In-House is IN!
In-house creative studios have a mixed reputation. Detractors discount them based on the assumption that agencies have cornered the market on high-end design (and believe that in-house just can't do it). Champions extol their unparalleled familiarity with the brand and the significant cost-savings they often provide. Some designers shy away from jobs on in-house teams for fear that it will limit the type and range of projects they encounter. Other designers appreciate the work-life balance that an in-house career can afford, and come to realize that the variety of work they are exposed to has more to do with the business and design philosophy of the parent company, than it does with the designation "in-house."
Whether it's true that at an agency you'll always work on the coolest things, or that "in-house" you'll go to seed creatively (which I don't believe is true, btw), is beside the point. The fact is that more and more marketing organizations are turning to in-house groups to design and execute a wide variety of marketing programs. They have a growing professional association, InSource, and the folks at HOW Magazine just hosted a sold-out conference built around the issues faced by In-House Creative Managers.
As it turns out, the consulting group at the company I work for has an idea or two about how marketing organizations can increase their own effectiveness by leveraging the capabilities of in-house creative groups. The president of Aquent Consulting, Nina Eigerman, presented these ideas during an AMA webcast entitled, aptly enough, How to Maximize Marketing Spend by Increasing the Role of Internal Creative Services,
on Thursday, November 9, 2006. To view this webcast, go here.
If you are a marketer and want to know what in-house can accomplish for you, or if you are a designer working for or managing an in-house group and would like to know how to improve its performance (and even it grow it), then you should definitely check this out.
