Alternative to Oliver Agency : Building In-house Agencies and Digital Brand Marketing Creative Teams

Oliver Agency (part of Inside Ideas Group) is the pioneer and global leader in building in-house digital marketing capabilities for brands. Launched in 2004, currently employs 1500 people over 25 locations worldwide. While Oliver Agency is beyond doubt a proven leader in its field, when thinking about using a partner to build in-house creative production resources and teams, there are many important reasons why you should consider SO DIGITAL | Global Brand Excellence Solutions as a viable alternative.

Competitive Concerns : Competitors Under One Roof?

Building in-house teams for a brand by default requires a development of an intimate relationship between a brand and a partner that is tasked with building creative production and digital marketing capabilities. Even in a very technology driven world, people are still a key success factor and competitive advantage element.

For competitive concerns it wouldn't advisable nor logical that a same company builds in-house capabilities for two competing brands and organisations.

As Oliver Agency already works with many leading brands across individual industries, its understandable that there should be a viable market alternative for the same or similar scope of work which would be available to other industry market players and competitors of brands Oliver already works for. For competitive concerns it wouldn't advisable nor logical that a same company builds in-house capabilities for two competing brands and organisations. Despite the non-compete clauses, industry secrets and legal fences that can be put around, no two competitors should be using or creating same market(ing) capabilities as that could obviously undermine their market positions and unique competitive strengths

For competitive concerns it wouldn't advisable nor logical that a same company builds in-house capabilities for two competing brands and organisations.

In-housing of brand creative production and digital capabilities is an unstoppable trend but competitors within industries should have more choice for partners. To avoid any competitive concerns with portfolio of clients Oliver Agency, brands looking to build in-house brand, digital and creative capabilities have a great alternative in SO DIGITAL which has built remote digital creative teams across countries that worked for global digital brand powerhouses and clients like Nike EMEA (14 markets support), Uber EMEA (47 markets support), AS Monaco, TomTom etc.

Diversifying In-housing Partners For Best-in-Class Internal Capabilities

Oliver Agency builds bespoke teams across range of different marketing disciplines. While it is tempting to be everyhing to everybody and use all growth opportunities a first mover advantage brings, we think that in-housing capabilities should be diversified with best in class providers. Our core capabilities are remote creative teams placed in lower cost countries and strong focus on digital creative production and post-production. We believe if you're jack of all trades that you are master of none. We can't build a best in class in-house media agency, digital media marketing agency but we can surely built best in class digital creative agency, digital post-production and in-house creative production agency.

Having your in-housing capabilities program tied up with a single partner means having strategic business capability tied up to single source, business delivery method and single line of though

"All your eggs in one basket" was never a smart strategy as being tied up with just one vendor exposes you to multiple levels or business risks. Having your in-housing capabilities program tied up with a single partner means having strategic business capability tied up to single source, business delivery method and single line of thought. Even brands which are currently working or considering working with Oliver Agency should think about strategic advantages of diversifying their in-housing programs with different vendors. When it comes to digital creative production teams, remote creative teams and remote in-house agencies, SO DIGITAL with its 10 year experience in international remote creative teams management can definitely be a right choice for your organisation.

Building In-house Agencies : Differences in Models, Principles and Scope of Work

Remote Creative vs. Onsite Creative

Oliver Agency's main focus and initially pioneered core value proposition is building onsite creative teams - so creative teams located on client premises. While we acknowledge the benefits of onsite teams our core value proposition is building international in-house remote creative teams and creative production capabilities. Remote creative teams placed across different countries, leveraging geographical cost optimisation opportunities and talent pool, collaborating seamlessly to deliver best in class digital creative work at a fraction of traditional external, but also traditionally centrally located in-house agency is the future of marketing capability in-housing.

Our core value proposition is building international in-house remote creative teams and creative production capabilities

Remote teams require different type of mindset, culture, practice and processes to be successful and that's what we know best.

To meet creative production demand working for Nike EMEA brand digital wholesale. com team and ensure 'always on' service during weekdays & weekends, without production gaps during national holidays, SO DIGITAL created three remote digital brand creative teams in Sarajevo (Bosnia & Herzegovina), Zagreb (Croatia) and Belgrade (Serbia). Client (face2face) service remained in Amsterdam, while certain specific talents were sourced on need basis from Barcelona and Berlin. Teams spread across 4 cities collaborated seamlessly and if needed interchangeably to meet the 10 categories campaign launch demands across 14 WE countries and 500 + retailer partners.

Continuous Improvement In Creative Resourcing

Unlike Oliver Agency which is solely focused on creating in-house teams, SO DIGITAL is a continuous improvement company and creative resourcing is part of our service & solution verticals. This means that our creative resourcing optimisation set up - in this case remote in-house creatives placed in lower cost countries, are part of and subject to continuous improvement principles. Our work doesn't end with remote in-house creative team creation and set-up. We continuously measure, benchmark and optimise individual team and international creative resourcing set ups to both internal and external KPIs. We believe that no team or international creative resourcing set-up is set in stone and that it should be subject to continuous optimisation and continuous change to meet evolutionary needs of business.

