The In-House Agency Forum (IHAF), which is a division of Pile and Company, recently had its annual conference.  IHAF is the leading professional association for in-house advertising agencies and creative services organizations.  Members’ benefits include benchmarking data and best practices, conferences and events, as well as online and in-person networking.

What many who are not involved in the workings of an in-house agency might not know is that the dynamics, issues and opportunities are similar to what external agencies face.  Two that came up in various conversations I had at the conference were:

• The ability to meet timelines is directly tied to the accuracy of the input.  If the input or brief provided to the agency isn’t clear and doesn’t represent the thinking from the top, the output will not be right.  This will impact the due dates and ability to meet the already tight timelines.  Doesn’t that sound like something you might hear external agencies complaining about?

• How can the agency structure support working from an integrated perspective?  Similar to what external agencies faced a few years ago, integration and thinking across channels is the future of communications.  Many internal agencies don’t know how to integrate well.  They want to change but are met with resistance from those who want to work the way the agency has always worked.
  

Where is the opportunity here?  Internal agencies can learn not only from IHAF, but also from its external agency partners.  But an even better opportunity is when the internal team realizes from firsthand experience what it needs to do to make the external agency effective.