Sprint streamlines digital marketing business with new in-house agency

Dive Brief:

Wireless service provider Sprint announced the creation of its first in-house digital marketing agency in a press release. The aim is to better meet the company's marketing needs and boost its digital presence. The agency will manage digital and programmatic ad buying, advertising creative and search ads.
Sprint plans to hire 100 employees for the new digital effort through the end of 2017 and into 2018, mostly at the company's headquarters in Kansas and its facility in Reston, VA, per the release.
Sprint says its new agency will cut costs, increase the speed of ad creation and better leverage customer data. In the past year, it ended partnerships with agencies Deutsch and DigitasLBi Chicago, but will continue to work with Droga5 for strategy and Horizon Media for ad buying, according to Business Insider.

Dive Insight:

Sprint's recent move is the latest step in a multi-year shift toward a more digitally-centric business model, including a site relaunch, app redesign and new technology offerings from the brand. Marketing has been one of the core causes of Sprint's recent gains, which can be partially attributed to its partnering with the augmented reality game Pokemon Go in 2016. The company's successes from major digital and other in-house efforts may have inspired it to bring its marketing inside its own walls.

In addition to the new digital unit, Sprint also recently created an in-house production company called Yellow Fan Studios in a push to cut costs. The company's been using the studio for an increasing portion of its advertising, and the recent announcement of its own digital agency suggests the in-house model is working for Sprint.

The wireless carrier's announcement comes as many brands are beginning to reorganize or entirely dump outside agencies for in-house alternatives based on cost-efficiency and the ability to better understand and tap into what defines a brand, which is often a challenge for agencies relatively unfamiliar with a particular brand's values. Another motivation for companies' shifting to in-house efforts includes a dedicated team focused solely on the single brand — and not other clients.

Major companies like Netflix, Allstate, StubHub and Unilever have all recently begun to move some of their digital marketing efforts in house, and Sprint appears to be following suit.

As technology continues to upend the industry, more companies are choosing to do their own advertising to cut costs, boost efficiency and maintain control over their data and strategy. At Sprint, as well as other companies, traditional ad buying budgets have decreased in favor of digital strategies as a result of this constantly shifting landscape.