In-House Agencies

August 22, 2025

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How can my brand bring media or creative in-house?

Taking media and creative in-house has become one of the most talked-about trends in marketing. However, there is no one-size-fits-all approach, and not every organization will find in-housing media to be beneficial when weighing the initial investment costs against the savings in agency fees.

Eve Asbury, the in-house specialist and co-lead of the creative team at Boathouse, stressed the importance of building a sense of purpose and connection with staff, not to mention hiring more "makers," stating in an article for ANA:

"You need more makers than managers. The majority of in-house agencies have too many managers. This causes more meetings than necessary, as well as too many cooks in the kitchen, both of which take time away from the makers doing the work.

Culture, camaraderie and a sense of purpose are the final components needed to build a healthy in-house agency. The pandemic required everyone to find different ways of working, but as a service department, the in-house agency team had the additional pressure of keeping stressed peers happy.

The most successful in-house teams are driven with a strong sense of purpose and a positive culture, and it's this foundation that gives them the agility and resilience to deal with new challenges."

Below are helpful best practices, examples, and case studies. Don't forget to check out this guide, The Value of In-House Agencies.

Best Practices and Trends

In-House Agency Fact Book. ANA, January 2025.
The ANA In-House Agency Fact Book is comprised of some of the best client-side marketer in-house agencies in the world, highlighting the structure, capabilities, and operations of in-house agencies at ANA corporate 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.
Building the In-House Marketing Team of the Future. ANA/Blum, January 2025.
Just five years ago, IHAs were a hot trend in the marketing industry. Today, they've become standard practice for corporate marketing and communications functions. According to the 2023 ANA report, 82 percent of organizations now operate with an IHA, driven largely by the need for creative control and greater agility — especially as the pandemic reshaped business priorities. However, many companies are not realizing the full potential of their IHAs. Instead, they stumble due to constant reorganization or, in some cases, dismantle these teams altogether, despite significant investments.
Grammarly, Brainrider, and Loblaws Discuss Resourcing and Planning for In-House Agencies. ANA, July 2025.
During a session at the 2025 ANA In-House Agency Conference, Grammarly, Loblaws, and Brainrider discuss strategic resource management, healthy out-sourcing partnerships, and adapting to new paces of business planning and toolsets like AI.

Inside the Shift: Why Hybrid Teams Are Your Competitive Edge. ANA, July 2025.
While in-house agencies scramble to do more with less, the smartest creative leaders aren't just cutting costs — they're fundamentally reimagining how great work gets made. In the past, when a client win fueled our need to ramp up quickly, we turned to freelancers to help. But consider this wake-up call: Scaling today isn't just about headcount. It's about building a smarter, more flexible model that can help unlock new kinds of creativity.

The answer: An intentionally blended staffing model built not just for capacity challenges but to blend full-time hires strategically with freelance talent up front when staffing plans are created. Success requires more than just hiring a few contractors. It demands a strategic approach to integration and collaboration.
How Mischief Builds Breakthrough Work Between Brands and In-House Teams. ANA, July 2025.
Dana Buckhorn and Alison Whisenant from Mischief outlined five principles to achieve stellar brand–agency collaboration: choose each other intentionally, embrace complementary strengths, champion bold ideas, define roles early, and give teams space to create. The two also shared campaigns from e.l.f., Goldfish, JCPenney, and Coors Light demonstrating how these principles turn trust and clarity into breakthrough results.
From Logo Cops to Creative Rockstars: Retail's In-House Revolution. ANA, June 2025.
Many of today's in-house creative spaces look more like tech startups moonlighting as art studios. Think of meditation pods, recording studios, and enough plants to qualify as a botanical garden. Nike's team works in spaces so cool they make Silicon Valley jealous, complete with materials libraries and testing facilities where they can watch athletes in action.

