This article was originally published in Campaign Asia @ campaignasia.com

In marketing and advertising, the only thing we know for certain is that things always change. And in today’s world where we’ve learned that everything can change on a moment’s notice, brands are starving for working models that allow them more control of their narrative and the content they create. 

We know that the traditional brand-agency relationships are limited—the growing trend of companies moving to in-house teams is proof of that. In August 2020, a Gartner spend survey of CMOs found that 32% of external agency work had shifted to in-house teams over the previous 12 months. But while in-housing can offer brands major benefits—like cost savings, faster speed to market, and consistency over the brand narrative—purely in-house teams can lack elements of innovation and inspiration that the cross-pollination of diverse business categories and verticals affords agency creatives and marketers. Not to mention that adapting to the discomfort and inconvenience of quickly changing landscapes—something external agencies thrive on—may be difficult for brand teams.

The embedded partnership offers brands the best of both worlds. For some companies that have relied heavily on external agency partners, the embedded partnership allows them to quickly adapt to change while continuing to serve their audiences. For others, an embedded agency partnership serves as a hybrid first step toward full in-housing. And there are many, many brands we work with—large companies and start-ups alike—that maintain embedded agency staffers long term to help manage the ebbs and flows of marketing needs.

Enter the embedded partnership

In the embedded partnership model, brand and agency teams brainstorm together, edit each other’s work, talk daily, and often sit in the same offices. The most common misconception about the embedded model, however, is that simply putting people together in the same space—either virtually or on site—is the solution. “Embedded” means teams are involved in strategic conversations much further upstream than traditional agencies and openly collaborating on assignments to the point that ideas flow more naturally and decisions are made faster. Much more than a model, an embedded partnership is a mindset. This deep engagement based on teamwork and mutual trust yields results that exceed expectations, integrate fully with a brand’s existing infrastructure, and align with the latest go-to-market strategies. 

Keeping it fresh

Once thought appropriate only for content production needs, embedded agency engagements have expanded to cover end-to-end solutions spanning many areas: data, strategy, creative, production, platform development, optimization, and media, among others. And given the recent focus on privacy and preparing for a world without cookies, embedded digital marketing staff would be the ideal resource for managing a brand’s first-party data. 

Why are brands turning to embedded teams? Acquiring and energizing creative talent has historically been a challenge for in-house agencies—a challenge that can intensify when budgets are tight but marketing needs necessitate new skill sets. Plus, there’s always the risk that wholly internal teams turn into echo chambers for internal assumptions and company speak or, even worse, become insulated from emerging trends. An independent contractor or boutique agency can serve as a means of outsourcing small tasks but an embedded partner has immediate and greater access to talent and specialized skills, as well as external ties that can help introduce innovation. And given its proximity internally, the partner agency can become an extension of the company’s marketing team to seamlessly amplify the team’s power. 

Staying nimble

One of the main drawbacks to fully in-housed teams is their limited ability to handle sudden increases of work or reduce costs during periods of lower demand. And one of the key elements of the embedded model is that it provides flexibility in scale and skills sets available on demand as needs dictate. In large companies, for example, internal marketing teams can hum along until an unforeseen opportunity presents itself and a massive program needs to be executed—fast. Hiring full-time employees for a three- to six-month program is hard to justify, but so is signing on with an agency (even for minimum contracts) or hiring and then managing individual contractors. With the embedded model, a middle way emerges—a team of experts from a single agency can be brought in to leverage insights and execute quickly and smoothly. 

Covering all the bases

Building and maintaining a full in-house team is not for the faint of heart. In-housing requires a major commitment of time and money that can be a difficult pill for an organization to swallow—especially when striking the perfect balance between capacity and utilization is nearly impossible in today’s changing marketing environment. In smaller companies—like technology start-ups where most early resources are funneled to engineering and go-to-market timing is a moving target—there may not be the right staff on hand to handle the next phase of growth. But hiring quality employees takes time, and bringing in a full-on agency is costly and time-consuming. With the embedded model, interim senior marketers with the support of a full agency behind them can be quickly enlisted to execute everything from consumer tests to full marketing programs, without a major long-term commitment. This flexibility provides for support in tackling everything from operational problems to pilot testing new ideas and products to full go-to-market strategies—with companies only expending associated costs, rather than ramping overhead.

The many flavors of the embedded model

At its core, the embedded approach blends internal and agency teams working side by side with full transparency and higher accountability. That said, for as many different companies there are in this world, there are likely just as many different embedded combinations possible! Personnel models span fully embedded models with agency individuals and teams on site, hybrid models with some combination of on-site and off-site support, and fully off-site models supported by local or remote staff. And financial models that are retained, based on time and materials, project- or work stream-based, or a combination.  

