In-House Excellence Awards: Grand Jury Insights with Carlos Ricardo

In the run up to the grand jury judging for the Association of National Advertisers’ (ANA’s) In House Excellence Awards, the organisation is partnering with Little Black Book on a series of features that dig a little deeper into how the jurors judge the work. 

The 2024 ANA In-House Excellence Award winners will be announced and celebrated at the In-House Excellence Awards Gala on May 15th during the 2024 ANA In-House Agency Conference, May 14-16th, at the Omni La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, Calif. For programme details visit here. 

Up today is Carlos Ricardo, formally of HP.

LBB> What are the key trends you're anticipating seeing in the entered work?

Carlos> The biggest trend I see is the use of GenAI and other AI technologies for content creation. 2023 was a year of experimentation, proof of concept and business cases. This year has been the systematic use of AI platforms to improve quality, speed and of cost of output. Machine translation is also significantly improving our ability to produce content in multiple languages with better turnaround time and cost. We are also excited with dynamic content platforms that are allowing us to produce content at scale in a more automated way.

LBB> Every entrant wants to know what it will take to win – what are the elements you will be looking for in this year’s entries to garner a top score? 

Carlos> Work that answers to a clear brief and designed to produce business outcomes.

LBB> How do you feel the role of the in-house agency will continue to evolve over the next 12 months?  What do you predict in-house agencies will look like in 3-5 years?

Carlos> In-house agencies that are aggressively testing and adopting new technologies will survive and thrive.

LBB> Given the unique challenges and opportunities in-house agencies face, how do you weigh originality and innovation against strategic alignment and brand consistency? 

Carlos> In-house agencies have to do all of these things well or they will be replaced by external agencies. It’s that simple.

LBB> How do you approach evaluating work that is innovative or experimental, but may not fully adhere to traditional marketing effectiveness metrics?

Carlos> I evaluate that poorly.

LBB> What are some key things to consider when judging in-house created work? Will that be something to consider?

Carlos> Creative solution to business problems. An in-house agency should have the pulse of the business and therefore greater responsibility to deliver work that drives results.