By Felicia Nwosu

The existence of in-house agency by brands is not new in the history of global advertising, especially for brands that care about what consumers think and say. Such brands are likely to have sole authority over the deployment of marketing communication messages to enable them monitor consumer perception and engagement.

The role of in-house agencies vary, as some are involved in the end-to-end communication of a brand while others perform more limited functions in terms of media placement which the brand would have concluded its idea conception and design.

At the just concluded 2022 edition of the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity in Cannes, France, a creative in-house agency known as Byju’s won silver in that category and that reignited the long-running debate over external ad agencies and in-house ad agencies.

Back home in Nigeria, in separate interviews with MARKETING EDGE, some advertising professionals expressed divergent views about in-house agency models.

President of the Advertisers Association of Nigeria (ADVAN), Osamede Uwubanwmen, stated that transparency, trust, dependability and cost are keys in every client and agency relationship. He, however, said that he likes external agency for major projects with long durations and in-house agency for minor in-house projects, since in-house agency understands the brand’s promise and culture better.

“We pay for time slots for these external agencies, so how often they work for you determines how much you pay them. I will rather give them a tactical high-end job, long duration thematic campaign for whatever months I like to run. But minor things like just getting an in-house flier, to communicate internally, I will rather give it to the internal agency, no matter where they sit, because they understand better and are also part of the whole in-house conversation,” he said.

Mobolaji Caxton-Martins, the Executive Creative Director/ Chief Operating Officer, Slice Media Solutions, averred that, the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic has altered consumers’ behaviour across all spheres of life and has given rise for brands to restrategise and re-navigate for effective business operations.

“Brands have realized that in some of these instances they did not need as much input from external marketing agencies. So, a lot of people are trying to bring many things in-house to control their businesses better,” he said.

The seasoned brand and innovation management professional also pointed out that brands are grappling with various challenges such as shrinking marketing budgets, making brands more prudent in their choice for the right communication channel that will yield remarkable ROI.

Steve Babaeko, President, Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria (AAAN), in his view, advised brands to focus on their priorities by ensuring the production of quality and desirable products, adding that, instead of acting as a jack of all trades, they should allow professionals to handle their brand promotions.

“I think it is a distraction; if you are in production and maybe you are a manufacturer, focus on your manufacturing. You can’t be everything; there are people whose life’s job is just to go out there and build brands, give them the job to build quality brands, instead of distracting yourself. Even the quality of your product, you can’t even focus on that.

The X3M Ideas boss urged brand owners to employ brand experts who have professionally honed their skills for such art.

“What most clients don’t understand is that the moment you start to build in-house agencies, they become part of the decoration, they become wall papers because there is something about that creative environment in an agency that inspires creativity.

“But once you are in-house, you are part of the client, and too much familiarity may cause a loss of spark in creativity and passion, and may lead to an unserious attitude towards the brand,” he said.