Driving In-House Innovation: The Creativity Bridge (Half Day)

(Half Day Workshop)

Workshop Description
In-house advertising teams face a unique set of challenges that often hinder their ability to deliver impactful campaigns. From chaotic workflows and internal biases to the constant tug of war between speed and quality, these obstacles can result in wasted time, strained resources, and a loss of creative energy.

In this workshop, designed by a 20+ year veteran of IHA management, in-house advertising teams will gain tools to streamline their workflows, balance creative output, and stay aligned with the needs of the customer—all while navigating the unique challenges that come from working within an internal corporate environment. The course is structured around six key modules that reflect the real-world pressures faced by in-house teams, with a strong focus on practical solutions that foster both efficiency and innovation.

Participants will learn keys to overcome key operational challenges including:

• Workflow Chaos: Ad-hoc processes lead to bottlenecks, missed deadlines, and frustrated stakeholders due to a lack of standardized workflows.
• Corporate Echo Chamber Effect: Internal biases result in work that resonates internally but fails to connect with customers, wasting time and budgets on misaligned campaigns.
• Speed-vs-Quality Paralysis: Competing demands for fast delivery and high-quality output create rushed work or slow approvals, damaging brand value and partnerships.
• Siloed Collaboration: Poor cross-functional communication causes delays, misalignment, and redundant efforts, stalling project progress.
• Creative Burnout Crisis: Tight deadlines and repetitive work lead to declining creativity, increased turnover, and diminished team morale.
• Value Invisibility: Without clear metrics or visibility, agencies struggle to prove their impact, risking underfunding and organizational irrelevance.

Who is this Workshop for?
This workshop is ideal for teams and/or individual members of an in-house agency looking to improve internal workflows and better manage their relationship with the client. This can include:

• Creative teams
• Strategic /account services teams
• Operational teams (project managers, budget planners, production teams, etc.)

Workshop Benefits
The benefits of attending this workshop fall under the following key drivers of growth: improving operational effectiveness, increasing workflow efficiencies, maximizing ROI, fostering innovation, improving employee collaboration, and reducing employee turnover.

This workshop helps attendees improve operational effectiveness by teaching them:

• How to implement standardized workflow models that eliminate bottlenecks, streamline project intake, and reduce delays.
• Techniques to prioritize tasks effectively, ensuring that the most critical projects receive focus and timely execution.
• Strategies to measure and improve the effectiveness of creative processes, ensuring outputs align with both customer needs and brand goals.

This workshop helps attendees increase workflow efficiency by teaching them:

• Practical tools/techniques for automating repetitive tasks, allowing teams to focus on high-value creative work.
• How to use centralized dashboards and cross-functional communication practices to improve project tracking and transparency.
• Methods to streamline approvals and reduce unnecessary revisions, ensuring faster delivery without compromising quality.

This workshop helps attendees improve ROI by teaching them:

• How to develop and track KPIs demonstrate the value of in-housework to stakeholders, justifying investments in the team.
• Techniques to align creative strategies with customer priorities, avoiding costly misaligned campaigns.
• Methods to minimize resource waste by improving workflows, reducing delays, and optimizing team output for measurable results.

This workshop helps attendees foster innovation by teaching them:

• Methods to introduce external inspiration and cross-industry trends into the creative process, keeping ideas fresh and relevant.
• Techniques to break free from the "Corporate Echo Chamber Effect" by using data and customer feedback to challenge internal assumptions.
• Strategies to encourage creative brainstorming and experimentation within the constraints of a single-brand environment.

This workshop helps attendees improve employee alignment and collaboration by teaching them:

• Best practices for conducting daily standups and cross-functional reviews to foster transparency and alignment across teams.
• Techniques to build stronger stakeholder relationships, ensuring strategic objectives are clear and mutually understood.
• Methods for improving feedback processes, enabling more candid and constructive discussions that drive creative improvements.

This workshop helps attendees increase employee satisfaction and reduced employee turnover by teaching them:

• Techniques to create role flexibility and rotation opportunities, keeping team members engaged and creatively energized.
• How to design workflows that incorporate creative downtime, reducing stress and fostering long-term productivity.
• Strategies to build psychological safety within teams, ensuring employees feel valued and supported in their roles.

 Download the full agenda here