To best determine whether an embedded partnership is right for your organization, you must consider short-term needs and long-term goals, and then evaluate your capabilities to determine where (and potentially when) you’d need to shore up resources. To put you in the partnership mindset, here are just a few areas where an embedded agency model can help:

• Consultancy to handle strategic work or restructuring, such as developing new operating models or in-house studios
• Plug-and-play project support with individuals or teams delivering part of a project or dropping into an existing workflow on a project
• Ongoing work streams with dedicated individuals or teams for everything from onboarding to in-market delivery
• End-to-end teams and solutions working as an extension of your team to absorb a higher volume of work for an extended period

Bridging the gap

As brands search for a model that provides them more control, a key challenge many of them face is a lack of resources that allow them to meet their fullest potential—whether it’s the need for all hands on deck to produce always-on content, or specialized skill sets for quick and one-off projects. The embedded model is what allows brands to bridge the time, skills, and needs gap to deliver results in an always-on world with speed, quality, and value. In its purest sense, the embedded model boils down to true partnership—a relationship based on shared goals, teamwork, and trust. And at the end of the day, relationships are what make the difference.

Over the past few years, brands have aimed to beef up their creative and production capabilities. The reasons why are clear: doing so offers them numerous opportunities to streamline the production workflow, enhance creativity with brand knowledge and retain a closer connection to consumers. They also become more versatile in the process; Forrester Research defines such brands as those which interweave “key capabilities across creative, digital marketing, and media between in-house and external agencies.”

Firewood has helped carve this path, coining the phrase “your in-house team, extended,” offering a variety of services such as creative, strategy and planning, performance media, technology and events. Firewood recently ranked #6 on Adweek’s Fastest Growing Large Agencies—and for good measure, as they’ve pioneered the embedded agency model in Silicon Valley and across the Americas and Europe. With service offerings that closely align with our own dedication to brands, we welcome Firewood into the S4 Capital family.

“Firewood’s ’embedded’ approach will allow us to build deeper and broader relationships with our clients, helping us work in a more flexible, collaborative and integrated way,” explains MediaMonks Founder Wesley ter Haar. That flexibility and sense of collaboration are key; the embedded model helps brands achieve success much more easily through direct access to specialized skillsets as needed, helping them scale up and achieve a more streamlined production process.

Attaining Greater Transparency

Among one of the greatest concerns that brands face is a need for greater transparency. Whether it’s in cost of services or ensuring they’re not victims of ad fraud, there are some trust issues brewing between brands and traditional agencies. The embedded model does away with these tensions by fully integrating its staff within the client’s infrastructure and go-to-market strategies. This gives brands a seat at the table and alleviates the pain points that they may feel by working with traditional agencies—like a cycle of rework.

This offering is just one of the ways that the S4 model aims to integrate capabilities that help brands take a more active role within the production process. Our sister company MightyHive, for example, helps brands become more self sufficient in their media planning and spend. By pairing clients with the specific capabilities they require, we remain laser focused on helping them achieve success without having to sacrifice their ownership of a project.

Cutting Cost & Time, Not Corners

Brands are also driven to boost their internal creative capacity to produce work faster, aided by a closer connection between the creative team and decision makers. With a strong sense of ownership, they uphold a high standard of what makes good creative work. Still, a key challenge many brands face is a lack of resources that allow them to meet their fullest potential, whether it be a need for all hands on deck to produce always-on content, or specialized skillsets for quick and one-off projects.

This highlights another need for new partnership models. As the time-to-market shortens and the pressure for always-on content at scale grows, brands don’t have time to waste by following the typical RFP process or in hiring and onboarding new talent. Instead, an embedded team can offer an individual who provides direction and is backed by an agency’s full creative and production abilities.

Building a Culture of Confident Experimentation

When enjoying a closer relationship with consumers and a faster time to market, brands are in a great position to rapidly experiment and optimize their creative strategy, helping them home in on creatively differentiated experiences and messaging for their audiences. But truly delivering on this potential requires they cover the full end-to-end capabilities spectrum.

But most in-house agencies begin with just a specific capability that they strive to support and grow out from there. We believe a truer sense of partnership, designed specifically around enhancing in-house skillsets. At this year’s Advertising Week New York conference, MediaMonks Founder and COO Wesley ter Haar shared the stage with S4 Capital’s Sir Martin Sorrell and MightyHive’s Emily Del Greco to discuss how aligning data and creative is essential to innovating through experimentation.

“With traditional work, there’s a conservatism that you can’t marry data with being creative,” ter Haar said, noting how brands can take risks with confidence when backed by partners who have their back. As the S4 model grows, it will help brands integrate forward by taking back control and retaining a sense of ownership in their creative and production, ensuring they can meet success easier than ever before.

You can learn more about Firewood and S4 Capital joining forces through numerous sources covering the merger. Watch Sir Martin Sorrell’s on-air interview on the new partnership over at CNBC; at Ad Age, you can find Firewood Co-Founder and CEO Juan Zambrano provide insight on how his client-side background inspired the agency’s unique approach. And as covered by Reuters, Sir Martin offers a couple hints behind the overall S4 strategy and what to look forward to next for brands seeking new ways of working. We can’t wait to see what’s on the horizon.