But building an effective powerhouse agency isn't about beanbag chairs and baristas. Aesthetics and accoutrements are useful as far as they go, but it takes the right mix of talent, tools, and trust to turn brand ambition into breakthrough work. It is critical to understand what the team's identity is, what their non-negotiable focus is on, and how the in-house agency team will deliver on all points strategically.
The External Agency Skills That Work In-House and New Skills Required. ANA, June 2025.
Jonah Bloom has had a diverse career. He was editor of Advertising Age for eight years and followed that up with a stint at creative agency Kirshenbaum Senecal Bond, where he was a member of the leadership team. Now, he leads consumer marketing at Asurion, the world's leading tech care company. The in-house team there has 60+ people and is responsible for brand strategy, creative, web design and content, SEO, paid media, social media and PR. In this session, Jonah shared perspective on the skills that are valuable and transferable from the external agency world to in-house and the new skills required to maximize success.
Transforming Creative Teams into Strategic Powerhouses. ANA, April 2025.
During a session at an April 2025 In-House Agency Committee Meeting, Lauren Hood, director of account leadership, account planning, and UX strategy and research at Charles Schwab, offered actionable insights for in-house teams looking to elevate their impact and drive more strategic outcomes.
Nurturing Culture in In-House Agencies. ANA, November 2024.
A strong culture in an in-house agency doesn't happen by accident — building it takes intentional leadership and a clear alignment with company values. Effective leaders create an environment where trust, transparency, and open communication are the norm, empowering team members to use their unique talents toward shared goals. It's about creating a welcoming space and a high-performing, inclusive environment where creativity thrives for individuals and the team.

A key part of this is clearly defining roles and responsibilities, recognizing achievements, and promoting continuous growth. Engagement and motivation rise when team members feel valued and have a clear path for their own development. At the same time, leaders must stay on top of issues such as burnout, which can drain creativity and cause disengagement. Encouraging balance and introducing fresh perspectives helps keep the energy high, ensuring the agency remains a creative powerhouse.
Building a Strong Creative Culture in an In-House Agency. ANA, October 2024.
Building a strong creative culture is a process. As is maintaining it. Culture is a consistent theme connecting the success of an in-house agency and the larger organization. A strong culture is grounded in organizational goals, team alignment, belief, and engagement, but establishing and nurturing that culture within an in-house agency is a unique challenge. Here are tips for marketing leaders to not only establish a creative culture but ensure that it thrives and drives success for the team, in-house agency, and the broader organization:

Identify Values that Support the Organization
Hire and Retain the Right People
Give Credit Where Credit Is Due
Create Permission to Push Boundaries
Manage Burnout
Bring the Outside In
Have Fun

The Continuing Education of In-House Agencies. ANA, October 2024.
The proliferating number of in-house ad agencies blending creative talent, media buying, and online analytics underscores the growing need to train such agencies to keep up with accelerating demands from senior management and adapt new skillsets. Companies have learned the hard way that building these teams requires more than just slapping a name on a unit within the marketing department and pegging it as an in-house agency.

The rise of in-house ad agencies comes as employment in advertising and marketing has been strained for a while. That has spurred ad professionals to look beyond traditional agencies, but moving in-house comes with a learning curve for both brands and staffers. Ultimately, it can translate to logistical and cultural challenges that go beyond companies merely tapping the core skills of creatives and media planners.

Examples

Jack in the Box Shares How It Brought Social Media In-House. ANA, August 2025.
Jack in the Box shared its journey of assessing the viability of and ultimately adopting an in-house model for the creation of its social media content.

Progressive's Three Tips for Enhancing Your In-House Agency. ANA, July 2025.
During a session at the ANA's 2025 In-House Agency Conference, Progressive's Matt Dillon shared three tips for enhancing in-house teams, addressing the use of AI, external agencies, and media.

