Creative strategy: the missing link or the next step?

About the Event

The ambition of in-house creative teams is clear: move faster, be closer to the business, and step into a more strategic role.

The reality is messier: many teams find themselves stuck, producing more, but influencing less.

Creative strategy is often seen as the answer. But in practice, it quickly becomes unclear, overcomplicated, or detached from in-house realities.

During this one hour mastermind, Creative Strategy Expert, Uri Baruchin will tackle some of the questions many teams quietly wrestle with every day:

• What do organisations misunderstand about creative strategy when shifting in-house?
• Why does strategy so often feel difficult to apply, align on, or sustain?
• Why do familiar tools – from brand frameworks to briefing templates – fail to deliver clarity?
• What kind of strategic inputs actually work in fast-paced in-house creative environments?

This session will help you:

• Look beyond tools and frameworks, focusing on the more foundational challenge – building a shared language and culture around strategy that actually gets used.
• Address the growing role of AI: a tool whose effectiveness depends on the quality of thinking behind it, and how to avoid the rise of “workslop” – low-quality, generic ‘strategic outputs’.
• View creative strategy as a practical lever, unlocking better ways of working and stronger creative outcomes.

You’ll leave with a clearer view of how creative strategy can:

• Strengthen collaboration between marketing, stakeholders, and in-house teams
• Improve the quality and usability of briefs and strategic inputs
• Help teams move upstream – from execution to shaping decisions
• Make a stronger case for creativity in commercial terms

Who is this for?

This Masterclass is for in-house creative leaders who want to play a more strategic role, improve collaboration, and raise the impact of their work.

About our speaker

Uri Baruchin is a brand and creative strategy expert who works with leading brands and creative agencies. His award-winning work spans industries and geographies. Uri leads the Creative Strategy masterclass at D&AD, and in recent years facilitated better in-house marketing-creative collaboration at BBC Studios/Britbox, Specsavers, GoDaddy, ON Running, and others.

This Masterclass draws from experience working with and training in-house teams across organisations – as well as leading management consultancies – to explore why this happens and what’s missing.