How to make in-house a home for impactful work (and a happy team)

According to a March 2026 survey from NewtonX & 𝘈𝘥𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘬, more creative is moving in-house.

From the findings: “32% of brands expect to handle all creative in-house within 12 months, driven by AI adoption, while another 23% plan to bring at least half in-house.”

So brands want to save time and money, nothing new there. What about the work? How can it be nurtured to not stink?

I’ve sat on both sides of the agency/in-house fence, and think a lot (too much) about what holds in-house back. These ruminations give rise to my top tips* to avoid burning through 76.4% of the budget and 63.8% of the creative team†:

💪🏽𝗛𝗶𝗿𝗲 𝗮 𝗖𝗠𝗢 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝗶𝘀 𝗮𝗻 𝗶𝗿𝗼𝗻-𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗱𝘃𝗼𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘄𝗼𝗻'𝘁 𝗯𝘂𝗰𝗸𝗹𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗽𝗼𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗰𝘀 𝗼𝗿 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗽𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗴𝗴𝗹𝗲𝘀.

Give the CMO agency to run the team as needed to meet agreed-upon goals, AND ownership over final approvals. If you are serious about getting in-house right, choose the CMO with care, and everything else should be gravy. Or at least you won’t have the team running for the front door and money flying out the windows.

The right hire should advocate for the below. Listen to them when they do.

🚧𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝗮 𝗯𝘂𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗿 𝗮𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺 𝘁𝗼 𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗺 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗼𝗰𝘂𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝗶𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗹𝘆.

Success begins with agreement from the top and then trust to execute. Once you sign off on strategy, goals, and vision, let the CMO and team run. Create a space to openly discuss wins, experiments, and areas of improvement in informal quarterly check-ins. Approach strategy as a whole—don’t nitpick individual pieces. And for all that’s good and holy, don’t make the team jump through PowerPoints every time they want to try something new.

🥅𝗖𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗿𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝗮𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱 𝗴𝗼𝗮𝗹𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗱𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗼𝘂𝘁𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘀—𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗰𝗿𝗶𝗽𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗮𝘀.

There’s an education component that comes with bringing creative in-house. Part of it involves teaching people (trying my darndest not to type that overcooked term, “stakeholder”) the best ways to feed work into the pipeline. Requests for work should focus on WHAT the desired goal is. The creative team is responsible for recommending HOW best to reach said goal.

To be a good partner to the creative team, it’s essential to share relevant information—customer/user/product feedback, intel from sales calls and the field, ideas to tighten positioning, even if just by a few degrees. This is what allows the in-house team to create work that makes the audience feel seen and shows the brand understands their problems.

Set out the welcome mat and see what a great houseguest creative can be.

*If you’re looking to save $ on mass-produced content, you can skip this post. †Estimates plucked from my nightmares.