Multinational consumer goods company Reckitt Benckiser’s (RB) local health division has launched an in-house creative studio.
RB Studio, which was formed at the start of the year, is RB Health Australia and New Zealand’s new internal content production resource.
RB Health regional director ANZ Glenn Cochran told AdNews the studio was launched as an “agile approach” to content creation and to complement the work it does with its agency partners locally and globally.
“RB Studio was formed in Australia in January this year and will play an integral role in supporting the business’ drive to create personalised digital experiences for our consumers and retail partners,” Cochran says.
“With an experienced creative and digital team within the existing RB Health employee network, developing an internal content production resource was an opportunity to create unique and agile content as we continue to drive digital for our health and personal care brand portfolio.”
The RB Studio team is led by Cliona Manahan, reporting into head of media and digital performance Ricki Assenheim.
Under Manahan, the creative team is made up of a creative director, copywriter, designers, animators and project managers.
They work across a number of RB Health’s brands including Dettol, Nurofen, Scholl, E45, Durex and Veet.
The team’s most recent work includes a new national campaign for Dettol which was developed using creative from historical Dettol campaigns.
“RB Studio will be supporting Dettol by creating extended assets for this empowering campaign,” Cochran says.
The hybrid model
In-housing has caused an uproar among adland in the past but over the last couple of years there has been less resistance as in-house teams continue to co-exist alongside agencies.
In 2018, a study by the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) found 80% of its members were involved in some form of in-house agency.
Optus, CommBank, CUB, and Foxtel are among a few of the big brands who have made the move to bringing part of their businesses into in-house models.
Like these brands, RB Health will continue to work with agencies and use RB Studio to deliver agile and bespoke communications.
“We have strong and trusted partnerships with a variety of content agencies including NowScreen, Momentum and DEC PR who continue to support the business and our brands,” he says.
“The RB Studio is designed to be an in-house resource which can act both as an extension of these partner teams to create maximum impact within our digital channels.”
He says having an in-house team will allow the business to make real-time changes to digital content and in turn allow them to respond faster to cultural and product changes relevant to their consumers.
This has been particularly helpful in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Throughout this time we maintained conversations throughout our supply chain to ensure consumers had accessibility to all available stock, and we were able to utilise the RB Studio to develop tailored communications for our retail partners and consumers, providing real-time updates where possible,” he says.
The move also allows RB Health to edit and localise content created by its global marketing teams to suit Australian and New Zealand audiences and their needs.
As for whether or not there is scope to move completely in-house in the future, Cochran says it is unlikely the business will.
“We value and lean on the creative diversity and specialist insights our agency partners give us and we intend to continue working with the hybrid model,” he says.
“Together, the partnership means we have the best brains and skills working together to constantly challenge the way we do business so we continue to deliver great work that creates impact for our brands.”
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