In-House Excellence Awards
Grand Jury

ALICIA JONES

Senior Director, Brand & Digital Marketing
Hilti

BIO

Alicia Jones is the Senior Director of Brand & Digital Marketing for Hilti North America, where she oversees brand strategy, digital marketing, and integrated communications across the region. She focuses on shaping clear, consistent brand narratives and aligning marketing efforts across channels to drive growth, engagement, and long-term brand strength. 

Over the course of her career, Alicia has worked across industries including automotive, aerospace and aviation, and construction in both B2B and B2C environments. Her experience includes agency and in-house roles, giving her a broad perspective on how marketing teams collaborate and bring ideas to life. She has spent much of that time building and evolving marketing organizations, often bringing together brand, digital, and communications functions to work more collaboratively and effectively. 

Alicia is particularly interested in how in-house teams can foster strong creative work while balancing measurable business impact and the realities of complex global organizations. She enjoys bringing clarity and structure to growing marketing environments and creating the conditions for teams to do their best work. 

In 2025, the Hilti North America marketing team she leads received an ANA In-House Excellence Award. Alicia is honored to now serve as a Grand Juror, helping to recognize the thoughtful and effective work being produced by in-house marketing teams across the industry. 

Q&A with Alicia Jones

Provide one word that defines “In-House Excellence” in 2026. 

Accountability. 

What is one trend in creative operations or in-housing you are watching most closely? 

I’m closely watching how teams are blending human creativity with AI-powered tools, not as a simple cost-efficiency tactic but as a way to accelerate processes, remove friction, and elevate the strategic role of creative operations teams. 

In one sentence — what is the single most important element that moves an entry from “Good” to “Grand Prix”? 

A clear through line that connects a sharp insight, a bold creative choice, and an undeniable business outcome, rooted in a real understanding of the customer and the market context. 

What is the #1 mistake teams should avoid when telling their campaign's “story” in a submission? 

Focusing too much on how the campaign was executed (the “what”) and not clearly conveying the core insight or problem it solved (the “why”) is the number one mistake to avoid. 

Why is it critical for in-house agencies to have their own dedicated stage for recognition? 

Because in-house teams sit closest to the business and its customers, they are uniquely positioned to turn brand direction into work that reflects real market needs. Showcasing that capability elevates the industry’s understanding of what effective, market-grounded creativity looks like. 

When reviewing submissions, what signals tell you that a program is driving real, sustainable business growth? 

I look for evidence that a team understood the commercial context of their market and that their strategy was not just a global template, but a regionally tailored solution grounded in customer behavior, competitive pressure, and channel realities. That is where sustainable growth shows up. 

How do you evaluate the role of data, AI, and marketing technology in creating meaningful brand impact? 

I view data, AI, and marketing technology as valuable enablers of creativity and effectiveness. They create meaningful brand impact when they help teams make smarter decisions, move faster, or deepen customer connections, not when they become a surface-level tactic that doesn’t add value or stand ins for human insight. 

In an era of rapid automation, what “human-only” quality are you looking for most in this year’s submissions? 

I am looking for human judgment, the kind of contextual understanding, intuition, and cultural nuance that no algorithm can replicate. 

Get to know the 2026 In-House Excellence Grand Jurors.