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Ben Keightley

Senior Client Development and Delivery Manager

About this Author

Ben is responsible for the development and delivery of consultancy projects for global clients within industries including FMCG, Finance and Travel. He has worked at iProspect since 2015.

Five Key Things to Consider when Insourcing Programmatic

Insourcing is becoming more common for brands. The thinking behind this is both sound and understandable. In the current highly competitive advertising space, brands need to drive greater efficiency and effectiveness. They are also looking for transparency and ownership of both their data, media and performance. But how can brands make key and crucial business decisions if they lack transparency and ownership? Whether a brand should insource programmatic is a question that iProspect’s specialists are now asked on a regular basis. However, as with any major business change, insourcing comes with its own set of challenges, obstacles and potential pitfalls. Below I've outlined five key questions that every brand should be ask before deciding or implementing a plan to insource programmatic. First, what counts as Programmatic? This might seem like an obvious one, but before you start, make sure that all relevant internal stakeholders understand what programmatic is. This is because it can mean different things to different people. Programmatic covers a lot of different channels: Display, Video and Social. Each of these channels demand a slightly different skill level and can drastically change the shape and structure of an internal team. 1. Complexity Do you understand the complexity of your current programmatic activity? With brands seeking greater transparency on programmatic, performance, spend and brand safety, the decision to insource can be reached before a full assessment of the complexity of activity is fully assessed and understood. Programmatic is not an easy channel to run and involves a level of complexity that requires a full grasp before any plans are put in place to insource. By understanding this complexity, it will help determine how you insource. If you underestime the complexity in the short term, it can lead to playing catch up later. This could result in an increase costs and ambitions and goals that drive efficiency being underplayed. 2. Performance How well is your current programmatic performing and can a centralised approach really drive efficiencies and effectiveness? This may seem obvious but knowing where you are initially, performance-wise, will give you a clear guiding light in terms of where you need to get to to achieve your objectives. This step is also important as it ultimately justifies the business decision to take programmatic inhouse. First, benchmark current programmatic performance across all channels and markets. Be sure to understand the current efficiency and effectiveness of your programmatic. Also, ensure that you know how much budget is currently allocated, the FTE resource to run the accounts, and the roles and responsibilities of the team. It would be a mistake to assume that the cost of an internal team will be lower than agencies fees. However, this should not be a deciding factor. 3. Change Management With any change, whether it’s people, processes or technology, you must consider change management. When insourcing programmatic, you are essentially changing all three of these. Change management should be at the heart of your plans. Seeking guidance on things to consider will be crucial to the long-term success of your plans. Also, it’s equally important to define processes, workflows, best practice, ways of working, and training for both the new team and any wider internal teams that will be impacted. Don’t forget to get advocates onboard and involved in the process of insourcing early. This will help reduce anxiety, concern and a lack of visibility and projected success. 4. People A crucial element to consider is your people plan. This extends to more than just recruiting an internal programmatic team. Your people plan needs to factor in changes to internal structures, lines of reporting, the impact a new team with have on the wider business and knowledge levels of programmatic across the business. In deciding who to hire, as well as how many people, ensure you understand: the scope of activity currently running the complexity of skillsets required the channels in scope how you want to structure your team Retention is also extremely important. All your planning and ambitions can be undermined if six months into the project you lose key personnel from the team. Conclusion Insourcing programmatic is happening more and the reasons. To maximise the chance of success, iProspect encourages brands to consider all the elements that will go into insourcing. If you are considering insourcing programmatic, or any element of your digital performance marketing and want support, please get in touch. 0 4 min read

Understanding the Different Operating Models When Inhousing

What is inhousing? This is a popular and important question that the Consult team is asked. The answer is it depends on what operating model your business wants to work under. Unfortunately, it’s not as simple as going from a scenario where everything is operated by the agency (Agency Owned, Agency Managed) to everything operated internally (Brand Owned, Brand Managed). There are a range of variables and decisions that need to be defined and there isn't a one size fits all approach. Our team regularly supports a range of clients, across multiple channels, with inhousing. Understanding which model is right begins with understanding the business objectives that have motivated the decision to inhouse. In this blog post, myself and my colleague, Alex Lock, will step through five potential models and outline the advantages and constraints of each. 1. Brand Owned, Agency Managed This is the simplest model. Here the brand owns the technology, providing greater control, transparency and ownership, while the agency still manages all activity. Advantages: Staffing complexities managed by agency experts Able to leverage agency relations with publishers, media owners and tech providers Easier to move to new vendors Access to a broad range of expertise Ownership of data Constraints Higher cost vs agency owned Brands lack proximity to elements of their marketing Limited transparency Limited control Limited integration between brand & agency 2. Hybrid Brand Owned, Agency Partner In this model, the brand and agency share responsibility on activation. This provides greater flexibility for the client as they can draw on the wider agency expertise, depth and breadth. The downsides include increase in cost, as tech and people increases for the client, and roles and responsibilities have to be very clear defined and managed. Advantages: Resource can move fluidly Able to leverage agency relations with publishers, media owners & tech providers Access to a broad range of expertise Highly scalable to grow with media Constraints Increased costs (recruitment, staff costs, tech costs, data storage costs) Difficult to transfer to new vendors once established Ways of working can be complex Staffing complexities & cost for insourced elements 3. Hybrid Brand Owned, Agency Partner Variation In this variation of the hybrid model, the roles and responsibilities are clearly demarcated between the agency and the brand. For example, campaign management, tagging, analytics, buying might all sit with the agency, whilst product leadership, strategy, planning and creative rests with the brand. Advantages Resource can move fluidly Able to leverage agency relations with publishers, media owners & tech providers Access to a broad range of expertise Highly scalable to grow with media Constraints Increased costs (recruitment, staff costs, tech costs, data storage costs) Difficult to transfer to new vendors once established Ways of working can be complex Staffing complexities & cost for insourced elements 4. Brand Owned, Brand Managed This model involves the biggest shift, as all activity is taken from the agency and managed centrally with the brand. Moving to this model will take the longest, will be the most complex and potentially the most expensive. It’s also the most challenging, as the brand loses the support of the agency partner, so must ensure processes, people, data and tech are all in place, up to speed and integrated to deliver success. However, when successful, it will often achieve many of the objectives, by providing ownership, transparency and control. Advantages: Proximity to campaigns Complete control Full data & tech ownership Full transparency Constraints Staffing complexities Higher cost due to loss of agency economies of scale Requires extensive & robust training efforts Limited access to a broad range of expertise Difficult to keep up with industry & tech updates, best practice Limited auditing & governance capabilities 5. Brand Owned, Advisory Partner This often ends up being the eventual model for clients. Essentially, it’s a fully brand-owned model with the agency providing a more consultancy-type relationship that provides advice, governance, learning and development and, where necessary, overflow support (such as secondments/campaign management). This model affords brands to access industry updates, audits, training and guidance through a fluid support network that can be dialled up and down to meet their needs. Advantages Proximity to campaigns Complete control Full data & tech ownership Full transparency Fluid support network Stay up-to-date with industry updates & best practise Continued access to a broad range of expertise Constraints Staffing complexities Higher cost Requires extensive & robust training efforts Consolidated partner network required to reduce complexity If you want to know more about inhousing or have any questions, do get in touch with our Consult team. 0 4 min read

Ben is responsible for the development and delivery of consultancy projects for global clients within industries including FMCG, Finance and Travel. He has worked at iProspect since 2015.

Ben Keightley

About this Author

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