As the pandemic continues to alter consumer behavior, some brands and retailers are shifting influencer marketing initiatives to highlight products and services that are now in demand. Influencer agencies and platforms are seeing more interest from industries that were not investing heavily in influencer marketing previously, and some marketers are taking a more performance-based approach to working with creators.

As a result of the coronavirus, an increasing number of US agencies and brand marketers are either holding back campaigns they don’t plan on launching until later in the year or just pulling them altogether.

The term “in-house agency” can mean many different things. It could mean a brand is expanding its internal operations to include in-house creative and media teams. Or it could involve a company that is expanding its partnerships to include consultancies and tech vendors that help set up and staff those in-house agencies. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to how the modern advertising ecosystem operates.

eMarketer principal analyst Jillian Ryan decodes the complicated and evolving relationship between brand marketers and their agency partners. She previews her upcoming report on this topic and covers areas including in-housing, audits and why agencies continue to be relevant.

Some marketers are taking control of their campaigns by in-housing various advertising services such as ad creative, social and search.

Direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands such as Warby Parker, Casper and Everlane have shifted how brands interact with their customers. By cutting out the middleman and establishing online relationships with customers directly, guaranteeing swift delivery and painless buying experiences, as well as positioning themselves as a better alternative to the status quo, DTC brands are carving out a new retail experience.

Mark Sneider, owner and president of RSW/US, discusses how the client-agency dynamic is changing in 2018.