IHA YEAR IN REVIEW

2018 In-House Agency Insights

As the top creative production company on the planet, we know big brands and big challenges – and we work with the in-house agencies that solve them. Together, we learned a lot in 2018. Here, we're sharing our top insights for IHA professionals and those that work with them. You'll also find relevant research and articles from our favorite experts in the field.

STRATEGIC MARKETING

Questions to Build More Strategy into Your IHA Campaigns

The foundation of a strong campaign is understanding the business-level principles that define success. For your next project, here are a few questions to ask yourself—and your leadership team—to transition from builder to strategic asset.

PARTNERSHIPS

Need Help? Just Ask: 5 Times In-House Agencies Turn to Partners

IHAs may be rising, but businesses who have gone internal still seek external partnerships—in fact, 77% do. See how agencies and production companies can deliver upon some of the biggest challenges businesses faced in 2018.

PARTNERSHIPS

4 Details to Add to Your RFP Before Hitting “Send”

An RFP shouldn’t read like a mail-in order. Instead, it should foster strategic communication. Here's how to ensure partners get your goals—and can even provide help in realizing them if needed.

IN THE NEWS

IHA Talk Dominates Stage at ANA Masters of Marketing Week

With many in-house teams in the house, Verizon's Warren Chase "debunk[ed] several 'myths' agency folks often trot out when criticizing in-house—primarily that it's where creatives go 'to retire.'"

DATA STRATEGY

Prepare Your Data Strategy for the Shift to Personalization

Data got you down? Check out these key takeaways on data strategy, like how to incorporate data into the creative process and why you should stop focusing so much on demographics.

TALENT

Attracting the Right Talent to Future-Proof Your IHA

When it comes to IHAs, there’s a sense that the work offers less variation and opportunity than with outside agencies – but recent reports of creatives shunning IHAs may be overblown. Here's how to find the talent you need and put their skills to good use.

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

Digital Transformation Doesn't Have to Be a Brand Identity Crisis

Legacy brands often struggle with digital transformation: how can IHAs provide innovative experiences across mobile, social and emerging tech while retaining a brand identity? Here's one story of an iconic toy brand – and how the big, bad wolf of digital media failed to huff, puff and blow the LEGO-brick house down.

IN THE NEWS

Sprint: 'Taking Media In-House Has Blown Away Our Expectations'

Rob Roy, CDO, shares success stories from taking a $1.3B ad budget in-house, and how they attract top talent – "We really focus on what we’re building...the end-to-end customer journey.’"

VR & AR

Prepare for a Future of Ubiquitous AR

Diving head-first into emerging tech like VR and AR can be intimidating. Thankfully, brands can dip their toes into relatively simple experiences with big impact — here’s how.

PLATFORMS

Please Read Before Launching That Cool Creative Campaign

While many brands treat their dot-coms as information dumps, they should be your digital heart. Using today's technologies and insights, we've compiled a few suggestions to make them more effective.

IN THE NEWS

Adweek Weighs in on ANA Report: IHA Work Is Accelerating

ANA's new report shows 78% of brands now have some sort of in-house agency arm – IHAs are "increasingly on the rise, swiping all facets of ad work historically handled by traditional shops including creative, strategy, media, social, production, influencer marketing, experiential efforts—everything."

CAUSE-RELATED MARKETING

Key Considerations for Collaborating for a Cause

What differentiates a campaign that delightfully intervenes from one that merely interrupts, and how can you develop and conceptualize such a creative piece? Through Stella Artois' Water Ripples installation, we’re diving into three main ingredients that make up an artful intervention.

AI

How AI is Enhancing, Not Replacing, Creativity

Vijary Gupta, retail strategy director at Adobe, sheds some insight on how AI can enable deeper creativity by allotting more time for original concepts (while reducing budgets).

PODCAST

Inside Jobs Podcast, Presented by IHAF

Carve out some valuable listening time for this podcast, which asks leaders from top brands around the world to share their experiences building internal agencies.

IN THE NEWS

As IHAs Become The Norm, Partner Opportunities Evolve

With 52% more IHAs than a decade ago, Ideasicle CEO Will Burns writes the role of partners is “about complementing what the IHA already has. It's about helping them stay on top of trends...”

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