Moving In-House

Joining an in-house creative department. Is it the right move for you?

Some time ago I wrote a series of articles discussing the pros and cons of setting up an in-house design studio or creative department. You can read these articles here:?Part 1 ,?Part 2 ?and?Part 3 .?

As a result of these articles, I received a lot of enquiries from agency-based creatives asking about what it was like to work in-house and how it differed from the agency world. I’ve done my best to answer these questions and more here.

Let’s start by looking at how you currently fit as a creative in the agency world.

Is your time running out?

I hate to start on such a downer but this is a really critical question to ask yourself and answer as honestly as possible. Look around you. Are you one of the oldest members of the creative team? Is your boss younger – and less experienced – than you? Are you being given the most boring briefs? The most ‘challenging’ clients? Have you been passed up for promotion several times in a row? All these things are clear signs pointing to the inevitable.

The multinational agency world is not kind to people over 40. Particularly creative people. And the further past 40 you go, the fewer contemporaries you’ll have. How many art directors over 50 will you find in the average agency creative department? And while copywriters tend to have a slightly longer “workspan”, they get aged out too.

Experience seems to hold less and less value in MNC creative departments, perhaps in part because with digital media and social media apps evolving at light speed,?nobody?has relevant experience in those domains that they can draw upon. But it’s probably safe to say the real reason is that in this era of rapidly diminishing profit margins, experience comes with too expensive a price tag. Since advertising is essentially a ‘people business’, often the only way to meet the profit targets set by holding company bean counters is to cut those people. And, because experienced people cost the most, guess where the axe tends to fall?

If you plan to keep working as a creative in your 40s, 50s and beyond, then there might be some opportunities in the smaller, independent shops. Unfortunately they also tend to have smaller salary budgets. And of course, you can always go the independent consultant or freelance route. Or maybe even set up a small agency of your own. These are all perfectly viable choices.

But perhaps you are just tired. Tired of constantly pitching for new clients. Tired of coming up with ‘initiative work’ to help your ECD meet his award KPIs. Tired of bouncing from one client to the next and not being able to really get to grips with the challenges of the account.?

Perhaps it’s time to see if a career in-house is right for you. Maybe the grass is a little greener. They might even value all the experience you have spent so much time acquiring. And what about that mythical ‘work-life’ balance you keep hearing about?

Let me take you through some of the realities of the in-house world so you can decide if it’s the right choice for you.

You are no longer the centre of the universe.

The biggest culture shock you will face taking up an in-house role is realising how little value your new organisation puts on your work. Quite simply, you have moved from being a critical revenue generator to a non-critical cost centre.?

As a creative in the agency world, your role is absolutely vital (although it probably rarely feels that way). You literally create the products that your agency sells to clients. And so an entire ecosystem has evolved around supporting you and your creative brothers and sisters to get your work done as efficiently and effectively as possible.?

This situation is completely turned on its head when you are in an in-house creative department. The critical business of your new organisation is not creative work. In fact your department will at best be considered a support function to Marketing – which in recent years has faced increasing challenges in justifying its value to the C-suite.

All of this has implications for how well (or poorly) your organisation will support you in terms of budget, systems and infrastructure, the relationships you have with your none-creative colleagues and your potential career path in your new company.

You will be your own support system.

As an agency creative you’ll be used to getting briefs with job numbers, an explanation about what is required, agreed timelines, clearly defined budgets and access to whatever information you need to do your job as efficiently as possible. You will have set processes in place for briefing, internal reviews, presentations to clients, production meetings and final sign offs. Your creative director is there to guide, advise and say ‘‘it’s not there yet’’. The account service will do their best to sell your work to the clients and will undoubtedly return with comments that lead to ‘frank and open exchanges of opinion’. The traffic or project management team will remind, poke, prod and occasionally yell at people to ensure that agreed deadlines are met. The print or TV producers will manage the external resources that you need and probably save your ass many times over.

Unless you are joining a well-established in-house agency or studio, none of these things will be in place for you in your new role.?