Our creative resourcing optimisation set up - in this case remote in-house creatives placed in lower cost countries, are part of and subject to continuous improvement principles.

We see the world as our international creative resourcing playground and we believe that no team is set in stone. We believe that all global creative production operations should be a subject of never ending continuous improvement efforts.

A More Holistic Rationalisation - Global Brand Marketing Creative Resourcing and Processes Optimisation

Oliver Agency focuses on building bespoke, on site creative in-house teams that work more efficiently to traditional agency models. We on the other hand believe no (optimised) resourcing set up can ever achieve its maximum potential without optimisation of brand operations and brand campaign operations in global to local execution. Namely, while optimised brand marketing and creative resourcing set ups will improve a brands marketing capability, without optimised processes which are used to access and leverage those resources the final result will always be sub-optimal.

While optimised brand marketing and creative resourcing set ups will improve a brands marketing capability, without optimised processes which are used to access and leverage those resources the final result will always be sub-optimal.

In comparison to Oliver Agency, SO DIGITAL takes a more holistic approach when creating rationalised or optimised global brand marketing operating models - looking not only at creative or brand resourcing, but also brand operations and internal processes. Our core value proposition is "looking under the hood" of global brand operations and removing waste - in terms of time, money and effort. Thus, wasteful usage of creative resourcing and subsequent optimised creative resourcing set ups in terms of bespoke in-house remote creative production hubs or teams are just one part of the puzzle. We believe that optimised resources can't be leveraged without optimised / digitised processes. Thus our pillars of services evolve not only around resourcing but also process improvement and bespoke digital solution creation. Tailored solutions support tailored process and creative resourcing set-ups being an executional digitised glue that not only supports new ways of working, but also provides measurement of operations as a foundation for continuous improvement.

We believe that optimised resources can't be leveraged without optimised / digitised processes. Thus, our pillars of services evolve not only around resourcing but also process improvement and bespoke digital solution creation.

For example, both for Nike EMEA and Uber EMEA we've created tailored platform solutions that supported supported redesigned global-to-local brand campaign operations while leveraging digital brand production support from remote creative resource hubs placed in Balkan countries.

External Incubation vs. Managed Agency

Oliver Agency takes on the employees for the clients they work on, acting as a manager of resources dedicated to certain brand. SO DIGITAL starts of incubation of remote creative teams with long-term plan and purpose of integrating these teams back into clients operations - as full time employees. We believe that, if not purposed to become an integral unit of client's business, an in-house agency created by an external vendor can never develop an internal culture, values and principles inherently unique to every organisation.

 An externally managed in-house agency is never actually an in-house capability as core elements of people culture, loyalty and values are not internal but external.

If culture is not aligned between an in-house creative agency created by an external vendor it can never think, act and work in sync with rest of the business. Internal culture cannot be copy-pasted so it must be nurtured from the beginning. SO DIGITAL model of creation of bespoke remote in-house creative teams and brand marketing production capabilities rests on the external incubation model. While we will create and manage the teams and in-house agency in the initial period, the end game is that the team that we create, becomes an integral part of the client organisation once its successful delivering work for internal clients. An externally managed in-house agency is never actually an in-house capability as core elements of people culture, loyalty and values are not internal but external.

SO DIGITAL model of creation of bespoke remote in-house creative teams and brand marketing production capabilities rests on the external incubation model.

You can think of our model as a "lease-to-buy" set up where we take on initial risk and majority of effort in sourcing, staffing and setting up operations of in-house creative team, its production capabilities and charge a fee for it. However, as time passes, if we are successful our role will diminish and successfully retained talent will develop an internal culture, loyalty and values inline with those of clients. At this stage we're ready to transfer the employees from our payroll to yours either through buying a legal entity built or transferring the contracts whatever works best.

Nimbler than Oliver Agency

As companies grow their operations and staff swells making operations slower, more layered and complex. As a result organisations move slower. Oliver Agency is a large agency with more than 1500 employees so compared to SO DIGITAL which is just around 50 moves at a much slower pace. As a smaller organisation we are by default nimbler - can move quickly and at the pace of more agile customers.

Oliver Agency with size of its operations, probably isn't the best choice for smaller organisations and brands which are looking to leverage capability multiplier of creative resourcing optimisation .

Even though we're comparatively small that doesn't mean we can't handle big clients - we've successfully managed demand for Uber EMEA in-house creative team and support towards 47 EMEA countries, by leveraging our unique approach of process digitisation and scalability enablement. This means that we can punch much above our weight. On the other side, Oliver Agency with size of its operations, probably isn't the best choice for smaller organisations and brands which are looking to leverage capability multiplier of creative resourcing optimisation .