As generative AI continues to reshape the marketing landscape, in-house agencies are emerging as the natural leaders in its implementation and innovation. By bringing AI inside, brands can better see, control and own their entire marketing ecosystem.
At Campaign’s recent In-Housing Summit, OLIVER’s Chief Strategy Officer Nick Myers and Head of Global Content Production Peter van Jaarsveld shared insights on why GenAI is best managed from the inside. Here are the key takeaways from the event:
The power of integration
While GenAI promises enhanced creativity, efficiency, and cost savings, its successful implementation requires careful management across multiple business functions. “The most successful implementations we’ve done at an enterprise level are the ones where, from the start, we had legal, compliance, and marketing in the room working on what we were trying to achieve,” explains van Jaarsveld. This integrated approach is naturally facilitated within in-house agencies, where cross-functional collaboration is built into the organizational structure.
Transforming ways of working
GenAI isn’t just changing what we can do – it’s revolutionizing how we work. Traditional role-based processes are being streamlined, with AI enabling greater agility and efficiency. As van Jaarsveld notes, “What’s happened now is suddenly you can skip through those handovers, and one role can do all those things…it changes the speed and agility with which we can do things at a very fundamental level.”
Learning from regulated industries
Surprisingly, regulated industries like pharma and financial services are leading the way in GenAI adoption. Their experience in managing complex regulatory requirements has equipped them with robust frameworks for innovation – something all sectors can learn from.
Starting the journey
For brands hesitant to embrace GenAI due to limited precedents, van Jaarsveld offers this advice: “You can’t learn to swim from the shore. You need to get things turning and be in a state of readiness.” The key is to start with clear objectives and targeted pilots, rather than waiting for perfect conditions.
Cultivating the right culture
Success with GenAI requires more than just technology – it demands the right organizational mindset. This means creating space for experimentation and learning, while maintaining safe frameworks for innovation. As Myers emphasizes, in-house agencies are uniquely positioned to be “the epicentre for innovation,” thinking about GenAI not just as a production tool, but as an end-to-end solution.
Measuring success
We’re already using GenAI to enhance performance measurement and creative evaluation. Through tools like Pencil, The Brandtech Group’s GenAI marketing platform, we’re able to assess creative impact more objectively than ever before. However, as van Jaarsveld cautions, it’s crucial to avoid the trap of simply repeating past successes: “AI tends towards convergence… The really important thing here is to not fall into the trap of saying ‘this has always worked, so let’s do it again’.”
The future is in-house
As brands navigate the evolving GenAI landscape, in-house agencies offer unique advantages: deeper brand understanding, integrated compliance frameworks, and the ability to innovate at speed. By combining technological capability with intimate brand knowledge, in-house agencies are ideally positioned to drive meaningful innovation in the GenAI space.
Read the full write up of Pete and Nick’s session over on Campaign, or watch their session in full below.
Want to learn more about how your brand can harness the power of GenAI through in-house capabilities? Contact us!