Your ‘brief’ could be an “FYA” email thread that you’ll be expected to read through from beginning to end to figure out what is wanted and by when. It could be a ‘by the way’ comment casually dropped into a conversation about an entirely different project. Or a 2-minute phone call while you’re having lunch. In other words, there will probably be no formal briefing system or format. So, for your sanity’s sake, you will have to set one up. And you’ll also have to get buy in from your boss to enforce it. I wouldn’t hold out any great hope here to be honest. You’ll swiftly discover that the ‘clients’ in your new organisation are other departments and their reporting lines won’t necessarily include your boss. The next best thing you can do is, if what is required is in any way complicated, to write the brief yourself from the information provided. Yes. It’s a lot of extra work but it will give you a solid foundation from which to start and something you can email back to the business unit to indicate your understanding of what they require.

If the in-house team you are joining already has a creative director, then your relationship with them will be pretty much the same as in the agency world. And hopefully they will have established some systems and processes that will make your job easier to do. However, depending on your experience level, you might well be the creative director or creative lead. That means you will have to balance the very different dynamics of working within a corporate organisation and the expectations of the creative team under you. People management skills will be pretty critical here.

Above all, you must understand and accept that you are no longer in an agency. You are now the employee of a corporate company and the way you act and do your job will be judged from that perspective. In other words, it’s no longer just about the creative work but the way that work is done and ‘sold’ within the organisation.

This brings me to your marketing colleagues. The biggest mistake new in-house creatives make is to regard the marketing team as the equivalent of an agency account service team. And the biggest mistake marketing teams make is to treat their in-house creative team as if they are an external agency. This always leads to misunderstanding and disappointment on both sides. The reality is?you are all members of the marketing team. The marketing manager is not there to defend your work or interpret the brief from the business unit requesting the creative work. Likewise, the in-house creative can and should be taking the brief or instruction from the business unit alongside the marketing manager. In other words, you will often have to act as your own account service, explaining your creative masterpiece to the marketing team. And they need to treat you as an equal member of their team – not a vendor.?

The chances of having a project manager on your in-house team are pretty remote. So that means you will have to do your own project management. This is often the most painful part of the transition to an in-house role. You will have to keep track of every project you work on, its briefing-in date and its due date. And you’ll have to organise your work in such a way that you can easily find it and retrieve it months or even years later. In my experience creative people tend to be really bad at doing any of these things. Unfortunately, this is a weakness you will have to address and deal with effectively.?

To preserve your sanity, I strongly advise that you do the following:?

First, set up a “Work Folder” on your desktop. In that folder give each job you work on a folder of its own, titled by its subject matter and the date you started work on it, eg. “2021 Recruitment Campaign - 10 March 2021”. Anything to do with that job goes into that particular folder. And again, use dated sub-folders to organise the contents - “Brief”, “Images”, “Logos” and so on.?

Second, use your laptop’s note pad function to set up a Daily Activity note. Write down every job that comes in that Daily Activity note – what needs to be done, date it comes in, and date due. This can be just a single sentence. Maybe highlight the due date in red. Most critically, make sure you check and update your Daily Activity note first thing in the morning and last thing in the evening before you log off. Yes, it’s a pain. But if you keep doing it, it will become a habit that will undoubtedly save your ass in times to come.

You’ll need to roll up your sleeves.

In-house teams tend to run pretty mean and lean. You need to be prepared and able to do your own production work – from producing final artwork to briefing suppliers to vetting print, digital and video work. So, if you are the kind of art director who prefers not to get involved with final artwork, then in-house is probably not the career choice for you. On the other hand, this is where lengthy industry experience is pretty much essential. All those years spent working your way slowly up from junior to senior roles, from doing relatively menial to very complex tasks, will stand you in excellent stead. Knowing how to – and most importantly –?being able to produce creative work from concept to final production will give you a huge advantage in your in-house career.?

Prepare to be humbled.

Probably the thing that will shock you the most when you move out of the agency world and into a corporate organisation is discovering how little anybody outside of advertising cares about creative work. All those campaigns, apps, cool slogans and amazing insights that you and your agency colleagues spent so many hours sweating and arguing over and then fighting passionately for, mean absolutely nothing to non-advertising people. You’ll soon realise that even your new marketing colleagues spend very little time thinking about creative work and far more time managing upwards and tracking timelines, budgets and clicks. It’s a pretty eye-opening and very sobering experience.?

