• Setting Goals & Scoring Big with Team IDEA

    February 16, 2015

    One of the beauties of being an in-house creative agency is that you interact with your clients every day, even after a project is over. Building those relationships outside of a work product gives clients the opportunity to provide informal feedback on a daily basis, whether you’re meeting about …

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  • Ready, Set, Goals!

    February 02, 2015

    A little over a year ago, Forbes published an article entitled “Can In-House Agencies Ever Be Great?” Now, I’m not one to obsess over things (or maybe I am…), but that question and the assortment of editorials that followed debating both sides really stuck with me.

    One of the things I see in-house …

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  • Member Benefits Deliver Measurable Results

    January 19, 2015

    • by IHAF Staff

    There are a host of reasons to become a member of IHAF—access to our benchmarking data, participation in our national events, being part of our connected community, and one benefit that we don’t talk about nearly enough: the IHAF Performance Evaluator.

    The IHAF Performance Evaluator is a …

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  • Time for “Fitness” Training

    January 12, 2015

    • by Sarah Cavicchi, IHAF

    How many of you made a new year’s resolution to join a gym and get fit? It’s a common theme this time of year. Unfortunately, simply joining a gym isn’t enough (I wish). You have put in the time and do the work. Well, your IHAF membership is the same. In order to get the most out of it, you have to …

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  • Ringing in the New!

    December 29, 2014

    Happy New Year! I hope everyone has been able to enjoy some family, friends and feet-up time over the past week. We’ve had some great discussions this month at IHAF, specifically around the importance of in-house agency promotion. Some of the points we discussed really resonated with me. I hope you’ …

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  • Are We There Yet?

    October 06, 2014

    How many times have we heard that question, repeated over and over and over again from the back seat? Despite our best efforts to silence the question with a satisfactory response, it seems we never get there ourselves. Can the same be said for your in-house agency?

    This month at IHAF, we’re …

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  • Advancing Your Client/Creative Relationships

    June 16, 2014

    Relationships between creative team members and clients can be good, bad or downright ugly. Whatever it is, your goal should always be ongoing improvement of your client relationships.

    The interaction between clients and creatives during projects often invites opportunities for conflict. When …

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  • 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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  • 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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