2019 Winners
2019 In-House Agency of the Year
The Clorox Company
Before they were The Clorox Company, they were the Electro-Alkaline Company. In fact, the very first bottle of Clorox Bleach touted, “Made with Electricity.”
Fast forward to 2018, with the in-house agency at The Clorox Company harnessing its own magnetic energy to reimagine, rebrand and reorganize into a powerfully integrated, full-service design and content machine—home to 160+ makers, artists, designers, developers, videographers, editors, writers, project and resource managers, account directors, strategists and operations ninjas.
Meaningful transformation starts with people, culture and vision. First, they rebranded as Electro Creative Workshop, a name and graphic identity that honors the past while reflecting a modern, creative workshop vibe. Then, they created an Electrofesto—a collective vision that details what they believe in, how they relate to one another, how they collaborate with brand partners and how they champion creativity. It declares, “We are co-conspirators. We are bouncers. We are bold-is-beautiful devotees. We are connectors. We are true. We are craftspeople. We are can-if thinkers. We are the Electro Creative Workshop. We are builders of iconic brands.”
Next, Electro knocked down the long-standing silos between Packaging/Print and Digital/Content. To get there, they combined PMOs, reorganized seating, formed a cross-functional leadership team and bolstered account, strategy and creative to become optimally integrated. Overall, 38 new positions, 43 desk moves, 13 reporting changes and five promotions.
Finally, Electro “invertised” throughout The Clorox Company. They built trust. They rebooted relationships. They clarified their value proposition. And, by year-end, they completed 7,000 projects and produced 40,000 creative assets for packaging, web, video, content and events—all while increasing YoY revenue by 10% and quadrupling their percentage of retained versus project work.
Pull up a stool to their workbench—this is the Electro Creative Workshop.
Finalists
Charles Schwab
Last year, Charles Schwab’s in-house agency, C2, completed over 7,500 projects—more than doubling their film and social media executions, including videos that generated 900,000+ views. They also evolved the brand voice of Schwab to a more conversational tone they call “Unstuffy.” Combining insights with creative messaging, C2 covered prospects and clients through digital, print and events. Oh, but there’s more.
C2 also developed the content management system for Schwab Retirement Plan Services, supporting over 4,500 print and digital communications and decreasing email-deployment times from three weeks to thirty minutes. And, they helped name and design a new chatbot, connecting Charles Schwab to a growing audience and younger demographic.
This agency of 150 innovators launched a platform that moved from static to code-based content, supporting the firm’s digital transformation and simplifying the process for clients. C2 also transformed Schwab’s new client welcome kit into an online Welcome Center, for a combined savings of $2MM.
C2 is proud of what they’ve accomplished, the impact they’ve had on clients’ goals and the creative bar they continue to raise.
Quicken Loans
If bankers are the heart of the business at Quicken Loans, then Marketing is the guts. While the majority of the business is ruled by metrics, Marketing is where limits are pushed.
That’s not to say that this in-house agency ignores numbers—especially when those numbers show how they helped the company achieve its most successful quarter to date. Creatives, project managers and strategists worked together to deliver over 15,000 assets including email, print, social, online ads, broadcast, events, signage, logos and style guides. Those assets worked to not only support Quicken’s commitment to its clients, but to engage its most valuable resource: team members.
Working with over 17,000 people across nearly 100 companies, Marketing has to do more than bring clients in the door. So, they told team member stories, shouted their successes, helped them navigate benefits packages and encouraged career development.
In addition to impacting the business, this team spent 2,138 hours volunteering in the community. In a nutshell, Marketing is a living, breathing representation of the Quicken Loans and Rock Family of Companies’ culture.