That’s why, as I mentioned earlier, in an in-house role you’ll be judged not so much for the excellence of your creative work as for the manner and efficiency with which it was produced. In corporate performance appraisals, there usually isn’t any kind of mechanism to evaluate the quality of creative work so the focus instead will be on processes, quality control (meaning lack of errors), efficiency, teamwork and so on.?

None of this means that you should give up on doing excellent creative work. But it does mean that you’ll have to find that drive and ambition within yourself. And you’ll have to feel passionate enough about it to evangelise its importance, bounce back from rejection and just keep grinding away.?

Finding ways to fit in.

If you’ve managed to read this far then not only have you demonstrated impressive powers of concentration and patience, you will also be very clear that an in-house agency in the corporate world is very different from a creative agency. And, as it certainly looks like there will be a return to working in offices, that means you will have to adapt to the expectations of the organisation you are joining.?

The good news is, even the most formal companies are increasingly adopting a ‘smart casual’ dress code for staff that don’t interact with clients. So, while shorts, torn t-shirts and singlets might be out, jeans, trainers and short sleeved shirts or tops should be fine. Most companies will have their dress code clearly stated in the contract of employment. If in doubt, check with the HR department or your new boss. If you do have to suddenly acquire a new, more formal working wardrobe, I recommend Uniqlo for choices and prices that won’t cripple you financially.?

The next thing to adapt to is the physical environment you’ll be working in. Creative agencies are usually pretty noisy places with lots of joke-cracking, laughter, heated discussions and even the odd tear-fest. In the more somber corporate world, not so much. Large organisations tend to be quiet environments where people speak softly and phone calls are relegated to meeting rooms or ‘phone booths’. So, even if your in-house creative department has its own dedicated space, the chances are there will only be partitions separating you from the rest of the people on your floor, and that means you will be expected to keep the volume down. Yes, it certainly does put a dampener on the energy and buzz of your creative team, but realistically you and your team are the ones who will have to adapt, not the organisation.

As you settle in to your new company, make a conscious effort to reach out to colleagues who have completely different roles to you. Move out of your marketing and creative comfort zone and get to know as many different people as possible through lunches and coffee sessions. This will give you a fuller picture of the organisation and a greater understanding of how your role can contribute. You’ll also have the opportunity to evangelise for your in-house agency and develop a network that will prove invaluable in time to come.

Accept it. Windows is probably in your future.

Now comes the?really?painful part. The vast majority of corporate organisations use Windows OS. And the chances are you’ll be expected to use it too. Most corporate IT departments simply won’t support a separate Mac-based system for the in-house creative team. And, even if they do permit the creative team to use Macs, in many cases their security measures won’t allow you to hook your machines up to the office network or printers. The only effective argument you can use is that, if the creative team produces a lot of print-based work, then a Mac-based monitor is the best choice for colour calibration and monitoring. That might get you one iMac for this purpose. But don’t count on it.

For some art directors this is a deal breaker. For writers, it should not be so much of an issue. If I can offer any encouragement, it is that Windows is nowhere near as clunky as it used to be. Your biggest learning curve will be figuring out and developing muscle memory for the equivalent keyboard shortcuts. You can and will adapt to it.

Is it time to relax?

For many battle-weary creatives, in-house seems like the perfect escape. A stress-free role where they can just relax, focus on doing their jobs, go home at regular hours and not worry about having to work over the weekend.?

Well, I’m afraid I have some bad news for you.

As you will have gathered by now, in-house roles come with their own unique stress factors and expectations and you will need to stay on your toes – especially as some of those stress factors won’t be ones you are at all familiar with. Working hours will depend on the corporate culture you are joining and the expectations the management has for your team – so don’t assume that your new role will be strictly 9 - 5.?

If you are thinking of in-house as an easy way to transition to retirement, please don’t. You’ll not only disappoint yourself – you’ll be letting your team down too.

Start exploring.

You are now in a very different world from your previous agency career. Whereas before, the key focus of your company was the work you produce, now you are in an organisation whose key focus is its line of business – not creative work. To really thrive in this environment, you will have to roll up your sleeves and get to understand this business and its culture. And I’m not talking about the way an agency’s creative team has to ‘understand’ their client’s business and culture. I mean you have to?really?understand it, live it and breathe it.?

