2024 Winners

Past Winners

2024 In-House Agency of the Year

Keurig Dr. Pepper


In 2020, Keurig Dr Pepper formed Liquid Sunshine, centralizing internal creative functions and expanding capabilities to support 125+ brands. The team doubled in size in two years, with in-house agency demand increasing by 10% YoY, creating pressure due to a lack of resources and unclear roles.

To rally 80 employees nationwide to deliver on the marketing mission of “winning the hearts and minds of consumers,” Liquid Sunshine rebuilt its leadership team with award-winning talent. They defined their annual goals, purpose, and mission: “Make Work That Moves You.” Top-tier creative and design talent enhanced their campaigns and modernized design codes.

They expanded their strategy capabilities to include shopper marketing, social media, and brand strategy. Their social team’s Newsroom engine doubled content production and achieved remarkable engagement results for AOR Brands: Bai, Core, and Donut Shop.

Restructuring the team to align with the company, Liquid Sunshine built business and brand expertise and increased their strategy and creative contribution for deeper partnerships. Positive survey responses from brand partners reflected improvements, including lowering their blended rate by 12%.

They introduced new processes such as daily resource stand-ups and developed a scoping tool to enable project clarity and resourcing. Streamlining creative and production timelines led to a 40% reduction in turn times, enabling increased speed to market.

New-hire onboarding and participation in Marketing training initiatives brought Liquid Sunshine closer to the business. Monthly team meetings and a culture club highlighting personal passions contributed to a six-point increase in employee satisfaction.

All of this translated to boosting in-market performance, resulting in meaningful increases for priority brands. That’s work that doesn’t just move consumers but moves brands to success.

Finalists

The Lab

BlueTriton Brands

The Lab at BlueTriton Brands is all about making waves. They produce water and the work that sells it. From Saratoga Spring Water to Pure Life and 11 other brands, their products flow through every aspect of U.S. culture. Remarkably, The Lab has just 17 people: one strategist, one project manager, and one person managing millions of dollars in media. Their lean team relies on efficiency, intelligence, radical creativity, and a detailed knowledge of their products and audiences to deliver exceptional results. The Lab’s social media efforts have performed seven times above benchmark, paid media 19 times above, and sales lift 14 times above. They also developed promotional partnerships with Bravo’s Top Chef, Betches, Food & Wine, and more, creating new highs in brand love and loyalty through The Rewards Drop program. The industry has lauded The Lab’s work with awards for campaigns that have led to significant growth for Pure Life and Saratoga. Their achievements prove that a small, cohesive team can bring passion, determination, and collaboration to make beloved brands even more desired. Most importantly, The Lab at BlueTriton Brands lets the company’s water and the satisfied mouths of its consumers do the talking.

Indeed Creative

Indeed

Historically, Indeed Creative has focused on long-form, earnest storytelling that supports the corporate mission: “We help all people get jobs.” But in 2023, the landscape shifted. With economic changes, a younger audience and tighter budgets, the in-house agency had to reinvent itself. Social media became their new focus, emphasizing measurement and optimization. Building a social capability was challenging for a group accustomed to long-story arcs. So, they leaned into three key areas. With someone finding a job on Indeed every three seconds, the in-house agency used rich data and market insights to create social content informed by weekly trends. They also worked closely with groups like Veterans at Indeed and LGBTQIA+ Pride to ensure authentic posts. And they celebrated U.S. Hispanic cultures, with content crafted by those living the language and traditions. The transition to social-first was tough, but the results were outstanding. Indeed Creative achieved metrics three to four times higher than benchmarks for a new era of data-driven content. They also introduced time sheets for better tracking, quantifying their efficiency. Despite budget cuts and related changes, the team persevered with head and heart—responding with empathy, flexibility and a focus on results to enable Indeed’s brand vision.