Marketers focused on boosting in-house media skills

Brands’ top concern in 2018 was bolstering their in-house digital media talent pools with a focus on planning, according to ID Comm’s 2018 Global Media Talent Report.

Having surveyed 129 advertisers worldwide, with responsibility for more than US$10 billion in media spend, ID Comms found that most were concerned with increasing their in-house capabilities across all media functions.

Confidence in internal talent meeting a brand’s evolving marketing needs has shrunk: Only 14% of respondents said they had high and very high confidence, compared to 22% in 2016. In addition, 74% of advertisers said their in-house talent did not meet their current media needs.

Susy Pyzer-Knapp, consultant at ID Comms, said the greater focus on in-house talent is not just due to transparency concerns, but “the realisation that as media gets higher on the corporate agenda, marketers’ in-house teams often don’t have a complete grip on many of the issues thrown up by the shift to digital and biddable media buying”.

Planning has jumped up the agenda for advertisers, with it coming top (40%) of what they want agencies to invest in, followed by mobile (35%).   

The 2018 report highlights how internal considerations are becoming more of a priority ahead of agency issues. In 2016, marketers said their top issue was the quality of agency talent, scoring 29%. This year it has fallen to 18.5%.

“The shift away from a focus on agency talent reflects their desire to manage more of their media efforts in-house, or more effectively oversee their agency partners’ efforts in this area,” Pyzer-Knapp added.

On the plus side for agencies, brands are increasingly confident they can meet changing needs; 35% of respondents said they have very high confidence. This is 21% higher than those who are very confident in their own in-house talent.