The likelihood is the company you are now a part of will be very large and very complex. It will have its own vocabulary and list of acronyms. There will be lots of written rules and dos and don’ts – and even more unwritten ones. And there will be power plays and political dynamics that you have never come across before.?

The creative agency world is pretty simple to understand: ultimately it always comes down to the work and money that work brings in. The world of a large corporate organisation is rather different. For example, in a typical agency?how?you achieve your goal is not as critical as achieving the goal itself. In the corporate world it is often all about the?how. The different departments you have to deal with all have their own KPIs which will often conflict with yours and so there is rarely ever a straight line to success.?

Over the coming weeks and months, in addition to fulfilling your role as an in-house creative, you will also need to understand how that role – and your department – fit within the organisation. That’s why those lunches and coffee session with colleagues from other departments I mentioned earlier will be so important.

There are three very important lessons you will swiftly learn in your new role. The first is how client organisations really look at marketing and creative. (And it’s not terribly flattering.) The second is, if you keep your eyes, ears and mind open, you will discover other ways creativity can contribute to your organisation that will have nothing to do with advertising or marketing. This could open up an entirely new career track for you. And the third really important lesson is corporate pride. Let’s face it: the days when people were proud to say they worked at a particular agency are long gone, unless perhaps that agency is Droga5 or Wieden & Kennedy. In the corporate world however, you will find plenty of people who have worked their entire careers in the same company – and take immense pride in having done so. That pride and passion can be infectious and inspiring. Learn from it and leverage it wherever you can.?

Where does your career go from here?

This is a very serious consideration when you step into an in-house role. In an agency, the typical creative career progression is pretty standard: From junior creative to mid-level to senior creative, group head, associate creative director, creative director, executive creative director, chief creative officer and whatever national, regional, global add-ons to these titles you can achieve. Now of course, the further up the career ladder you go, the fewer promotion opportunities there are, but at least your potential career track is clear.

But, as an in-house creative you are part of a large organisation whose core business is not about making ads. You are at best in a support function. If you are ambitious and want to progress in your company, what is your career path? If you are a mid-level creative, then perhaps you can rise to creative director or manager of the team. But what then? If you are the creative lead of the in-house agency of a bank, what’s the next level for you? Head of Consumer Banking? Probably not.?

I’m afraid I don’t have any obvious answers for you here. You can and should ask your HR department but I suspect they won’t have any clear guidance either. Perhaps the answer to this question is lateral growth: you focus on growing the size and influence of your team. Your title may not change, but as your influence and responsibilities grow, presumably the prestige and of course the salary attached to your role will grow too.?

Is in-house a ghetto?

From my admittedly rather biased point of view, working in-house gives creatives a much-needed insight into the corporate world and the way client organisations operate: something that should be worth its weight in gold if they take that knowledge back to an agency. However, there is a pretty good chance the agency CCO or ECD won’t see it that way.?

For all that the advertising world loves to proclaim its open-mindedness and passion for diversity, it also loves to categorise the people who work in the industry and put them into career-limiting boxes. “She’s good at art directing retail.” “Their book has too much property.” “He’s more of a Pharma writer.”??And of course, the unspoken favourite, “They’re too old.”?

Should you ever seek to return the agency world after spending some time in-house, you will undoubtedly face the same kind of stigma. Some agency bosses will consider in-house creatives as people who ‘couldn’t hack it’ in the agency world. Others will automatically assume that your knowledge of creative trends, techniques and technology is outdated. But of course, nobody will ever directly tell you that to your face.?

So please keep in mind: moving in-house could well be a one-way move.

Well. That all sounds pretty shit, doesn’t it?

I realise that the tone of this article may come across as pretty negative. This is not my attention. I just want to be as realistic as possible.

Pursuing a career as an in-house creative is perfectly viable and can open up an entirely new career growth path for you. It will open your eyes to how client organisations operate and the way they really look at and value marketing and creativity. You’ll will gain deeper insights into how businesses and corporations operate – knowledge that can be very advantageous to your career. And probably the greatest benefit of all, it will push you completely out of your comfort zone.

But at the same time there will be challenges and difficulties that you might not have anticipated. I’ve tried to list them here while at the same time giving you a balanced view of what your life as an in-house creative will be like.

At almost 4,000 words, this article turned out to be way longer than I anticipated but I hope it will help you make the right decision for your career.