Let’s cut to the chase—brand in-housing isn’t just some flashy trend that CMOs are chasing. It’s a fundamental shift in how brands operate (link to The Ultimate Guide to In-Housing Article), and if you’re reading this, you’re probably wondering if it’s right for your team.
I’ve seen companies crush it with in-housing and others crash and burn. The difference? Understanding that in-housing isn’t an all-or-nothing game.
What In-Housing Actually Means in 2025
First off, let’s clear something up. In-housing doesn’t mean firing your agencies tomorrow and hiring a team of 30 creatives by Friday. That’s suicide.
In-housing means strategically bringing certain marketing functions under your roof because you need more control, speed, or alignment with your brand values. Full stop.
The most successful brands I work with aren’t asking “Should we in-house?” They’re asking “Which parts of our marketing stack make sense to bring in-house first?”
The Real Benefits Nobody Talks About
Everyone knows the usual selling points: cost savings, faster turnaround, closer alignment to the brand. Sure, those are real. But here are the benefits marketing leaders aren’t talking about publicly:
You get to build institutional knowledge. When Agency X creates your campaigns, that knowledge of what works walks out the door when the contract ends. When your team creates them, that knowledge compounds over time.
You can actually respond to data in real-time. I was with a Fortune 500 CMO last month who said, “By the time we get performance data from our agency, analyze it, approve changes, and they implement them, two weeks have passed.” Two weeks! In-house teams can pivot same-day.
Your content actually sounds like your brand. No more generic agency-speak that could apply to any company in your industry. Your people live and breathe your brand daily.
Where Most In-Housing Efforts Fall Apart
Here’s the hard truth: about 60% of in-housing initiatives underperform in the first year. Why? Because companies dive in without a transition strategy.
The most common mistakes we see:
1. Trying to in-house everything at once. Start with one function (like social media or content) and nail it before expanding.
2. Underestimating the talent challenge. In-house teams need different skills than agency folks. Agency people are used to working across multiple clients and industries. In-house talent needs depth in one industry and brand.
3. Forgetting to build processes before building teams. You need workflows, approval systems, and measurement frameworks before you start hiring.
Building Your In-Housing Roadmap
If you’re serious about in-housing, here’s how to approach it without setting yourself up for failure:
Step 1: Audit Your Current Marketing Stack
Map out everything you’re doing externally right now. Rate each function on three factors:
- How critical is it to your brand voice?
- How frequently does it need to be updated?
- How much internal knowledge is required to do it well?
Functions that score high on all three are your prime candidates for in-housing first.
Step 2: Design Your Hybrid Model
The most successful in-housing strategies we’ve seen are hybrid models. Maybe you bring content creation and social in-house but keep your media buying with specialists. Or your in-house creative direction, but use freelancers for production.
There’s no one-size-fits-all here. The key is being intentional about what stays external and what comes in.
Step 3: Build Your Capability Building Plan
This is where most companies drop the ball. You need to build capabilities in three areas simultaneously:
People: Beyond hiring, how will you train existing staff? What skills do they need to develop?
Process: What workflows, approvals, and collaboration models will you use? How will you measure success?
Technology: What tools do you need to support your in-house team? Most companies underinvest here.
Measuring In-House Success
Here’s where marketers get tripped up—they try to measure in-housing success purely on cost savings or output metrics. That’s missing the point.
The real metrics that matter:
- Speed to market: How much faster can you go from idea to execution?
- Iteration cycles: How quickly can you test, learn, and improve?
- Brand consistency score: Are you maintaining or improving brand consistency across channels?
- Institutional knowledge index: Are you building capabilities that compound over time?
Case Studies Worth Learning From
Let’s look at what’s actually working in the real world:
Nike’s Consumer Direct Acceleration Nike didn’t just in-house their creative—they reorganized their entire company around direct consumer relationships. Their in-house studio became the nerve center for rapid content creation that powers their DTC channels. The key insight: they built specialized teams around consumer segments, not marketing functions.
Spotify’s In-House Creative Team Spotify built an in-house team that rivals any creative agency. But they didn’t do it overnight. They started with performance marketing, then expanded to branded content, and finally moved into campaign creation. The phased approach let them build processes at each stage before expanding.
Practical Next Steps for Your Team
If you’ve read this far, you’re serious about exploring in-housing. Here’s what to do next:
1. Run a pilot program. Choose one marketing function to bring in-house for a 90-day test. Document everything.
2. Invest in knowledge transfer. If you’re working with agencies now, build knowledge transfer into your contracts. Don’t let them walk away with all the insights.
3. Build your measurement framework now. Decide how you’ll measure success before you start in-housing, not after.
4. Talk to your peers. Find other marketing leaders who have gone through this journey. The challenges are surprisingly similar across industries.
Lessons From the Best
Let’s look at what’s actually working in the real world with brands that are successfully in-housing:
Nike’s Consumer Direct Acceleration Nike didn’t just in-house their creative—they reorganized their entire company around direct consumer relationships. Their in-house studio became the nerve center for rapid content creation that powers their DTC channels. The key insight: they built specialized teams around consumer segments, not marketing functions.
Spotify’s In-House Creative Team Spotify built an in-house team that rivals any creative agency. But they didn’t do it overnight. They started with performance marketing, then expanded to branded content, and finally moved into campaign creation. The phased approach let them build processes at each stage before expanding.
Take a look at more examples from Spring, Bayer, Ally, IHG and Nestlé. (Link to Brand In-Housing in Action: 5 Brands That Are Doing It Right)
Final Thoughts
The companies winning at in-housing in 2025 aren’t choosing between in-house and external—they’re building flexible models that can scale up or down based on business needs.
I’m seeing more brands build small, high-powered internal teams that direct strategy and core content, surrounded by a network of specialized partners and freelancers who provide scale and specialized expertise.
The end goal isn’t to bring everything in-house. It’s to have the right capabilities in the right places to move at the speed your market demands.
In-housing isn’t a destination—it’s an ongoing journey that evolves with your brand. The most successful companies approach it with flexibility rather than dogma.
Start small, learn fast, and build your in-house capabilities incrementally. Your future marketing organization won’t be 100% in-house or 100% external—it will be a strategic blend that gives you the best of both worlds.
The question isn’t whether to in-house, but what to in-house first, and how to build a model that works for your specific business challenges.
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Mike Ford , Founder & CEO of Skydeo
Mike Ford is Founder & CEO of Skydeo. Skydeo provides mobile audiences, insights and measurement to brands and agencies serving auto, retail, tech and mobile gaming clients.
Prior to this, Ford was the Founder & CEO of TownConnect, a social media startup dedicated to organizing and uniting families, friends and organization in local communities.
BeforeTownConnect, Ford was Senior Vice President, Sales and Marketing for Did-it Search Marketing, led business development for Quigo Technologies (sold to AOL for $330M) .
Ford’s first startup, Computer.com, began in his garage in 1999. Computer.com was a highly publicized, computer portal site for novice computer users. It raised several million in VC, developed the site and launched during the now infamous dotcom Super Bowl in 2000. Ford eventually sold Computer.com to what became Office Depot’s tech center.
Ford has been a guest speaker for Inc. Magazine’s CEO Conference, Webmaster World, and Boston College and have been featured in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Boston Globe, NY Times, Ad Week, Ad Age, San Jose Mercury News, Boston Business Journal, Mass High Tech, The Today Show and Good Morning America.