Conference Agenda

The ANA's Creative Business Leadership Council is a community of senior in-house creative leaders working together to address the challenges and opportunities shaping the creative business. The council is currently focused on three working groups: AI in the creative business, building a sustainable creative organization, and proving the value of creative work. This workshop is limited to Council Members and their invited guests. To learn more or get involved, contact [email protected].

WELCOME REMARKS

Maeve Dohogne

Executive Creative Director Edward Jones

TREASURY WINES: BUILDING WITH INTENT

Recently named APAC in-house agency of the year, in this session, you will hear how Treasury Wines accomplished this in less than 3 years. Treasury Wines, purveyors of wine like Penfolds and Snoops 19 Crimes, went from no in-house capability to winning industry awards and being crowned APAC’s in-house agency of the year in just three years. Theirs is a story of starting with a clear remit and building with intent resulting in a now global footprint.

Tom Opie

Creative Director Treasury Wine Estates

THE HIDDEN ECONOMICS OF IN-HOUSE INVISIBILITY

In-house agencies drive creative output, controlling billions in spend, yet their leaders remain largely invisible. Drawing on his client’s experiences, this session with Also Known As co-founder Gully Flowers will uncover the hidden “invisibility tax” behind talent churn, limited strategic recognition, and attribution loss to external partners. Flowers will outline how in-house leaders can shift from anonymous creators to visible industry authorities by building reputation equity, elevating creative leadership, and designing systems that attract top talent.

Gully Flowers

Co-Founder Also Known As

BUILDING THE IN-HOUSE ADVANTAGE: A BLUEPRINT FOR MEDIA TRANSFORMATION

In this session, Javier Bustillos will share how he led the transformation of Georgia-Pacific’s media strategy by building a best-in-class in-house media organization from the ground up. What began six years ago as a structural shift quickly became a strategic advantage—driving greater control, transparency, agility, and performance across media investments. Attendees will gain a behind-the-scenes look at how the team scaled internal capabilities and integrated data, analytics, insights, and AI-driven optimization to create highly effective media plans. The session will highlight how aligning strategy, technology, and innovation can deliver measurable business impact and stronger consumer connections in an increasingly complex media landscape. Recognized with the 2025 Grand Prize for Media Excellence in the In-House Excellence Awards, Georgia-Pacific’s media organization stands as a leading example of what modern in-house media can achieve.

Javier Bustillos

Vice President, Integrated Media & Brand Analytics, Team Leader Georgia-Pacific

FROM COST CENTER TO VALUE CREATOR: SCALING A MODERN IN-HOUSE AGENCY

This is a dynamic, real-world playbook for transforming internal creative teams into strategic growth engines. Blending personal leadership insights with proven operational strategies, you’ll learn how to think and act like an entrepreneur inside a corporate environment. Understand how to pursue meaningful work, earn executive trust, and take calculated risks that drive sustainable scale. With a focus on smart partnerships and measurable impact, this session equips leaders to move beyond simply “making work”, to building an in-house agency that delivers undeniable business value.

Jared Martin

Vice President, Creative & Video Fiserv

AI, PRODUCTION, AND THE LAW: WHAT EVERY IN-HOUSE TEAM NEEDS TO KNOW

This session will cover key legal considerations involved in using AI in advertising production and will explore topics including use of AI tools, AI-generated content, copyright and ownership concerns, production obstacles, disclosure obligations and the use of digital doubles and synthetic performers. Special attention will be given to compliance considerations under the SAG-AFTRA Commercials Contract. Attendees will also gain practical guidance on production workflows, vendor management, contractual protections, and best practices for integrating AI tools into commercial production while minimizing legal and operational risk.

Candice Kersh

Partner Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz PC

CLOSING REMARKS

Maeve Dohogne

Executive Creative Director Edward Jones

BREAKFAST ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSIONS

Conference attendees will have the option to join one of six themed tables and have breakfast with peers knowledgeable about and interested in a similar topic starting at 7:30am. These will be informal discussions that allow attendees to network with each other to start the day. To join a table, simply look towards the front of the breakfast room for the tabletop sign with the breakfast theme you would like to attend. You do not need to register or reserve a seat at your desired table in advance of breakfast.

Please see below for the roundtable topics offered Tuesday morning, including the moderators that will be seated at each table.

