Bob Liodice de ANA
In-house ad agencies are no longer just a trend–they’re here to stay with 82 percent of ANA (Association of National Advertisers) members reporting that they now have an in-house agency compared to 78 percent in 2018, according to a new ANA study.The study, “The Continued Rise of the In-House Agency: 2023 Edition,” is conducted every five years. In 2013, the study revealed 58 percent of respondents indicated they had in-house advertising capabilities, while in 2008 the figure was 42 percent.An “in-house agency” was defined in the report as “a department, group, or person that has responsibilities that typically are performed by an external advertising or other MarCom agency” and did not include internal public relations resources. The survey was fielded in February and March of 2023, with 162 respondents participating.“This report definitively shows that in-house agencies have become a firmly entrenched part of the holistic marketing ecosystem and are now a mainstay among a majority of marketers,” said ANA CEO Bob Liodice. “Agencies still play an important role for marketers, witnessed by the fact that 92 percent of respondents still use them. But the growth of in-house capabilities has clearly changed the client/agency relationship over the past 15 years.”The study showed that workloads for in-house agencies continue to increase with 88 percent of respondents indicating their in-house shops’ workload increased in the past year, including 67 percent who said the workload had increased “a lot.” In the 2018 survey, 90 percent of respondents reported increased workload.Respondents also said the single primary benefit of an in-house agency was cost efficiencies, which was the top-ranked benefit by a wide margin. Additional benefits included better knowledge of brands, institutional knowledge, and dedicated staff. Those benefits were consistent and in the same order as in 2018.
