Accenture, Deloitte, PwC: The Content Arms of Large Management Consultancies
Accenture Interactive’s content practice employs around 5,000 full-time staffers globally.
Most large have consultancies have built in-house agencies able to service clients on multiple levels (content, creative, marketing, experience, etc.). And they are brining in a lot of money through it (for example, Deloitte Digital had around $1.6 billion in revenue, and PwC Digital had nearly $1.1 billion last year).
Donna Tuths, head of digital content at Accenture Interactive, was recently interviewed by Digiday and she added: “Our clients spend around $600 million a year on content while agencies only provide maybe $250 million of that content today.”
This means that globally, clients take care of close to 60% of their content production in-house.
In many cases, this might work well. Some corporations need to have content initiatives in-house, close to the business. But in most cases, it is always good to work with a content agency that can work on multiple levels (strategy, production, distribution), that can not only bring fresh eyes on the business (eyes very similar to the consumer’s), but also cross-breed best practices with other clients, making sure the brand can have a differentiating factor in its category.
In the end, a combination of the two will often be the perfect situation, with the agency supporting some content tactics that are executed in-house, but larger programs made possible through the agency’s expertise and capabilities.
“There’s an ongoing trend where brands consolidate their creative agencies and move their production to a single partner,” said Tuths.
When content marketing is done right, the best way it is done is by leveraging the experience and capabilities of a dedicated content agency.
I will let you read further on how Accenture structures its content operation in this Digiday article, and see how your content strategy, production and distribution is set-up to evaluate what the best agency structure should be for your brand.