1. Transforming the In-House Process with AI
   Moderated by:
   Bridget Bartholomew, Creative Director – Dexcom
   Valerie Anderson, AVP Head of Studio (1876 Productions) – AT&T
2. In-House Talent Acquisition and Retention
   Moderated by:
   Peter Viento, Director, Head of Creative and Global Marketing – Citi
3. Taking Care of the Creative Team: Avoiding Burnout and Boosting Morale
   Moderated by:
   Laura Frisvold, Executive Creative Director (Maverick Studios) – Inspire Brands
4. Transitioning from External Agency Life to an In-House Agency
   Moderated by:
   Michael Logsdon, Team Lead Video & Broadcast – Edward Jones
5. Building Trust with Internal Stakeholders
   Moderated by:
   Kelly Brown, Senior Director Marketing Operations – ALSAC/St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
6. In-House Production Incentive Opportunities
   Moderated by:
   Dawn Musser-Sepanik, EVP Production Incentive Strategies – TPC

ADAPT WITH CREATIVE INTELLIGENCE: SEE CLEARLY. CHANGE QUICKLY. MOVE FROM CANDY LAND TO MISSION CONTROL.

A briefing on how Creative Intelligence helps teams move faster, make smarter creative decisions, and turn video into a source of insight. We’ll look at how computer vision connects what is inside the work to what is driving performance, helping brands adapt while the campaign is still in flight.

Myron Nilsson

President AdPipe Studio

PRESENTING SPONSOR REMARKS

Dan Brooks

VP, Brand & Creative monday.com

OPENING REMARKS

A welcome to attendees and perspective on the current state of in-house agencies, the forces shaping the industry, and what this community should be thinking about in the year ahead.

Peter Kenigsberg

Senior Director, Brand & Media ANA

WELCOME REMARKS

Maeve Dohogne

Executive Creative Director Edward Jones

A MARKETING ENGINE REDEFINED IN-HOUSE: KEYNOTE PRESENTATION

Stephanie McCarty is a strong advocate for in-house marketing. After years of outsourcing nearly all marketing services, Stephanie decided to build an internal team that offered more transparency into the creative process, greater collaboration from the start of a new product launch, and a heightened sense of camaraderie and shared purpose that could be felt across the marketing organization. From in-house leaders seeking ways to demonstrate value to leadership, to marketing executives exploring in-housing for the first time, Stephanie’s experiences and lessons learned will help you see the benefits of in-house agencies.

Stephanie McCarty

Chief Marketing and Communications Officer Taylor Morrison

THE ANTI-MANUAL IN ACTION: A FRAMEWORK FOR DISRUPTION

In a chaotic environment (economy, AI, trends, speed to innovation, etc), the standard playbook leads to nowhere. At Whirlpool’s 2025 Best in Show in-house agency, WoW Studios, they are shifting the internal monologue from "How can we improve what we're already doing?" to "What if we do what’s never been done before?". Using creativity as a business tool to solve complex challenges and deliver on disruptive thinking, WoW Studios is flipping the narrative and focusing on feeling through experiential design, pursuing unconventional collaborations to infiltrate culture, and breaking the “new product” playbook with large-scale launches. Whether it is a physical space, a talent partner, or a massive launch, the framework remains the same: maintaining a “what if” mindset.

Michelle Karagodin

Director, Whirlpool Brand Whirlpool

BUILT FOR BREAKTHROUGHS – HOW IN-HOUSE MEDIA BRINGS PFIZER CLOSER TO THE PATIENT

In this session, Josh Palau, VP of Performance Media & Enablement at Pfizer, shares how building their In-House media team created a faster, more transparent, and more accountable model that that sits closer to the brands, the science, and the patient journey.

Joshua Palau

Vice President, Performance Media & Enablement Pfizer

THE MAKING OF WALMART STUDIOS

In Playa Vista resides Walmart Studios, the creative epicenter of the world’s largest retailer. Built in 2024, this 80,000-square-foot facility is the home of Walmart’s internal agency of record. In Walmart Studios, the team produces everything from lifestyle photography to full commercial shoots. Kate Christiansen, head of creative strategy and operations, led the charge in getting the leadership buy-in to develop this space and outfit it with state-of-the-art production facilities. Learn how Walmart Studios went from concept to completion.

