• 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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  • 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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  • Creativity Born Out of Structure

    June 29, 2015

    Yes, you read the title right. The all-important and often overlooked way to stimulate creativity is through structure.

    Technology, process, organizational design, and purposeful management trump latte machines, foosball tournaments and in-house yoga classes when it comes to encouraging innovation. …

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  • Idea-Generating Techniques for the Desperate

    June 22, 2015

    Here’s a general rule of thumb regarding idea-generation techniques: they’re clunky, dorky and time-consuming. Oh, and they don’t work. You reluctantly resort to one when you're under the gun for an idea, then end up wasting valuable time that leaves you even more frustrated and desperate and …

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  • Real Patients. Real Stories. Real Collaboration.

    June 01, 2015

    Telling your company’s brand story can sometimes seem like a life-or-death proposition. For Baylor Scott & White Health, one of the largest not-for-profit health care systems in the country, their brand IS life or death. And they've spent years perfecting the process of storytelling...navigating …

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  • Collaboration Inside & Out

    May 26, 2015

    If orange is the new black, collaboration is the new integration.

    Remember when agency integration was all the rage? Just a few years back, clients and agencies focused heavily on the importance of strategically communicating across multiple channels. While still important, integration has been …

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  • (25 Ways to) Love the One You’re With

    May 18, 2015

    • by IHAF Staff

    When 1970’s folk rocker Stephen Stills released his break-away hit single Love the One You’re With, we’re pretty sure he wasn’t talking about internal/external agency collaboration. Regardless, Stills’ lyrics are prolific calling us to live in harmony with one another, “If you can't be with the one …

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  • Lights, Camera, Collaboration!

    May 11, 2015

    Advertising is transitioning, evolving with its viewers, moving from the perspective of “I” the brand to “we” the consumers. As part of this evolution, many companies are seeking both innovation and engagement with their target audiences. Consumers want to be motivated and inspired—seeking …

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  • Let Them Lead

    April 21, 2015

    One of the keys to leading a successful organization is recruiting and nurturing new leaders within your agency. Finding and cultivating people who could give us “more legs on the stool” became one of the most gratifying achievements for my core group of senior leaders and for me personally.

    In …

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