Kestra Builds an In-House Lead Engine to Disrupt the Advisor Market. ANA, June 2025.
To reduce dependency on third-party lead sources, Kestra Financial launched a two-year campaign to raise awareness and drive conversions among independent financial advisors. Through insight-driven targeting, lead scoring, and more than 35 custom lead magnets, Kestra grew marketing qualified leads (MQLs) by 78 percent and sales qualified leads (SQLs) by 87 percent — all while reducing cost per lead by 70 percent. With $7.7 million in attributed revenue on a $542,000 investment, the effort demonstrated how performance marketing can power meaningful business growth.
Recipe for Success: Inside Sargento's In-House Influencer Program. ANA, April 2025.
During a session at a 2025 ANA Influencer Committee Meeting, Sargento revealed how it selects and nurtures influencer relationships, provides clear creative direction, and aligns campaigns with brand values to create impact-driving content.
Balancing Resources in In-House Agencies. ANA, March 2025.
The significant strain on creative resources is felt throughout the industry, especially in-house. When the scope starts to grow, deadlines begin to overlap, resources start to strain, and burnout can settle in. It's important to put the well-being of the team above the work, which in turn creates a stronger final product. Bonnie Isaac, head of Guardian Life Insurance's in-house agency, shared her advice for creating a culture that makes creatives feel empowered and cared for.
These In-House Campaigns Successfully Leveraged Collaborations. ANA, October 2024.
Partnerships and collaborations between different brands and/or creators can significantly improve consumer engagement, loyalty, and preference. Whether collaborating on a swag line or creating a video series with a creator, brand activations can powerfully provide experiences, memorable moments, and delight. This article presents three in-house campaigns that effectively utilized collaborations and partnerships (and are part of the ANA In-House Excellence Award winners).
These In-House Awards Are Actually Hilarious. ANA, October 2024.
There's a fine line between an ad being truly funny and hitting on something honest – and it just feeling cheesy and awkward. When the joke is off, the audience can feel completely confused and/or disconnected. ANA's 2024 In-House Excellence Awards have among them are a few examples of ads that effectively utilized humor.
See the full library of In-House Excellence Award case studies by clicking here.

Webinars and Podcasts

How This CMO Escaped the Broken Client-Agency Model with Taylor Morrison's Stephanie McCarty. ANA, June 2025.
Stephanie McCarty, CMO at Taylor Morrison, went viral on LinkedIn with a post on her beef with ad agencies. The post struck a chord, with 5,200 likes, 1,111 comments, and 170 reposts. But for Stephanie the screed was more than just her thoughts — it reflected her actions. Fed up with what she dubbed a broken client-agency model, she began building out her team's in-house capabilities in 2019, developing a full-funnel, in-house media and creative studio by 2024.

On a special bonus episode of On Scope, McCarty went live on LinkedIn with host Mike Berberich to give an inside look at how she accomplished this impressive feat. Along with questions from the audience, Stephanie and Mike discussed the actual process of bringing all marketing capabilities in-house, how she and her team continue to bring in outside perspectives for strategy and creative, and how she was able to get leadership to buy into her bold vision by convincing them it was their idea all along.
Talent Strategies to Maximize Your Creative Output. ANA, March 2024.
Managing your team size and budget against the ever-growing list of project requests is more challenging than ever, however there is a solution. Learn how an array of managed solution options can save your budget and allow your team members to do the work they love while retaining full control of all creative work.

Tools

In-House Agency vs. External Agency Model. ANA/Demand Metric.
With this tool, you can review your in-house agency vs. external agency model and evaluate the different options available when it comes to considering the best mix of in-house and external agency resources.

Build vs. Buy Decision Matrix. ANA/Demand Metric.
Use this matrix to compare your options for in-house builds vs. outsourced solutions.

Committees

In-House Agency Committee.
The In-House Agency 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.

Training

In-House Agency Optimization: The Intake Process (Virtual). ANA.
One of the most common areas for operational inefficiencies is your intake process, which includes project classification and workflow best practices based on project types. In this session, IHA leadership will learn best practices and solutions to better manage the creative process from intake / request through execution to drive better creative output and internal client satisfaction. We will also discuss how to share the internal process to help drive better partnerships with internal stakeholders and align the internal creative team. Expect to walk away from this session with pragmatic solutions for how to set up each project for success and align your internal teams at the start of each project for better client communication around project expectations. Contact training@ana.net for more information.
Positioning Your IHA for Operational Success (Virtual). ANA.
In this virtual workshop, marketing operations, agency management leaders, in-house agency operations and marketing stakeholders can discover how to set up your IHA for operational success. We will discuss how to both plan and scope the IHA, how to standardize the intake process, and best practices on how to measure and maintain a healthy relationship that maximizes effectiveness for all stakeholders. As a result, you will be prepared to launch best practices for cross-functional collaboration and operational optimization that leads to more efficient and better outputs. Expect to walk away from this session with three specific ways that your organization can help your IHA deliver their best work and ultimately grow their value to the company. Contact training@ana.net for more information.

The Marketing Knowledge Center actively connects ANA members to the resources they need to be successful. You can visit the ANA website to engage with the MKC in three ways.

Explore content to access best practices, case studies, and marketing tools. Our proprietary content includes Event Recaps, which share actionable insights from conference and committee presentations.
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Source

"In-House Agencies." ANA, 2025.