We are currently entering what appears to be a golden age for working in-house, as creatives move in their droves from traditional creative agencies over to client side. Just a few years ago, such a shift would have seemed incredible and today the concept that in-house teams can create work to rival that of independent shops still raises eyebrows: last year, the famously outspoken John Hegarty ruffled feathers when he pronounced that “working in-house you end up working with the most boring creative people…. The really great creative people are outsiders looking in.”

It is fair to say that not every piece of work coming from in-house teams is creatively brilliant (though nor is that from the traditional ad agencies either), but if you’re after an example that can quash Hegarty’s claims, then look no further than BBC Creative, the Beeb’s in-house marketing team, which now has over 150 staff and has created much sparkling work to promote the broadcaster’s wide and varied output.

Prior to the launch of BBC Creative in 2016, the marketing for the corporation had been solid but somewhat dull. The network tended to hide its lamp under a bushel – there was little sense of the sheer variety and enormity of content produced every day. And if you were going to name an exciting creative team working in TV, the answer would hands-down be 4creative, over at Channel 4, with the BBC unlikely to get much of a mention. But perhaps with an awareness that the war for viewers presented by Netflix and Amazon isn’t going away, the BBC has upped its game in recent years, both in its programming and also in its self-presentation.

BBC Creative is headed up by Laurent Simon, who has been with the in-house team since its formation (initially with creative partner Aidan McClure, who departed to Wonderhood Studios, former Channel 4 chief exec David Abraham’s new venture, last year).

After graduating from the ad course in Watford in 2006 (where the French creative arrived unable to speak English), Simon cut his teeth at AMVBBDO before joining adam&eve, remaining at the agency as it merged into adam&eveDDB.

“AMV was very good for trying to overcome business problems and do advertising for market leaders, because they were looking after some of the biggest brands in the country and round the world, whereas adam&eve were smaller players who just had to bend the rules to make enough noise to compensate,” he says of his time at the agencies. “That was quite an interesting learning curve.”

When he received the call from BBC Creative, “it just seemed to be a no brainer”, he says. “Because of the corporation itself, it’s a fantastic organisation. It’s got amazing purpose.” He was particularly excited at the chance to “flex my brain in different ways and apply the knowledge and experience I’d acquired to a slightly different industry”.

Because of the corporation itself, it’s a fantastic organisation. It’s got amazing purpose.

Simon wasn’t phased by the move in-house, instead seeing it as an incredible opportunity. What he didn’t anticipate, perhaps, was the enormity of the task. “I just underestimated how big of a corporation it is … I didn’t quite imagine in my head that it would basically be running at 100 miles an hour for 150 brands or programmes from day one.

“I think the BBC has a wider portfolio than any other in-house agency,” he continues. “At the BBC we have the same diversity and variety, probably even more so, than the likes of adam&eve or Abbott Mead or Mother, because you’ve got hundreds and hundreds of channels, products, services and programmes and they’ve all got their own tone of voice…. It’s almost like you’ve got the best of what an agency has to offer with the best of what an in-house set up has to offer, which is the proximity and the collaboration. I’m not saying it’s perfect by any means, but it’s got a lot to offer.”

Simon cites the breadth of skills that he and McClure developed at AMV and adam&eveDDB as being particularly helpful at the BBC, where the work they have created has cut across design and rebrands to major campaigns such as the BBC One Christmas ads.

What has marked the in-house agency’s work out so far has also been an emphasis on craft. This is particularly evident in its 2018 World Cup campaign, which featured an ad created entirely in embroidery, and also its exquisite BBC Two idents, created in collaboration with Superunion and a range of external artists and designers. But not everything is about beauty – BBC Creative can do wit too, as evidenced in its amusing email from Alan Partridge to all BBC staff, which quickly spread outside the corporation and went viral.

For Simon, the ambition for BBC Creative going forward is simple: to create marketing that is as good as the content contained within the Beeb itself. “At its simplest level our purpose is to inform people of what they can hear, watch and experience,” he says. “But in terms of the modern-day landscape, things are shifting and changing. There’s new voices and new companies who are bigger in many ways. I do believe that what the BBC stands for is worth protecting and promoting. It has a unique voice in the rest of the landscape. [But] the competition is far wider than that – it’s anyone or anything that takes time from people. It’s Spotify, WhatsApp, Instagram, whatever they might do.

“We’ve got a bit of a lofty, poncy ambition here at BBC Creative, that we want to do the world’s best marketing for the world’s best broadcaster,” he continues. “The BBC has always prided itself on making amazing content or apps or whatever, and if that’s the standard of what they do, then all the bits in between should try and be just as good as that. If you’ve got an award-winning documentary or an award-winning drama to promote, the very least you can do is give it your best shot to make sure it’s on the same par.”

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