Kate Christiansen

Head of Creative Strategy and Operations Walmart

INDISPENSABLE: HOW IN-HOUSE AGENCIES EARN STRATEGIC POWER AND SURVIVE THE CUT

Quinn O’Brien

Chief Marketing Officer Carnegie Learning

SPACE TO THINK: BEHIND THE SCENES OF GREAT CREATIVE MARKETING

We don’t always associate structure with high-performing marketing, but in complex organizations, a lack of clarity is what slows teams down. Join Jessica Klein, Former Creative VP at Lionsgate and Disney, as she shares what it takes to run marketing at scale, aligning competing stakeholders and building processes that drive growth without creating drag. We’ll explore the tension between creativity and operational rigor, and how the right systems strengthen both. Jessica will be joined by Dan Brooks, VP Brand and Creative at monday.com, to add his in-house and agency perspective before opening the conversation to audience Q+A.

Jessica Klein

Former VP

ELEVATING EXPERIENTIAL MARKETING THROUGH THE POWER OF SOUND

Join Ford Motor Company for a forward-looking panel discussion moderated by Brian Yessian and Gerard Smerek of Yessian Music. Together, the panel will explore how sound transforms activations into fully realized experiential moments, where audiences don’t just witness a brand, they feel it. From large-scale live events and interactive installations to custom scores and sonic identities embedded within built environments, attendees will gain insight into how internal creative teams and external partners collaborate to craft multi-sensory narratives that command attention, deepen emotional resonance, and reinforce brand purpose. Discover how the next generation of experiential marketing is being built, not with visuals alone, but with sound as a strategic and defining force for brands.

Gerard Smerek

Global Creative Director Yessian Music

WELCOME TO SAATVA HOUSE: THE FUTURE OF BRAND VIDEO IN-HOUSE

Saatva pioneered the direct-to-consumer luxury mattress model online and has since expanded to brick-and-mortar showrooms. The Saatva House is their innovative in-house creative production studio, currently located in West Hollywood, California. The studio was launched to provide Saatva absolute control over its creative process, allowing the brand to bypass external agencies to directly manage its visual identity with greater speed to market, saving millions a year. This session will share how Saatva is rethinking in-house creative & video production, Including how Saatva is creatively bringing its role as the Official Mattress and Restorative Sleep Partner of Team USA to life through Olympics-related storytelling and a broader message about restorative sleep for everyone.

David Link

Chief Creative Officer Saatva

THE HIGH-PERFORMANCE STUDIO: BRIDGING CREATIVE VISION WITH OPERATIONAL SCALE

In 2025 alone, The Agency, in-house group at Wolverine Worldwide, proved that “in-house” can rival the world’s leading external agencies in craft and volume. Across over 5,000 productions, still, and films produced last year, millions in cost savings were recognized by internalizing production and creative operations. The Agency is redefining the “agency” model. This centralized studio model supports nine global brands with a state-of-the-art in-house production company. Learn more about this transformative team from its creative and production leaders.

Abbey Scott

Director of Production Wolverine Worldwide

CREATIVE TECH – THE ABUNDANCE PARADOX: WHEN MORE CREATIVE CREATES LESS IMPACT

AI and new creative technologies are accelerating a major shift of creativity to performance. As the cost of producing content, campaigns, and ads drops toward zero, brands can now create, test, adapt, and scale creative across performance channels faster and more efficiently than ever before. But that same shift is also driving an explosion of content across every channel, flooding audiences with more messages, more sameness, and less impact. In this keynote, Jason Boyer shares how CMOs at leading brands are responding to this shift, and why the next era of competitive advantage will not come from volume alone. The brands pulling ahead are using technology to scale performance while investing more intentionally in the things that remain scarce: attention, human connection, and distinctive experiences. This session offers a practical view of how creative and performance are converging, how AI is reshaping the role of marketing, and what leaders need to do now to stay relevant in a market defined by abundance.

Jason Boyer

Senior Vice President Aquent Studios

CLOSING REMARKS

Maeve Dohogne

Executive Creative Director Edward Jones

Enjoy the opportunity to catch up with friends and colleagues in-person. This reception kicks off an evening of celebrating the incredible creativity and innovation of in-house marketing teams. No one knows your brand better than those in-house.

Category grand prize winners will be announced across 24 main categories for the top in-house teams delivering the best creative, strategic, and growth-driving marketing campaigns of the year. The event culminates with the In-House Leader of the Year, In-House Agency of the Year, and Best in Show award announcements, honoring the best in-house work of 2025 as selected by the ANA In-House Excellence Awards Grand Jury.

Join us for an evening of dinner, drinks, and to celebrate individuals and organizations that have achieved outstanding success!

