Market trends

Our latest analysis of new assignments coming onto the market has highlighted a definite dip in the in-house sector, with as many as 40% less roles now available than at this time last year. So is this the beginning of the long-promised collapse which will have us all living in tents and surviving on out-of date Pot Noodles by the end of the year? Well perhaps not. Instead this phenomenon seems to be part of a ‘correction’ to the spike in demand we saw from in-house departments in the first half of 2007. At the time the accepted wisdom was that PR should be pulled in-house wherever possible so that costs could be kept under tight control and ROI monitored more closely. Ironically the nervousness engendered by our old friend the credit crunch has actually caused the opposite effect. Many organisations now take the view that headcounts should be kept down to a minimum and PR support is best farmed out to an agency where it can be turned up or down depending on the circumstances of the market. So not so much a downturn as a u-turn. Watch this space for the next big thing in in-house strategy.