materials to the highest possible level.
