Revealing how 70 major blue-chip companies structure and resource their internal and external marcoms activities…and the relationships between company situation, resource strategy and success.

This report is the first of its kind providing empirical evidence and a rare insight into how seventy major advertisers, spending in excess of £3 billion on communications annually, currently structure their marketing communications expertise and activities both internally and externally. 

The 160 page report in 18 chapters is printed in full colour and includes over 250 colour graphs and charts.   The report identifies the essential constructs of both internal and external marcoms structures and the key issues and outcomes (e.g. silo activity, client time, access to specialists, and generalists) that most concern clients.  The first half of the report deals with understanding the situation.  The second part identifies trends emerging in the last 5 years.  The third part offers exciting chapters exploring the interrelationships between situations, strategy and success - in other words the actions associated with greater marcoms success.

         Understanding the status quo

• An extensive executive summary

• Marketing communications activities conducted

• Type of external resources (agencies) used

• External resources (agency) structures

• Composition & structure of internal resources

•  Types of coordination methods used

•  Overall satisfaction levels with internal and external structures

• Outcomes: Performance, management & relationship and key design features

•  Trends over the last 5 years

• Verbatim comments on what clients would do to redesign their future internal and external resources

Exploring interrelationships between situation, strategy & success

• Satisfaction by task & agency load, strength of internal resources and co-ordination

• Relationship between outcomes and client strategy

• Relationships between resource structure types & outcomes

• Exploring silo thinking and silo activity

•  Location of central marketing communications team

• Benefits of integrative functions

•  Collaborative payment by results mechanisms

•  Details of a special tailored consultancy service designed to help clients

• The original questionnaire

" For any Marketing Director or senior client already on the questioning path this report shines the light into those dark corners, makes compulsive reading and provides significant signposts on how to structure marcoms resources for greatest effect and success.   It looks at client satisfaction levels with the way they are currently organised, provides analysis of what effective structures look like, trends in views over the last five years and reports future aspirations of these key organisations. "

“Any Marketing Director of an organisation with a significant expenditure on marketing communications should read this report from cover to cover, absorb the content and use it to help design marketing communications resource structure fit for the future.”

ISBA