• Jump Start Your Creative-Development Process

    June 11, 2014

    As an in-house agency, you have a choice. You can have a closed ideation ecosystem or one that pushes the boundaries and opens up the ideation process to a broader team. IHAF Member, Vistaprint, recently proved that the latter choice can jump start the creative process. 

    Vistaprint's in-house …

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  • Balancing Creativity with Practicality

    June 09, 2014

    • by John Jacobin, IRS

    Considering how fast organizational needs are changing, it has never been more critical to be flexible and creative in problem solving and decision making. We've seen many adaptive organizations survive who have embraced their workers’ creative thinking as a core business practice and we have seen …

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  • Why Awards Matter (Even When They Don’t)

    June 04, 2014

    In the external agency world, awards are everything. A creative director early in my career once told me to give the client Headline A (the better headline), even though I told him they would probably reject it. I knew that Headline B was also effective and was probably the one they’d want because …

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  • Changing Your Relationship Status

    June 02, 2014

    As the service-minded design group that once was blossoms into a strategic superpower within your organization, you’ll find your team’s credibility growing—and your responsibilities tripling. What do you mean you can’t design an award-winning logo, lead an international conference call, present …

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  • Creative Respect: Earn It, Don't Expect It

    May 26, 2014

    Over my career, I’ve had many conversations with in-house creative colleagues related to getting respect from clients. Actually, I had one last week. Common refrains include, “They just don’t get it” or “They don’t understand design” and my personal favorite, “They’re art directing me!” So, how do …

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  • Meet Two New Board Members

    February 17, 2014

    This month, IHAF is exploring the topic of Operational Excellence and what it means to in-house agencies. As part of this series, I asked the two newest members of IHAF’s Board of Directors, Mark Gibson, Assistant VP of Creative Services at State Farm and Wayne Barringer, Director of Creative …

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  • Do You Want it Fast, Cheap or Good?

    February 10, 2014

    We may be witnessing a harmonic convergence of sorts in the name of operational excellence. While the inclination for any business may be to try to do as much as it can with the resources it has on hand, that’s not always effective. Sooner or later, what seems like the fastest, easiest path to …

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  • Learning Vital Lessons from In House

    October 21, 2013

    • by Steve Whiteside, Warc

    Having been fortunate enough to attend the IHAF’s In-House Agency Masters conference in Boston on 17 October, I wanted to share a handful of the main takeaways, focusing in particular on what ad agencies could learn from their (often less-heralded) counterparts in this space.

    Mick O’Brien from …

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  • Meet the Sponsors

    October 16, 2013

    • by IHAF Staff

    Our largest event of the year is on deck—the IHAF Awards Show & Annual Conference. For months we’ve been planning this two-day gala, from defining the theme and outlining the agenda to directing the details and prepping the presenters. As today drew near, our pace grew more frenetic—though in just …

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  • What is “Creative”?

    September 23, 2013

    As a child, I was told I was creative—so I believed it. Aren’t all kids creative though? I did have a creative thought process and because I loved all that was art I was labeled “creative.” I loved to make things, explore, sort, compile lists, play games and rearrange the kitchen cabinets. I drew …

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