Key Speakers: Ms. Maureen Boyle (cars.com) and Sam Peterson (workfront.com)

This write-up will explore the various facets discussed during the webinar and key conclusions that emerged. The objective of this webinar was to discuss the role of an internal marketing agency within a firm and values generated by the same as opposed to an external agency.

Premise

A number of organizations of all sizes prefer outsourcing their conventional and digital marketing operations to external agencies as they are considered experts in the field. Firms often have a deeply ingrained mistrust of ‘creatives’ working full time with them. However marketing research has clearly shown that certain advantages exist when the internal team works full time, often saving enormous cost while adding value to entire organization.

Stages

Key advantages have been identified divided within stages which the internal marketing agency provides as opposed to external ones. They are as follows:

$1·         Build trust

$1·         Be strategic

$1·         Save time

$1·         Stop chaos

$1·         Get the big picture i.e. improve visibility

Build Trust

38% of marketers say that for them the biggest challenge is to gain the trust within their own firm as number of people do not understand their roles. Also 58% state that a substantial portion of people do not even wish to comprehend their tasks. Creativity is subjective and thus difficult to measure tangible results. Thus extra efforts are needed to earn respect within the firm.

The speaker, Ms. Maureen Boyle, then highlighted some steps taken. Firstly the creative agency at cars.com was remodeled as Team Idea. The concept of idea generation was given top priority. She also stressed on how certain projects which were not feasible were not taken up and a polite no was the response to such clients. Those clients in turn would have been particularly unhappy had the project been taken up but desired results not delivered. Finally she says that the clients must worry about the ‘what’ of all problems and leave the ‘how’ to Team Idea. The team has / had the requisite expertise to feel supremely confident about the delivery.

Be Strategic

A certain path to achieving efficient follow up to corporate strategy has been designed. The path will be better illustrated by the following chart.

Thus at first the client comes up with a particular ‘need’. Then the internal agency works on discovering best solutions to achieve the target. The target then gets executed as per the plans. Finally the product / solution is delivered to the client.

However, often the original mission can be deviated from. Rather it is often desirable as clients appreciate improvisations made to improve the final delivery. Once the hands-on execution begins, there is bound to be crucial change in tactics. As per study, 90% times, this leads to increased satisfaction among the clients.

Save Time

Corporate Training is particularly crucial in the aspect of saving time. Each time there is an inbound project generation, a brief must be asked from the client. This may seem a tedious process initially and one may even lose few prospects in the process, however this saves critical time at a future date. One must by all means try to avoid falling in the trap of the ‘feedback swirl’. The success metrics, key messages and target audience must all be tracked using sophisticated business analysis.

Stop Chaos

The first step in achieving this is to align on expectation with the clients. The speaker gave the analogy of the neighbour whose household bears a messy outlook as opposed the more organized one. One is bound to feel more inclined to get friendly with the organized neighbour rather than the other one. The case of the marketing agency is similar and thus the same must forever bear the look of being organized. The visuals at the agency’s work stations must be aligned neatly. Creative work often becomes chaotic, yet non-team members must never get that feel, must rather feel confidence and reassurance at their project execution. Clients value documentation and consistency via a process. Also complete 100% transparency must be maintained with the client.

Get the big Picture

This consists of few tools. They are as follows:

$1·         Project status

$1·         Project timelines

$1·         Proofs and feedback

Client satisfaction must be gauged using data. This process has become easier due to the availability of sheer volume of big data. Thus proper business metrics must be used to deduce this. They must be included as part of the KPIs developed. An ROI study must be done accordingly using analysis.

Thus overall we see, internal marketing agencies have saved hundreds of thousands of dollars per organization. These agencies have created value by proving to be valuable.