It's 2015: Marketers Need Us (Just as We Need Them!)

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In 2005, a survey by Gartner highlighted that only 5% of businesses in the United States and other developed countries were willing to outsource crucial business processes. That was then.Cut to 2014 when Deloitte published its Global Outsourcing and Insourcing Survey. In it, more than 50% of respondents have revealed they are outsourcing IT processes. Another 2014 study by MarketingProfs and CMI revealed that more than 70% of B2B companies with more than 1000 employees in the US outsource their marketing activities. Welcome to a new world order.So what changed?Creative and technology came head-on and created mar-tech. Now, this might sound very exciting but, getting inbound marketing off the ground requires many hands and TIME. And then it needs to be done ON TIME as well. The increased complexity in the marketing function has led to businesses finding partners who can help them keep their campaigns running like clockwork.Agencies have become consultants, sorta!Gone are the days when companies produced code and all the pretty bits were either done by ad agencies (highly paid, of course) or in-house marketing teams. Agencies now have specialised consultants, pools of experience and loads of training from toolmakers. Of course, clients want to leverage all of that and agencies are enjoying a sweet spot with the brands due to these unique points.Price? Really?In a day and age of competitive advantage, price is not the issue that grapples most brands. Ideas, context and relevance to the brand matter more than price. Sure, you cannot go around charging 5 times the normal rates, but you no longer need to slash prices to get business, either. In fact, in-sourcing is more expensive "most" of the time, as pricing points are not easily available for in-house teams when using shared resources.So what do you outsource?Pain points. Deadline-based stuff and anything that is non-core. With tech requirements increasing manifold and digital interfaces and touch points becoming both the storefront as well as the mouthpiece for most organizations, there are enough items on the CMO's wishlist to make it important to be with an agency adept at delivering solutions well, and fast.Analytics and real time data analysis are the next obsessions with CMO-s and we are likely to see a lot of them in 2015. As an agency, you need to learn loads of new things... constantly. As a brand, just find the right agency that does that!