In a recent article in AdAge, it cited that 83% of marketers feel that in-housing is better from a cost perspective, but 61% of marketers stated that outsourcing was better if you care about creativity and strategy.

It also stated that 30% of marketers have moved more work in-house over this past year.

Everybody wants to save a buck…but at what cost?

A CMO I used to work for who came from the Pillsbury Company once told me that “you can’t save your way to prosperity”.

In other words, you have to make the investment to make the money.

In-housing is all fine and good for the simple stuff, but when things get complicated or things need fresh thinking or more impactful creative campaigns, relying on the expertise and smart strategic grounding of a marketing agency is the way to go.

We recently completed a major agency search for Texas Health’s urgent care business, Breeze.  They had a very solid agency working their hospital business, but needed some fresh perspective and creative, so they opted to look outside – and a great agency they found in Stone Ward.

When I interview marketers for my The Marketer’s Edge interview series and gather insights from them about if they use agencies and if they do, why they do, I most often hear these responses:

• “Expertise lies outside the scope of the talents we have in-house”
• “While my team internally is solid, working with agencies often gives me a broader look at the possibilities”
• “Agencies can give me a really powerful breakthrough campaign ideas”

So if you’re managing an in-house group now for purely cost reasons, think long and hard about what you might be missing.  And if you aren’t managing one now, but considering it, talk with some of your peers, watch some of The Marketer’s Edge videos, or give us a call or drop us a line (msneider@rswagencysearch.com).  Happy to talk through things with you and help you decide what makes the most sense for your business.  We dialogue with marketers all the time and have been helping them find best-in-class agencies (of all types/sizes) with our agency search model since 2010.