Brand Manager Sensemaking: Cognitive Frames in the Digital Media Environment

Abstract Marketers and advertising agencies must navigate an increasingly complex and ambiguous digital media environment. Advertising agencies have responded by adding new roles and removing barriers to integrating digital media into marketing campaigns. Despite these changes aiming to address clients’ needs, the agency-client relationship has reached an all-time low. The current study seeks to close the knowledge gap by examining how brand managers make sense of the digital media environment. Through phenomenological interviews with 18 North American brand managers at large organizations, this research uncovers three cognitive frames: expertise, efficiency, and consistency. These frames support three capabilities—advertising campaign evaluation, digital expertise, and creative development—that marketing organizations are insourcing from advertising agencies. These insourcing trends have significant ramifications for the advertising agency landscape. This research answers the call to gain deeper insight into the marketing organization, applies sensemaking to the digital media environment, and outlines future research opportunities based on three insourcing trends emerging from brand manager interviews.