Client views on developing creative in-house

Respondents to the recent WFA survey reported that moving creative work in house is delivering cost efficiencies, better integration and increased brand and business knowledge, and that in-house teams had quicker and more agile processes. So the four studio leads - from Anheuser-Busch InBev, Kaspersky, Just Eat and Pernod Ricard - were also asked to highlight the ingredients that made this particular in-house work a success. 

Tracy Stallard, Global VP, Experiential & In House Agency (draftLine), AB InBev:

“Save pub life” campaigns, 2020

Around the world, local pubs, bars and restaurants were forced to close their doors as part of measures to contain the spread of COVID-19. These are the places that we gather with our friends and our colleagues and are the heart and soul of our business at AB InBev.

To assist them, the AB InBev in-house agency, draftLine, devised a unique platform through which consumers could purchase pre-paid vouchers for redemption when they reopened. This provided much needed cash flow. 

draftLine is a global network of 11 offices around the world. This allowed quick testing in London and replication of the platform for more than 23,000 businesses across 21 countries in only a few short months. The draftLine approach combines superior consumer understanding, creation of unique business solutions and, ultimately, engagement with the right people. 

This full-funnel approach combined with an ownership mindset and unique knowledge of the AB InBev business enabled the draftLine team to successfully deliver more than 26k transactions on the platform, raising millions of dollars for our partners – and all of this with no brief!

Find out more about the initiative in Canada, UK, Brazil, Belgium and Colombia.

Povel Torudd, Head of Brand Activation Studio, Global, Kaspersky:

“From Kurils with Love’ campaign, 2020

Since we started offering our creative content and strategic storytelling services internally in 2017, it’s become clear that the more complex the internal stakeholder map, the more sense it makes to  do the heavy lifting internally.

A good example of is the ‘From Kurils With Love’ campaign, which was partly co-produced with Expedition Studios; a branded entertainment piece with strong CSR and purpose elements built into its mechanic. As a ‘high risk, high potential gain’ project – it involved internal stakeholders from multiple marcom departments, as well as the C-suite. It’s been a true success so far with multiple prestigious festival screenings and award wins but I doubt that as a campaign it ever would have gotten off the ground, if it had been totally outsourced.

For us, it’s not always as clear cut as in-house versus outsourced – in fact most of what we do has elements of both as we put creative collaboration front and centre. But in some cases the majority of the work is and needs to be done in-house. I think it makes a strong case for the hybrid agency approach we’ve taken at Kaspersky.

Emily Ford, Global Head of Design, Just Eat:

"Here's a bigger deal" campaign, 2019

We saw Black Friday in 2019 as an opportunity to buck its hyped-up commercialism and add some more purposeful value by donating our ‘discount’ to FoodCycle – our long-standing charity partner who serve up delicious three-course meals to vulnerable people across the country.

We wanted to bring people together over a hot free meal and push for a ‘bigger deal’. As a collaborative in-house initiative between our Global Brand Studio, UK Marketing team, and beyond, the two-phase campaign ran across CRM and Social channels with launch comms announcing the idea; then what we hoped would be a positive follow-up on the fundraiser.

The former caught some initial (and expected) social slack from die-hard discount fans, but the latter announced over £250,000 raised together with all our customers for FoodCycle. It took the combined energy and enthusiasm of multiple in-house teams to identify the possibility that we could do something different. Working together at pace we secured stakeholder buy-in to ensure the success of this powerfully purposeful and feel-good campaign.

Nina Rosqvist, Head of Studio, The Absolut Company, Pernod Ricard:

“Absolut Rainbow – Love goes all around” campaign, 2020

This is a great example of how agile in-house work can be exactly what you need when outside factors are challenging. The brand expertise and proximity to the decision makers enabled the in-house agency at TAC to produce this campaign in very challenging circumstances without compromising creativity.  

With production looming on the Rainbow bottle campaign, COVID-19 struck and the brakes went on. However, just a week later, this new idea was presented with a basic “elevator pitch”: From Beijing and the Big Apple to Appleton, Wisconsin, LGBTQI+ people aren’t unique to big cities, they’re ubiquitous – making up an estimated 10% of the world’s population. 

The Rainbow bottle represents openness, freedom and equality. It’s a symbol for pride, progress and change. Throughout all cultures and countries. Across borders and around the world, this film flashes fast through the globe. Showing that no matter who you are – where you are – love and pride exist equally for everyone, everywhere.

Following extreme caution and health-safety measures, this execution was made while the world was peaking with COVID-19 cases. Working closely with production company, Chimney, we also sent bottles to their offices in Berlin, New York, Singapore, L.A. and Stockholm. 

The key visual represents the flag from afar, while the close up names the most friendly LGBTQIA+ cities in the world as well as the worst places for the community. No matter where you are – Love goes all around.