On the heels of a report from the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4As) asserting that the trend toward clients in-housing their programmatic media-buying has been "sensationalized," a new study of some of the world's biggest marketers by the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) indicates that more than twice as many aspire to bring their programmatic media buys in-house than plan to outsource it.
The WFA study, which was conducted in the first quarter by OxfordSM, surveyed executives at 21 global marketers representing a total of $32 billion in annual marketing expenditures.
Asked what their aspirations were for handling programmatic media buys in the future, 50% said they see no change, while 36% plan more in-housing and 14% plan more outsourcing.
On the bright side, their plans for traditional media are far more status quo. Two-thirds of the WFA respondents plan no change in how their traditional media buys are handled, while 20% anticipate even more outsourcing and only 13% plan to bring more of it in-house.
"The well documented trend towards in-sourcing is backed up by this research," the WFA report noted, adding: "All companies have in-house capabilities in place or a mix of in-house and outsourced capabilities."
Asked how they currently handle media, only 5% of respondents said it currently is entirely in-house, although 20% said they had a "mix" of in-house/outsourced service for programmatic, and a 10% mix for traditional media-buying.