Company: RED @ Vanguard, In-house Agency at Vanguard, Malvern, PA
Company Description: In-house creative agency that supports Personal Investor Marketing at Vanguard.
Nomination Category: Company / Organization Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Company of the Year - Advertising, Marketing & Public Relations - Medium
 Nomination Title: RED @ Vanguard, Vanguard’s In-house agency, scales their success story
- If you are providing written answers for your submission, you must provide an answer to this second question: Outline the organization's achievements since the beginning of 2022 that you wish to bring to the judges' attention (up to 250 words):
Total 234 words used.
RHC has made a significant positive impact on Vanguard as a whole, which we often hear articulated best through strong reviews from our business stakeholders. “I’ve been at Vanguard for 17 years, and I’ve never felt better about the launch to a partnership than what this has felt like—and my last role included partnering with many external agencies. I felt incredibly listened to and heard during the initial discovery session with RHC, and the quality of the work is really impressive,” writes one Personal Investor executive stakeholder. Another enterprise stakeholder, Vanguard’s Head of Institutional Marketing, sums it up succinctly: “Outstanding process, people, and skills. And attitude!”
Aside from the glowing praise and feedback we’ve received from our enterprise clients for our important role in helping them meet (and often surpass) their business goals, we’ve made dramatic improvements in our overall cost savings and the value we add. Over 2.5 years, we’ve:
- Decreased agency production costs by 90%
- Created ~$42M in value through cost avoidance by bringing creative, advertising, and web design work in-house, redistributing significant funds back into the business
- Increased talent utilization by 35%, with team output continuing to increase by 4-5% monthly
- Validated via a third-party consultant and RightSpend that RHC is 24% faster and 54% cheaper than any external agency partner
- Increased crew morale by 29 engagement points on our annual survey
- Won over 100 creative industry awards
- If you are providing written answers for your submission, you must provide an answer to this third question: Explain why the achievements you have highlighted are unique or significant. If possible compare the achievements to the performance of other players in your industry and/or to the organization's past performance (up to 250 words):
Total 232 words used.
Most importantly, RHC’s contributions have stayed true to Vanguard’s mission of doing right by investors every step of the way by continuing to increase our value and reduce costs. RHC has saved Vanguard over $42 million in external agency costs so far, increasing work output by 190%.
That being said, we are equally proud of the impact this change has had on our employees – our crew. Everything our leadership has accomplished over these last few years has truly uplifted our creative teams, enabling them to be a part of the planning and strategic process and to be recognized as the innovative contributors that they are.
In the words of one of our video producers, “Throughout my career I’ve worked with all kinds of teams, large and small. As a creative, one thing I’ve always had to grapple with is vying for a seat at the table. From the moment I started at RHC, everyone here has proven that innovation is bread in a culture that values and trusts creatives as much as any other role. Our leaders consistently put faith in our team, in our acumen, and most importantly (for me) our craft. I became a creative because it’s in my soul, but this is the first time in my career that I have had leaders that truly value my expertise in a craft that I have spent years honing.”
- Which will you submit for your nomination in this category, a video of up to five (5) minutes in length about the achievements of the nominated organization since January 1 2022, OR written answers to the questions for this category? (Choose one):
Written answers to the questions
- If you are submitting a video of up to five (5) minutes in length, provide the URL of the nominated video here, OR attach it to your entry via the "Add Attachments, Videos, or Links to This Entry" link above, through which you may also upload a copy of your video.
- If you are providing written answers for your submission, you must provide an answer to this first question: Briefly describe the nominated organization: its history and past performance (up to 200 words):
Total 190 words used.
In 2020, we transformed an in-house creative services team into a full-service in-house creative agency capable of providing enterprise-level marketing support – Vanguard RHC.
Our transformation has given us the capabilities to provide creative marketing support to Vanguard at the enterprise level, empowering creative teams with new opportunities for upskilling and career development along the way. We have:
- Merged the roles of agency account management and creative strategy into a new hybrid role to ensure a strong liaison with stakeholders throughout the creative process.
- Set up a robust reporting structure so we can predict, flight, and scale our work.
- Added new capabilities in video, animation, motion graphics, social media, digital production, UX strategy, research, and testing.
- Added a team of Creative Agency Managers to oversee creative project management and resourcing, flighting, and workflow creation with a focus on speed to market balancing with quality of deliverables. The CAM team has provided project management support more than 1,900 deliverables across our RHC project teams and our enterprise business partners
It’s resulted in world-class creative that can compete with the best in the industry—creating wins for our clients and crew alike.
- You have the option to answer this final question: Reference any attachments of supporting materials throughout this nomination and how they provide evidence of the claims you have made in this nomination (up to 250 words):
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