Building an in-house team isn’t just about hiring talent - it’s about designing a powerhouse that can drive innovation, protect your brand’s integrity, and accelerate growth. As we explored in our recent post, Welcome to the In-House Revolution, businesses are increasingly shifting towards in-house models to gain greater control, agility, and cost-efficiency. Making that shift successfully requires more than just good intentions; it demands a thoughtful, strategic plan.
In this post, we’ll take the next step: how to plan and build an in-house team that’s set up to succeed. From identifying the right mix of skills to creating a structure that fosters collaboration and creativity, here’s how to lay the foundations for your own in-house powerhouse.
First-priority hires
Clarity starts at the top. Without strong leadership, even the most talented in-house team risks becoming an underutilised asset, disconnected from the wider organisation’s goals. Strong leadership doesn’t just provide oversight - it defines the team’s purpose, aligns it with the business, and ensures creative efforts deliver real impact.
Typical leadership roles might include:
Chief Marketing Officer
The CMO sponsors the in-house team, aligning creative investment with business growth and representing the function at board level.
Creative Director
Sets the creative vision, defines what great looks like, and ensures output meets both brand and business goals.
Brand Director
Shapes brand perception and ensures consistency as the brand scales across channels and teams.
Head of Strategy
Connects business goals with market insight to deliver clear, focused campaigns. Writes briefs and builds project plans.
Head of Content or Studio Lead
Oversees daily operations, ensuring briefs are actioned, deadlines are met, and priorities are clear.
Next, build around the areas where your team can drive the greatest impact. As Andrew McKechnie (former global design head at Apple and founder of Verizon’s in-house agency 140) told Forbes, the key is to “start in areas that have the greatest impact, visibility, customer touch, and ability to scale.”
Identify your current pressure points, whether it’s a backlog of social briefs, delays in marketing collateral, or underperforming paid media, and start there. Your first hires should be focused on solving business-critical challenges. Early wins reduce friction as you scale and embed your in-house team more deeply across the organisation.
Structuring for success
To choose the right structure, you need to start with WHY. It’s important to know how your work will help the business, because that will define what processes, tools and team structures are needed.
If the priority is strategic alignment, the “thinking” should all be internal. That means working closely with commercial leads, product teams, and customer insights to shape campaign direction from the inside out. The internal team should own the plan, with external partners brought in only for overflow or production delivery. This model is especially effective for technical or B2B brands where marketing has historically sat on the sidelines.
| Key roles: Creative Strategist, Content Strategist, Planning Lead, Insight or Research Manager
Conversely, if the core need is toprovide creative distinction, more of the “doing” must be internal. From ideas to execution, the team must be built to create brand-led, high-quality work consistently. The IHALC Benchmarking Survey shows that raising creative standards is the top priority for in-house agencies, ahead of speed and cost - underscoring the need to structure in-house studios around ideation and collaboration. That only happens when teams have the space to collaborate and own the idea, not just the output. External partners can still help with production at scale, but the core creative thinking should stay close to the brand.
| Key roles: Creative Lead, Content Manager, Writer, Designer, Editor, Content Creator
Although strategy and creativity might be the most popular drivers behind in-house teams, there might be a need to improve operational efficiency. The structure should support high-volume delivery. This works for performance-driven businesses that rely on speed, data, and tight campaign loops. We’ve seen a clear rise in brands building internal teams around paid media, CRM, and analytics - helping them close the loops between insight and output. While agencies may still handle brand campaigns or innovation work, practical execution lives in-house.
| Key roles: CRM Lead, Performance Marketing Manager, Paid Media Specialist, Data Analyst, Traffic Manager
The team’s structure should evolve as it grows. As volume increases, expectations will shift and specialist roles will naturally emerge. Successful in-house teams know how to listen, challenge, collaborate, and prioritise, and they understand that trying to do everything at once leads to burnout, not impact.
By staying attuned to broader operational needs, the in-house team can establish itself as a trusted internal partner, not just a faster or cheaper alternative to what came before.
Scaling for success
Scaling your in-house team isn’t just about adding headcount; it's about growing with purpose and intent. The most successful in-house agencies scale in response to genuine business needs, not just workload spikes. Watch for signs like consistent bottlenecks, increasing reliance on freelancers, or missed opportunities due to a lack of capacity or specialist skills.
As you grow, keep these principles in mind:
Build where the work demands it. Let business priorities and creative output guide your hiring decisions, instead of assumptions or internal pressure to scale for its own sake.
Strengthen your structure. Growth without clear processes, defined roles, and robust workflows risks creating confusion and inefficiency.
Balance agility with stability. Use freelance or contract talent strategically, but don’t let temporary fixes delay building permanent capabilities where they’re needed.
Prioritise diversity and inclusion. As your team expands, actively seek varied perspectives and experiences. Diverse teams make stronger decisions and create work that resonates more widely.
Scaling at the right time, in the right way, turns an in-house team from a functional resource into a true strategic asset. The key is to grow with purpose, guided by business needs, creative ambition, and a commitment to developing talent. When done well, your in-house team becomes more than just a delivery engine; it becomes a powerhouse that drives lasting value across the organisation.
If you’re looking to build out your in-house capabilities, whether permanent hires or freelance support, then we’re ready to help realise your ambitions: talk@majorplayers.co.uk.
