Chris Maxwell: “People Say We Are The Ones Who Are Destroying The Agency Model. We're Not”
Chris Maxwell, executive chairman of the In-House Agency Council (IHAC) and founder of the in-house agency consultancy lution, believes that the rise of in-house agencies, driven by cost effectiveness and flexibility, isn’t what is threatening the agency model.
According to lution and IHAC research, marketers choosing to do some, if not all, marketing in house jumped from 63% in 2021 to 78% in 2023.
“Why is this happening now? I get a lot of people who say, ‘Oh, you know, this happened 10 years ago, and the pendulum will swing.’ I don't think this trend is going to go away,” he said.
Chris said his grandfather used to work on TVCs during the ‘Mad Men days’. In 2002, Chris was on a Playstation tour. The gap signifies the rapid changes the industry has gone through in its time, he said.
“People say we are the ones who are destroying the agency model. we're not,” he said.
The research surveyed those already participating in an in-house model. According to that pool, the benefits of going in-house include: employees having a more in-depth knowledge of the brand (67%), cost efficiencies (70%), and speed and agility (67%), with the average being 8.2 benefits.
“The world has evolved and changed as has the way people consume media,” Chris said. He noted the need for brands to be seen in more channels, have more content and data, and evolve their tech.
He acknowledged the challenges include a lack of diverse thinking, and adapting to changes in workloads. The average number of challenges sat at 3.2.
Vinetha Manthena, ex-Optus and Commbank marketer, added, “I think one of the key challenges of running a whole in-house team is sometimes you can get caught up in the vortex of the brand.”
Abby Blackmore, head of IHAC and an ex-Dulux marketer, said the Dulux team started with a few designers and a desire to save money when it built its in-house team. Given the nature of Dulux as a company, these designers weren’t working on one brand only, but a handful of paint suppliers.
“They all have ownership of how they interact and how they do their marketing. They had to have control over how they spent their marketing budget. I slowly and surely built up the capability, but did it in a paper use model. So you could choose to use us or not. British Paints could use us for social but not for brand. And Dulux could use us just for video.”
The beauty of an in-house model is its ability to be tailored to the brand; in-housing is bespoke,” Abby said.
Each panellist agreed that, regardless of whether a brand is entirely in-house or a hybrid, the key to success is collaboration.
“Just be empathetic,” Abby said.
“I say to my team, internal people be kind to external people. And external people be kind to internal people. We need to bring back the joy. This should be fun.”