BREAKFAST ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSIONS

Conference attendees will have the option to join one of six themed tables and have breakfast with peers knowledgeable about and interested in a similar topic starting at 7:30am. These will be informal discussions that allow attendees to network with each other to start the day. To join a table, simply look towards the front of the breakfast room for the tabletop sign with the breakfast theme you would like to attend. You do not need to register or reserve a seat at your desired table in advance of breakfast.

Please see below for the roundtable topics offered Wednesday morning, including the moderators that will be seated at each table.

1. Transforming the In-House Process with AI
   Moderated by:
   Beth Couch, Director Creative Services – MFS Investment Management 
2. Chargeback, Cost Center, or Subsidized: The Merits of In-House Billing Models
   Moderated by:
   Jessica Cipolla-Tario, Vice President Global Creative Services – Sony Interactive Entertainment
3. Measuring the Financial Value of In-Housing
   Moderated by:
   Jared Martin, Vice President, Creative & Video – Fiserv
4. Getting Started with In-Housing
   Moderated by:
   Lori Hobson, SVP Managing Director Advertising – The Wonderful Company
5. The Future of In-Housing
   Moderated by:
   Brennan Scott, Creative Director – GoNetspeed
6. Media In-Housing
   Moderated by:
   Angelo Lomonte, VP Media – Come Near

WELCOME REMARKS

Maeve Dohogne

Executive Creative Director Edward Jones

PUTTING THE ELEPHANT ON THE TABLE: HARD TRUTHS, CREATIVE PARTNERSHIP, AND REIMAGINING A LEGACY BRAND

Everyone can see the elephant. Fewer are willing to deal with it. In this session, Jonathan and Cory talk candidly about what it takes to reimagine a 90-year-old brand in a category where trust is fragile and skepticism is fair. They’ll share the uncomfortable truths behind consumer frustration, internal assumptions, and the confusion of when and how to mix in house teams and outside agencies. Using Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina’s brand overhaul as the backdrop, this session will show how building creative partnerships to address real customer needs led to better work, stronger connections, and the evolution of an in-house team into a strategic business driver.

Jonathan Wisely

Vice President, Brand & Creative Blue Cross Blue Shield North Carolina

THE FUTUREPROOF PROJECT: AI IS A FRIEND, NOT FOE, TO IN-HOUSE AGENCIES

The Futureproof Project has been curating community since 2021. Today, over 300 ambitious marketers come together to explore how AI is reshaping growth, creativity, and what it means to lead. Traction CEO and Founder, Adam Kleinberg, leads this community alongside VP of Client Services, Lauren Evans. Together, they advise creatives nationwide on the opportunities that come with embracing AI as part of their operations. Here, you’ll learn directly from Adam and Lauren on what an AI future can bring your in-house team.

Lauren Evans

Vice President, Client Services Traction

BUILDING CREATIVE CULTURE FROM NOTHING – AND WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THE PLUG GETS PULLED

After leading a bunch of marquee out-house agencies, Todd Miller left that world for in-house, and spent nine years building The Cooler at Experian from a blank page. The result was one of the most celebrated in-house creative operations in the industry: award-winning work with John Cena on a purple cow, a fumbling Travis Kelce, and a 12-foot-tall Sam Richardson – work that drove real brand growth and held its own against anything from a traditional agency. Then the plug got pulled. In this session, Todd shares what it actually takes to build genuine creative culture inside a large organization, what it teaches you when it's gone, and why those lessons may be the most valuable ones he has to offer.

Todd Miller

CCO/ECD In-House Agency Builder

THE ART AND SCIENCE OF BUILDING A WINNING IN-HOUSE CREATIVE CULTURE

There are plenty of blueprints for creating an in-house agency: Structures, processes, best practices. But building one that consistently creates award-winning, breakthrough creative is much more difficult. It’s a creative endeavor in itself. 2025 ANA In-House Agency of the Year Executive Creative Director Bruce Bildsten shares how to recruit top talent, motivate them, and build and sustain a culture that creates work as good or better than any agency. As a former renowned agency creative leader, Bruce brings a unique perspective and a proven track record to help you build an in-house agency that creates work that truly works.

Bruce Bildsten

Creative Leader & Creative Culture Advisor

INSIGHTS FROM THE CONVERSATION BOARD

The In-House Agency Conference will conclude by reviewing posts made to the Conversation Boards stationed around the conference floor. If you post an in-housing challenge and/or question to the board, our panel of experts will take this time to offer their advice.

Lauren Hood

Managing Director, C2 (Creative Center) Charles Schwab

CLOSING REMARKS

Maeve Dohogne

Executive Creative Director Edward Jones