Defining team and agency roles

One approach to identifying team KPIs can be to categorise the team by type. Many times even though their functions are different the fundamental goals of different teams can be grouped together. KPIs for respective teams may focus on efficiency and value or may focus on capability and volume. And while many capabilities may be supported by internal teams its always worth considering the role and purpose of external services that can be procured through Marketing Agencies.

Shared Services

Shared services are dedicated headcount, budget and technologies aligned to delivering outcomes that multiple teams within marketing can draw upon. Shared services drive scale efficiencies, leverage process excellence, have defined business outputs, leverage an inside-out learning model and may cross-charge on a per-deliverable basis. Shared Services prioritise cost effectiveness in their outputs, but can have significant budget allocated to their operations due to the scale they must support. Shared Services teams comprise specialist skills and may operate on a basis of job tickets. Shared Services functions are generally centralised.

Centres of Excellence

Centres of Excellence are also dedicated headcount, but focus on development of best practices and new capabilities. Centres of excellence may absorb information more from outside of the organisation and introduce new outputs that go on to be absorbed into a Shared Services delivery function. CoEs typically have a much smaller budget allocation and their focus is on developing and evaluating the effectiveness of new marketing tactics and approaches. Centres of excellence also comprise specialists but the skillset is more on solution development rather than execution. This being said, sometimes learning and development can support Shared Service functions and Centres of Excellence offering job rotations. Centres of Excellence may be centralised or decentralised.

Integrated Growth Teams

Integrated Growth Teams are cross-functional working partnerships with Centres of Excellence and Shared Services. They meet with a defined cadence aligned to their performance scorecard and collaborate on delivery of marketing outputs. They also share best practices and lessons learned, and Growth Team governance ensures consistency of operations by sharing and aligning approaches across other Growth Teams. Integrated Growth Teams may be governed by a different skill set, which may be more aligned to generalist marketing experience but with a greater focus on integrated outputs and project management. Integrated sprint teams comprise members from both centralised and decentralised teams working as one. These teams may be the individuals or groups who lead coordination, planning and reporting to wider business stakeholders on how marketing is driving value for the business.

Mot importantly, Integrated Teams are accountable for business performance. They are the owners of scorecards and leverage the strength and capabilities of other functions to deliver performance. They are highly data-driven and collaborative. They are may be comprised of leaders with broad, general marketing experience and Project Management resource to drive delivery across functions.

Agencies

Building and managing an effective, value-driving roster of agencies can be critical to meeting Marketing’s goals and ensuring smooth marketing operations, but too often there isn’t an aligned, communicated and governed model that all marketing managers can follow. Once again, strategy is that overused word that means many things to many people, but an agency strategy is what organisations require. Which services are you happy to outsource rather than use internal capability for? Where do you want to invest in internal capability and where are you happy to bring in external expertise? In other words, why should you use an agency?

An informed strategy should not tell you which agencies to use for which services but should answer why any agency should be used. The answer will probably fall into one of two buckets: because they offer a skill you can’t access internally, or because they offer a value (either speed, agility or cost-effectiveness) that is better than the internal function. But consider the internal functions whenever you review an agency contract. Are you outsourcing something you have a shared services team for, but they’re just too slow? An effectively run and governed Shared Services function is almost always more cost effective and need not be any slower than an agency. If the service you’re approaching an agency for is one that you will need regularly, it should be brought in-house. If it is available in-house already but teams aren’t using it, either greater governance is required to mandate it or there may be performance or capacity issues that need addressing. Spending money on an agency rather than properly funding the more efficient shared service is counterproductive to your real goal.

Next consider how often you may need this agency’s capability. Services that may be intermittent (such as event support for large annual activities) are prime examples where external support may be required, but for execution of always-on digital campaigns a shared services function may be much better able to support.

Sometimes marketers prefer to go to agencies simply because it is easier. This should not be an acceptable reason. If an internal function is too difficult to partner with that feedback needs to be addressed. If a Centre of Excellence is unable to support with the development of new ideas, their scope should be reviewed. If internal teams are operating at capacity their scope should be considered to understand if there is a short-term burst capacity challenge or if marketing budgets have been incorrectly allocated and external agencies are being inefficiently prioritised over investing in internal teams.

Headcount and hiring can be complex issues for cost and business flexibility. Agencies can provide a way to mitigate this but this solution needs to be considered within the broader landscape of the business. Simply because it is easier does not mean its always better. If in the medium to long term you expect to continue needing agency support, does the business case stack up for bringing these resources in-house. This is a conversation that should be had with the CFO as part of a strategic review of marketing. If it doesn’t warrant being brought in house, it will continue to take significant marketing funding and there is no strategy behind why it should be outsourced, it may be that it is work that simply isn’t needed.