An Interview with Maeve Dohogne, Executive Creative Director at Edward Jones

Maeve Dohogne of Edward Jones will be the host of this year’s In-House Agency Conference. The inaugural recipient of the ANA’s In-House Leader of the Year award, Maeve is in forward motion, inspiring creative excellence and genuine partnership. The ANA’s Peter Kenigsberg spoke with Maeve about her views of the industry, outlooks for the future, expectations for the conference, and more.

Peter Kenigsberg, ANA:Edward Jones operates in a highly regulated and trust‑driven category. How do you and your team approach creativity in a way that’s both compelling and authentic to the brand?

Maeve Dohogne, Edward Jones: I think a lot of creativity can come from exploration within constraints. I have said before that I love a really tight brief. Not a prescriptive one, per se, but one where it’s clear what the edges are. What is the singular problem to solve? What is our crisp message? What is the shining insight about our audience? Because when you know where the edges are, you can focus your creative energy on what to do with the space you actually have. The same goes for regulations. We have to know the rules, not so that we fear them, but so that we can play within them -- and playright alongside the edges. From a brand standpoint, we have to know what makes us, us. And we have to be obsessed with the people we want to reach. There aren’t always clear written rules, which is part of the fun. So we ask ourselves, if Edward Jones was a person, how would they show up in this new situation that they’ve never been in before? What feels true to us and is relatable to this new person we want to talk to, so we get invited into the next conversation?

Kenigsberg:In‑house agencies are often asked to balance speed, efficiency, and quality. From your experience, what helps creative teams do their best work within those realities?

Dohogne: I’d boil it down to three things: input, inspiration and decision-making. As much as we want to have 100% of the information at a kickoff, you don’t always. But sometimes 80% or 90% is all you need to get moving. We recognize the importance of people being on the same page before work gets too far along. So getting the right input from the right people at the outset. Critical. Then, knowing who HAS to weigh in on the work before it goes out the door. Don’t hear me say we love an impossible timeline, haha, but on the flipside, you can over-debate a thing to death. Strong creatives must know how to navigate ambiguity, to make work that sparks productive collaboration, especially in early rounds as things takes shape. Strong creative leaders must know how to navigate “matrixed” decision-making, so the work doesn’t get watered down. And perhaps most importantly -- you have to stay inspired, and inspire others, so that the bar stays high. We want our people to feel great about the conditions they’re given to work within, the reason they’re doing the work, and the potential impact they can make. If you don’t want to do great work, it doesn’t matter if you’re fast.

Kenigsberg: How do you foster strong collaboration between creative teams and broader marketing, strategy, or business partners inside the organization?

Dohogne: At the risk of sounding cheesy… Keeping our eyes on the prize -- we are all trying to help our business serve more clients in more valuable ways. To do that, we have to know and respect one anothers’ strengths and perspectives, speak the same language, pick the right battles, and… be people that people want to work with.

Kenigsberg: What should in-house leaders be paying most attention to in 2026 as they look to increase headcount and grow scope?

Dohogne: I’ll answer this with my “word of the year” -- balance -- and some questions we’re wrestling with that I think are broadly relatable. How do we take on more of the work we want to do, without burning out our people? How do we remain open to new partners, without becoming a team who just manages other peoples’ work? How do we adopt technology in a way that makes life easier, without robbing us of our human strengths? How do we expand our team tomorrow with new talent and perspectives, and maintain the things we love about who we are and what we do today?

Kenigsberg:As AI becomes more embedded in marketing workflows, what should leaders be thinking about to ensure investments are both responsible and effective?

Dohogne: Back to that word “balance”… There’s the need to both test out new tech to see how you might use it, and make sure you’re not building a hyper-fragmented tech stack along the way. If you can: invest small, in pilots or the like, before you invest big. And invite others in to test alongside you, because maybe they could benefit, too. Then once you are ready to invest big, build in the rigor (measurement, governance, oversight) to make sure that you’re balancing business benefit with brand integrity.

Kenigsberg: What are you most looking forward to at the 2026 ANA In-House Agency Conference?

Dohogne: I came away from last year’s conference feeling so proud to be part of the in-house world. I am looking forward to hearing about the incredible work that teams are making and the big problems they’re solving, how they’re changing the way they work, how they’ve made it through trials and triumphs, how they’ve come up with surprising ideas… I know I will be so impressed by the talent on stage and in the audience, and I can’t wait to be there!

For more information about this year’s conference and to register, please click here.

This article was written by Peter Kenigberg, Senior Director, Brand and Media at the ANA.

Posted at MediaVillage through the Thought Leadership self-publishing platform.

Click the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friends.
The opinions expressed here are the author's views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillage.org/MyersBizNet.