The Inside Scoop

  • Challenging the Status Quo—Together

    September 25, 2015

    Uncharted territory is our playground. Whether you’re part of the in-house creative team or an outside agency partner, if you’re open to innovative, new ways of getting to the big idea, great things can happen. 

    Here’s how we can all be, and stay, inventive. Take chances. Together. Collaborate …

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  • Waterfall: A Top-Down Approach to Strategic Planning

    September 21, 2015

    In-house agency account management organizations that adopt top-down, iterative planning processes greatly increase their ability to optimize staffing and plan for the capabilities needed by internal clients.

    How? These processes assure agency leaders and account managers not only get the input …

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  • Keeping Your Strategic Marketing Plan Top of Mind

    September 14, 2015

    Most of us are stretched too thin—we fight a million deadlines and are sometimes guilty of missing the forest for the trees. We can get lost in the weeds of responding to day-to-day requests and creating assets without stopping to examine the bigger picture. When I find that my team is overly …

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  • Our Lips Are Sealed

    September 09, 2015

    • by Emily Foster, IHAF

    31 Categories. 664 Entries. 13 Judges. 93 Winners. And 1 Best of Show. The annual IHAF Awards Show is just around the bend which means every submission has been touched, watched, heard, poured over, and ultimately scored by our panel of experts. All that’s left to do now is announce the winners! …

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  • Don't Miss Out!

    September 04, 2015

    Living and working in New England, I always head into September hoping for that burst of Indian summer—dreaming of fall beach days and warm nights outdoors. With the last bastion of summer right around the corner, it's easy for us to yearn for something new to look forward to. Lucky for you, IHAF …

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  • The Art. of Effective. Communication.

    August 31, 2015

    • by Annie Meisels and Pam Berlin, AEC

    The Art: Communication is an art. You have to be skillful, intuitive and nuanced; and you have to learn the different strokes to use with different folks. Effective: If you're not effective, what's the point? Effectiveness is the barometer of any successful exchange.Communication: Ah, the key. What …

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  • Three Ps to Enable Team Success

    August 24, 2015

    • by Callum Broderick, Deltek

    The overused and somewhat cliché phrase “doing more with less” has never been truer. Clients are demanding quality output in a lot less time and at a much lower cost than ever before. As an in-house agency, this means balancing who you say “yes” to and who you avoid in the lunchroom. With proper …

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  • Five Principles for Building Virtual Teams

    August 17, 2015

    Raytheon’s in-house creative-services team, Advanced Media, consists of over 120 design professionals working from several different cities across the United States. We’re involved in the company’s proposal efforts, marketing campaigns, facility branding, employee and customer meetings, and …

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  • Lessons from Four Harmonious Friends

    August 10, 2015

    When we were younger, team building happened all the time—without us even realizing it. As children, we learned how to get along in the sandbox, to share and play nicely with other kids. I’m reminded of an old folktale: The Four Harmonious Friends—Bird plants a seed; Rabbit waters it; Monkey …

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  • Last Month at IHAF

    August 05, 2015

    July was a month of significant growth here at IHAF—from the record-breaking number of entries we received for this year’s IHAF Awards, to our latest infographic packed with data on in-house agency trends, to topping 1,000 members on our LinkedIn group. Just when I think IHAF can’t get any more …

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