The Top 5 Can’t-Miss Sessions at the 2023 In-House Agency Conference | Industry Insights | All MKC Content | ANA

The Top 5 Can’t-Miss Sessions at the 2023 In-House Agency Conference

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In four weeks, from June 12 to 14, in-house agency leaders will meet in Orlando, Florida for the annual In-House Agency Conference. Industry leaders will take the stage to discuss a wide spectrum of in-house capabilities, emblematic of the growing and evolving skill sets being developed inside many of today's most successful marketing teams.

This year, there are 18 sessions to enjoy plus the ANA In-House Excellence Awards Gala, presented by Upwork, celebrating the best in-house marketing and advertising work of the past year. From start to finish, the conference is packed with invaluable insights for in-house teams at every level.

Our conference co-hosts, Helen Lin, VP of business operations at Wizards of the Coast, and Todd Miller, chief creative director at The Cooler @ Experian, are excited to welcome you to Orlando for three days of important conversations on in-house marketing and advertising. Here's what the co-hosts shared about the experience:

"The ANA In-House Agency Conference is a great opportunity for in-house teams this year. There is a strong roster of speakers representing the range of capabilities in today's in-house agencies, from creative to strategy, programmatic to AI marketing, and the expansion to take on outside clients. This is a critical time where in-house agencies are evolving from service only models to becoming strategic partners for their brands. There are tangible takeaways from this conference that will help in-house teams further their conversations and evolve within their company."
– Helen Lin, VP of business operations at Wizards of the Coast/Hasbro

"I think the most important conversation we can have at this year's conference is on the process of moving from 'out-house' to in-house. We need to advocate for the benefits of in-housing to recruit the best talent in the industry. They are the best places to think big and drive creativity across the brand. These sessions, plus endless opportunities to network with other in-house leaders in Orlando, will help you make the case for in-house agencies being the best places to do amazing work."
– Todd Miller, chief creative director at The Cooler @ Experian

Below are five conference sessions highlighting some of the key topics and discussions to be had at the conference:

Selling the Value of Your In-House Agency | June 12, 3:40 – 4:15PM ET*
Bonnie Di Joseph, creative strategy director at Vanguard
Andrea Ruskin, creative process consultant at Blum Consulting Partners

The 2023 edition of The Continued Rise of the In-House Agency report shows that 87 percent of companies consider cost efficiencies the top benefit of in-housing. But how can an in-house team illustrate their financial value and make the argument for expansion? For Vanguard's in-house team, RHC, it was made possible with the help of Blum Consulting. Together, they developed a methodology to quantify their savings to Vanguard's business, tracked unused agency capacity to increase their bandwidth, and constructed a cost-benefit analysis of migrating work in-house. This session will do more than celebrate Vanguard's accomplishments, it will provide you with a framework for determining the financial benefit of your own in-house team.

*This session is only available to in-person attendees of the 2023 In-House Agency Conference.

The In-House Agency that Takes on Outside Clients | June 13, 10:35 – 11:10AM ET
Warren Marenco Chase, VP and managing director of Copper Giants at Liberty Mutual

"Copper Giants" is the clever name for Liberty Mutual Insurance's in-house agency who offer full-service capabilities including broadcast, digital/social, website design, brand identity, environmental design, print, and more. In-house agencies may traditionally exist to only service their company, but Copper Giants is far from traditional. Like any external agency, they have a roster of external clients, Harpoon Brewery for one. Now, Copper Giants is more than a cost savings for Liberty Mutual Insurance, it is an independent revenue stream. Warren Marenco Chase is the new leader of Copper Giants and will use his session to explain how the team is structured to balance internal and external needs.

In-Housing Programmatic Media | June 13, 11:45AM – 12:20PM ET
Amy Bartle, head of media at TaxAct

At the 2023 ANA Media Conference, P&G discussed their plans to bring media planning and buying in-house. The ANA's 2023 report on in-house agencies shows that 54 percent of companies are handling media planning and/or buying services in-house. It is a similar percentage to prior years, suggesting that in-house media is a mainstay for many in-house teams while the investment in programmatic ad spending is expected to see a dramatic increase. Amy Bartle of TaxAct will explain not only why they brought programmatic media in-house, but what the access to first-party data and transparency of media buying has done to improve their overall business.

Following the Sun for Maximum Creative Output | June 13, 3:40 – 4:15PM ET
Luije Padron, global creative director of Rebel Fish Creative Group at Norwegian Cruise Line
Marie Philemon, director of creative operations of Rebel Fish Creative Group at Norwegian Cruise Line

Let Rebel Fish Creative Group be your template for a young in-house agency operating seamlessly on a global scale. Norwegian Cruise Line's in-house team are methodically, but efficiently, growing into a full-service agency with creatives purposefully positioned across the globe to keep content moving at all hours of the day. It's called the "follow the sun" strategy, and it requires a careful balance between creative and operations. So, who better to tell us how Rebel Fish Creative Group have accomplished this than their own creative and operations leaders?

Climb Out of the Creative Lowlands | June 14, 9:10 – 9:45AM ET
Wayne Barringer, CEO at WBC Advisors
Ken Volk, VP at UKG

As the In-House Agency Conference ends on June 14, join us early for a critical session on managing creative bandwidth. In-house teams of every size and industry deal with this problem with seemingly no solution in sight. But for UKG, it was a matter of taking a step back, taking a deep breath, and creating a stepwise plan to conquer their workflow. Their in-house team is doing more than managing, controlling, and protecting. They are training their staff to create clear lines of communication with their marketers to develop realistic timelines and well-defined briefs that allow them to take control of their project load, not the other way around.


The views and opinions expressed are solely those of the contributor and do not necessarily reflect the official position of the ANA or imply endorsement from the ANA.


Peter Kenigsberg is a director of brand and media at ANA. In his role at the ANA, Peter supports the marketing organization area, which includes in-house agency, marketing procurement, production management, agency relationship management, and marketing operations. Prior to joining the ANA, Peter was an account supervisor at CDM New York, acting as the agency of record for two of the world's leading pharmaceutical companies. Peter has an M.B.A. in Marketing and a B.A. double major in Pre-Law and English.

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