In our latest webinar, we were joined by a panel of marketing and retail experts to discuss the pros and cons of inhousing your digital marketing.
As a leading topic in all industries, we discussed the impact of COVID-19 on the industry and whether this will have an effect on inhousing.
Diane Young, CEO and Co-Founder of The Drum chaired the discussion and was joined by our CEO John Readman, Don Williams, Retail Partner at KPMG UK and Minter Dial, former Global VP of Marketing for L’Oréal – and now a Global Marketing Specialist.
Addressing the COVID crisis
Diane asked the expert panellists for their views on whether they think the COVID crisis will trigger a mass move towards inhousing.
With his 25 years’ experience in the retail sector, Don believes that the crisis will push businesses to look forensically at their costs and the effectiveness of their spending.
He said: “I think there is going to be a real focus on cost, especially as the demand side of our world will be challenged for a long time to come.”
Our CEO John coincided with the focus on cost and thinks that the two main cost evaluations will be on media spend and overall agency fees.
John also questions whether businesses are investing their media spend in the right channels to attract the right type of customers.
Minter deliberates whether outsourcing is relevant as a result of the current climate. He believes that businesses are learning to adapt to the ‘new normal’ and some can now work remotely more comfortably.
Is this the right time to inhouse?
With the change in marketing direction, Diane queried whether this is a risky time for businesses to inhouse.
John says: “In all this change, there is opportunity and risk – but it depends on your attitude as a business.”
He asserts that if you decide not to take your marketing inhouse, that you should go through a process of challenging the thinking of your current agency and how they can give you the best return from your budgets.
Coinciding with John’s comments, Minter focuses on the rise of digital: “If you’re observant in the marketing industry, this is an opportunity to ramp up the way you’re doing digital.
The question should be, is my agency the right people to manage our larger digital presence and are we prepared to delegate this out or do it ourselves inhouse?”
Don has found that retailers are now using digital channels and believes that there will be much more engagement with these platforms even after the crisis.
John says: “When things start to become more important, people want to take more control.” As a result of this change, he believes that digital will become more important for retailers and questions whether it’s a risk to outsource.
“Should we have the knowledge and expertise inhouse so we can fully understand our metrics? This will make digital more important and valuable part of their business.”
If you would like to speak to our team about how we can help inhouse your digital marketing, feel free to get in touch – we’d be more than willing to help. Send us an email to team@modo25.com
