Blog | Adjera

Why Big Brands Are Building In-House Teams and What Growing Agencies Can Do About It

If you’re running a growing agency, you’ve probably noticed it already. Clients aren’t just cutting budgets or delaying projects. They’re building their own teams. In-house creative, media, and content roles are on the rise. And with AI making production faster and cheaper, brands now have the tools to do more without you.
That doesn’t mean agencies are going away. But it does mean the role you play needs to shift.

Why Brands Are Moving More Work Inside

In-housing isn’t just a reaction to economic pressure. It’s about speed, control, and simplicity. Big brands want a tighter grip on timelines and messaging. They also want to reduce back-and-forth.

Unilever recently expanded its in-house media teams to improve campaign speed and cut costs.
Airbnb moved creative work inside to gain more brand control and consistency.
Nestlé and Coca-Cola have both grown internal content and production teams for faster execution.

AI has also changed the game. Tools like Runway, ChatGPT Enterprise, and Adobe Firefly are now part of everyday workflows. Internal teams can now produce draft content, edit visuals, and ideate quickly without outside help.

What This Means for Mid-Sized Agencies

If you’re a mid-sized agency, you’re caught in the middle. You’re expected to deliver like a big player, but with a lean team and tighter margins. This shift puts pressure on generalist agencies. If you’re not offering something clear and essential, it’s easy to get cut. Especially when clients think, “We could probably do this ourselves.”
But here’s the good news: most in-house teams don’t want to do everything. They want to handle the basics and lean on specialists when it matters. That’s where you come in.

The Agencies That Are Still Winning

We’re seeing small and mid-sized agencies thrive by playing a different game. They’re not chasing every project. They’re positioning themselves as strategic partners who bring something clients can’t build overnight.

Here’s what sets them apart:

They specialise. Instead of being “full-service,” they focus on one thing and do it well. That could be content strategy, brand messaging, or product launch support.
They integrate well. These agencies don’t stay in the shadows. They stay closely aligned with the client’s way of working, i.e., clear communication, shared visibility, and smooth collaboration from start to finish.
They lead with thinking. Not just design or delivery. They help shape the strategy, not just execute it.

Clients notice the difference. These agencies feel like a natural extension of the team. And that makes them hard to replace.

How to Respond Without Starting Over

You don’t need to rebuild your agency from scratch. But you do need to get sharper on how you show up.

Start with these four moves

Pick a lane. What are you already great at? Focus your services there. Don’t try to be everything to everyone.
Make it easy to buy. Retainers are harder to sell. Clear, scoped packages or project-based pricing make it easier for clients to say yes.
Talk about outcomes. Clients care about impact. Not just outputs. Frame your work around what it helps them achieve.
Tighten your delivery. Fast-moving teams expect transparency and speed. Make your timelines, progress, and communication easy to follow.

Your Edge Isn’t Everything You Do. It’s What Only You Can Do.

This shift isn’t the end of agency work. But it is the end of being vague, slow, or overly broad.

The agencies that are growing now are the ones that know exactly what they’re good at. They’re easy to work with. And they show up in a way that supports and does not compete with their clients’ internal teams.

That’s what makes them indispensable.

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