In-House Agency Committee, West Coast Chapter

The In-House Agency, West Coast Chapter Committee is for client-side marketers that manage the creative and/or operations of their in-house agency, including other in-house marketing work. Those interested in starting an in-house agency or learning more about in-house marketing also are welcome to participate. While the external agency can be a crucial marketing partner, many client-side marketers look internally to solve their creative and advertising needs. An in-house agency can consist of full creative and/or media abilities, account and project management, or focus on a particular tactic, such as social media, programmatic, or video production. This committee provides a forum for education, networking, and discussion that helps elevate individuals in their respective organizations, as well as advance the role in-house agencies play throughout the industry as a whole.

Committee Chair:

• Jessica Cipolla-Tario, Vice President, Global Creative Services – Sony Interactive Entertainment

ANA Staff: 

• Greg Wright, Vice President

Resources:

• 2022 In-House Excellence Awards Winners
• Presentations and recaps from the 2022 ANA In-House Agency Conference

 Discussion Topics:

• Developing and retaining talent (e.g. training, performance evaluations, sourcing talent) in-house agency management models
• Digital asset and media management
• Elements of a great creative/assignment brief
• Future of in-house agencies (where do we see our agencies going, how to prepare, forward looking/future state)
• Getting great creative
• In-house agencies and bringing services in-house (creative, media, social media, communications, production, video, etc.)
• In-house tools & technology
• Managing staff and culture (e.g. DEI, staffing models, fostering innovation)
• Measuring performance
• Operations (capacity, utilization, process, transformation)
• Organization (team structures, org charts, define job roles, reskilling, etc.)
• Partnering with external agencies
• Process (scope of work intake, tracking and billing, charge-back versus retainer)
• Selling your in-house agency internally

Leadership Initiatives

In-House Agency Fact Book
The ANA In-House Agency Fact Book is comprised of some of the best client-side marketer in-house agencies in the world. The ANA In-House Agency Fact Book highlights the structure, capabilities, and operations of in-house agencies at ANA client-side member companies. The fact book serves as a reference point for other in-house agencies and those looking to learn more or start their own in-house agency. Each fact sheet explores an in-house agency's capabilities, organizational chart (where provided), and other key data points. (Updated January 2022)

Managing In-House Agency Creative Content and Legal Concerns
ANA partnered with the Boston Consulting Group and Reed Smith to understand the top concerns in-house agencies have for both creative content development and legal issues.  This study identifies four primary issues in-house agencies have with creative content development: attracting top-tier in-house agency talent, keeping in-house agency talent energized, applying key marketing processes, and having healthy creative tension. Further, 16 legal issues were identified related to in-house agency work. This study also provides strategies to address the concerns.

The Continued Rise of the In-House Agency
A new ANA study concludes that the number of marketers with in-house agencies has grown substantially and workloads for those agencies are increasing. In-house agencies provide a range of services, including strategy, creative for traditional media, creative for digital media, and media planning/buying. Services that have grown significantly in recent years are content marketing, creative strategy, data/marketing analytics, media strategy, programmatic media and social media.