Will ITV steal back its TV crown by hiring a creative agency?

ITV has repeatedly denied it is looking to hire an agency of record. When approached by The Drum last month, a spokesperson said that the broadcaster had "absolutely no plans to hire a creative agency and take our core consumer marketing/advertising out of house".

However, multiple sources have confirmed that the broadcaster has met with creative agencies in recent weeks to discuss a new project.

A spokesperson from ITV today (16 February) declined to comment.

Bringing in the expertise of an outside agency would come at a crucial moment for ITV. Broadcasters rely on their in-house creative departments to market themselves, but it's becoming increasingly challenging as Netflix and Amazon steal eyes, accolades and scripts from an ever-decreasing linear TV pocket.

Seemingly downplaying their effect, ITV chief executive Adam Crozier said last year in its third quarter earnings call that he sees the likes of Neflix, Amazon and Facebook as a good thing to "back up the power of television advertising".

His comments aimed to downplay the impact streaming services might have had on its advertising revenue slide in the final quarter of 2016 - its worst advertising performance in the run up to Christmas in almost a decade - with TV ad revenues dropping 7% in the quarter. Crozier blamed its performance on the "cautious" advertising climate.

Since his appointment in 2010, he has been leading an international output vision through a number of acquisitions including Talpa Media, Mammoth Screen and Leftfield Entertainment that he hopes will counter such declines by selling global hits abroad.

This is where ITV could use the creative flair of an agency to give it an edge and market the best of British TV - from a 60-year old British organisation - to a global audience.

It has its own creative department, ITV Creative, which it established in 2011; responsible for creating promotional ads for its shows and franchises such as The X Factor, Britain’s Got Talent and its roster of soaps, as well as brand collaboration ads such as ‘I Am Team GB’ with the National Lottery.

Much of the marketing for ITV runs on its own channels, but the broadcaster also books out-of-home and digital media, as well as ads on rival channels.

The set-up is the same for Channel 4, which has its own creative department 4Creative, and the BBC, which set one up at the beginning of 2016 with former Adam&Eve/DDB creative team Aidan McClure and Laurent Simon at the helm.

However, while Channel 4 has pushed the boundaries of what a broadcaster’s in-house creative team can achieve with such work as ‘We’re the Superhumans’, ITV Creative’s output has largely remained the same. Aside from its work with National Lottery executing ‘the nation’s biggest sports day’ to support GB athletes at the Olympics, its internal promotional work has failed to break tradition. Where Channel 4 has iterated with its VOD offering, ITV has followed, always one step behind.

“The in-house team at ITV has always had a challenging job creatively, mainly because of the dominance of those same returning hits –The X Factor, Britain’s Got Talent and I’m Celebrity. Keeping those programme brands fresh and exciting is a creative challenge, especially when you are dealing with the likes of Simon Cowell who probably has quite a lot to say of how his IP is marketed,” said James Herring, owner of creative agency Taylor Herring.

“It doesn't perhaps have the breadth and range that Channel 4 or Sky might have to play with in terms of their range of content and of course ITV occupies the highly valuable but rather safe middle ground of the mainstream. It’s hard be bold, hard to be a risk taker, hard to be disruptive - the marketing is driven by the content rather than the parent brand,” he added.

What’s more, while ITV are highly successful at owning the big event pieces such as Saturday night family TV and big sporting events, with no international football on this summer - 2017 is going to be “no easy ride”, Herring opined.

“The arrival of Amazon and Netflix is sure to be giving them cause for concern," he continued. "The Crown feels like it should be a mainstream ITV show – yet it’s the calling card of an upstart millennial brand. Amazon now have their own answer to Top Gear. That shows the scale of ambition these rivals have got for snatching the mainstream TV audience."

“It is increasingly important ITV get the marketing piece right in order to maintain the saliency of their brand – but on air trails and billboards aren’t enough to cut through. Highly engaging social media campaigns, marketing stunts and experiential activity are a key part of the comms mix to reach the biggest possible audience and in particular the younger high spenders.”

He added: “All the mainstream broadcasters have a very big challenge on their hands and I don't think they can be complacent.”

Any new agency would sit alongside Goodstuff Communications, which ITV handed its £8m media planning and buying account to in September, marking the end of its 11-year relationship with Mindshare. In November it appointed content agency Somethin’ Else to work on social media content alongside its in-house team for the upcoming series of I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here and future projects.