type of advertising agency born in the early days of advertising when some large advertisers established their own agencies primarily for the purposes of saving media commissions and achieving total control of their advertising. These agencies were financially backed by the advertiser and were set up as independent full-service agency to perform all advertising functions on behalf of the advertiser. Some house agencies even took on additional clients. Advertisers discovered, however, that the outsider point of view was necessary to the creation of effective advertising and that advertising services were better with outside agencies. Thus, the house agency fell out of favor.
The concept of the house agency has changed over time, so that, today, many large advertisers utilize an in-house agency operation. This in-house service differs from the house agency in that it works internally and provides a kind of advertising administrative center with a minimum of staff that coordinates and directs advertising efforts to outside services. For example, an in-house advertising service may employ a creative service on a fee basis to create the advertising and then hire a media-buying service to place the advertising for less than the usual 15% commission rate.
