My first consulting client in 1998 was in an in-house creative services organization looking for a DAM system to manage product photography used in catalogs and ads. At the time there were some low-end, basic products and a couple of … Continue reading
Fact: A recent study by Harvard Business School found that almost half of U.S. advertisers, large and small, operated some form of in-house unit, a trend apparently on the increase. Fact: The Association of National Advertisers (ANA) study reports that … Continue reading
As your team grows—and evolves—into a full-service in-house agency, it is necessary to make “the leap” of introducing the Account Management model into the group. What you may not have planned on was the challenge many external agencies face: tension … Continue reading
In today’s world of budget cuts and creative services being outsourced, more and more creative leaders are asked to justify all expenditures. As the Creative Services function grows to become an in-house agency, a vital step is the introduction of … Continue reading
In a recent post I addressed the benefits of including an account management function in your creative organization. Keeping in mind that the Account Manager’s job is to be dedicated to their clients’ needs and that requires understanding the client’s … Continue reading
If an in-house agency is successful in contributing to its organization’s needs, there comes a point in its growth that the team will need to restructure if it wants to continue to increase its worth to the organization. Up until … Continue reading
Many in-house creative services and communications groups grew organically as a result of an organizational unit deciding to hire a few people to do more cheaply (and perhaps more quickly) what the company was paying external agencies to do. The overwhelming majority of such groups start small with informal roles and processes. If there are only three or four people working in such a group, anyone can call up one of the designers and ask for work. This initial contact person becomes, by default, the requestor’s account manager and traffic manager. Such informality works well if it’s a small group of people who all sit together. Continue reading
In my first job in the advertising industry, the agency had separate account management and project management functions. It wasn’t until my second job in the ad business, at which these two functions were combined, that I fully appreciated the … Continue reading