Who caught the results from the new ANA Survey as reported in Ad Age this week? In 2012, 52% of marketers will ask their agencies to reduce internal costs. Moreover, 84% of marketers report being under pressure to reduce costs and control spending, up from 77% just one year ago.  Agency respondents proposed several short-term cost reductions – from cutting professional development costs to over-utilizing local freelancers – that won’t do much for their long-term competitive position.  However, one solution is resoundingly absent from the article; embracing the best practice of digital production offshoring.

More and more companies are exploring the idea of Decoupling. In fact, this solution was passionately discussed at the 4A’s Transformation Conference last week in a panel about evolving agency models.  When advertisers decouple production from creative and offshore the production to specialists in low-cost countries they discover a wealth of benefits.  This model allows creative agencies to focus on what they love to do, which is to set creative strategy and generate creative ideas, while the production partner focuses on the execution of those great ideas in digital media.  Most importantly, when marketers embrace this model, they reduce digital production costs by 20-50%.

When we created Deliver as WPP’s digital production agency, we built it with an eye on minimizing risk.  Therefore, our production solution contains the following characteristics:

• 1,300 experts in 10 countries means that we have the capabilities to meet any need at virtually any capacity
• Market leading creative agencies within the world’s largest marketing communications company house the production hubs so marketers can be confident about the quality of our talent
• Engagement manger oversight with collaborative technology ensures simplicity as we seamlessly integrate with creative teams

Why look at short-term cost reductions that are likely to cause long-term damage?  Why take the risk of sacrificing quality, flexibility, or creativity? The pressure to reduce costs is real and it is only going to intensify.  It is time for marketers to embrace the 21^st Century and the benefits brought by Globalization.  A trusted pioneer at the vanguard of this global movement, like Deliver, can show you how.

Ben Rolly is VP, Business Development for Deliver North America. You can contact him at brolly@deliveroffshoring.com.

Ben Rolly is VP, Business Development North America for Deliver.

As digital production offshoring becomes more prevalent in the United States, we need to ask what is driving this rapidly accelerating trend.  Some might say it is the growing supply of quality talent in emerging economies.  Others may point to the adoption of collaborative technology that seamlessly connects offshore production experts with onshore creative teams and project managers.   While both of these are contributing factors, we believe that the primary driver of digital production offshoring is that marketers are focused on reducing costs.

We all understand that cost savings begin with cost-effective staff.  However, we may fail to realize that the savings don’t end there.  Additional cost savings can be wrung from additional efficiencies – in team and activity consolidation, standard and optimized processes, templates, and automation.  Furthermore, a consolidated digital production solution can eliminate costs that aren’t usually top of mind.  One such example is the cost of training.

Training is important.  After all, new emerging technologies appear almost daily.  New digital channels constantly displace existing channels driving the ever expanding digital universe.   Consumers engage with this universe on increasingly varied platforms and devices, which require advertisers to make their experiences ubiquitous.  Marketers that want to capitalize on the accelerating digital universe need trained resources, and the rate of change means that training will be a necessary recurring cost.

That leads to the million dollar question.  If I were to ask how much your marketing organization invests in training resources – both directly and indirectly – would you say “too much”, “too little”, or “just the right amount”?

If your answer is “too much”, then you should consider the benefits of consolidating your digital production with an offshore specialist like Deliver.  When you decouple production to Deliver you acquire access to our pool of 1,300 production and technical experts, which negates the need to train.  In the case of proprietary systems where training is necessary, a retained team in a cost-effective country will still yield savings.

If your answer is “too little”, then you should consider the benefits of consolidating your digital production with an offshore specialist like Deliver.  The digital universe is commanding a greater proportion of consumer attention than ever.  Marketers ignore new platforms, technologies and devices at their own peril.  When you decouple production to Deliver you gain economies of scale from our global network and your underinvestment in training ceases to be an issue.

If your answer is “just the right amount”, then you should consider the benefits of consolidating your digital production with an offshore specialist like Deliver.  Your competitors are exploring ways to reduce costs in their marketing organizations.  Those that succeed in reducing production and training costs can channel those savings into more creative, more media and more initiatives.  In other words, they gain a competitive advantage.  The decision to continue “business as usual” in defiance of a competitor’s embrace of globalization doesn’t make business sense.

Oh, and by the way, that million dollar question … was a trick question.   Every marketer can benefit from decoupling and offshoring digital production.  Let us show you how.

How do we ensure the producer is a) skilled for the job from a global perspective and b) once hired gets all the relevant training and knowledge? The answer is easy. They have an interview at a global level, and are checked against a number of criteria before globally approved. Producers receive standard on boarding training and then “specialize” with an additional 3 modules relevant to producers which will help them in their daily task and function.

I often think of the global and regional contacts like an “air traffic control” center used in aviation terms. Ensuring the markets have all they need to fly, and fly safely, with no crashes along the way despite having the amount of markets and channels we have in the air at one given point as we do!

Jacqueline Peers fills the position of Global Producer Lead on the Nokia business for Deliver/Wunderman, and has done so for the past 3 years. As Global Producer Lead it has been her responsibility to be clear and up to date on the business as a whole in terms of tools, ops and production processes, campaigns and core contacts as she is responsible not only for the on-boarding of new producers and Interactive Managers, but is also an escalation point of the markets, mediator between Markets and various Production Hubs located worldwide. She is a key communications person ensuring all markets are updated and aligned to constant operational changes across the business in the various digital channels. Jacqueline comes from a Digital Project Management background and has approximately 4 years experience in global Production and the core principles therein.

In one sentence if you had to sum up what the markets producer is required to do it would read like this “A producer’s primary job and objective is to get a global master asset or copy localized, and adapted for local implementation”.

As simple as it sounds, the job itself is far more complex ;Producers deal with many channels within one global campaign. This can include mobile sites, email communications, master site implementation, banner creation, or even standalone development originated at a local level. Because of this, each markets’ producer is required to understand each of the accets development processes, the associated tools for each channels, all while working with a local team and client, as well as global contacts

Working with the production hub presents a whole new challenge for the producer because there are specific processes the producer need to understand and learn, in order to ensure successful delivery of the localized and adapted assets. It is their responsibility to brief and manage each task through production and approval, while maintaining healthy relationships and clear, frequent communication with both the production hub and local client. The manner in which the producer engages with the production hub in terms of briefing must always be clear and concise. Working with a team in a different location requires a skilled, organized and effective communicator to effectively brief and guide the hub team. When a producer possesses these skills, I see great success in the production process.

You have all heard our team talk about digital production, and the benefits clients can realize when they harness the power of a global, cost-effective production solution.  As we begin 2012, I wanted to share one of our best case studies of last year. As you read the story below, I believe you will see the value in Deliver’s process and perhaps even how you and your clients can benefit from a similar strategy.

The Partnership

Deliver and our client, a leading global consumer packaged goods firm, together with their two digital creative agencies, came together to consolidate our client’s digital production globally. The goal was cost-savings; savings that could be reinvested back into the WPP Team budget to fund new marketing initiatives, such as mobile applications and social media.

Structuring the Perfect Relationship:

As a multinational, multi-product company, our client needed a production solution that could meet both their global marketing needs as well service local markets for web site development, online advertising, e-mail campaigns, and mobile applications.

The Deliver team put place a proven method to leverage cost-effective staff, consolidate team activity, standardize processes, leverage templates and automation and roll-out a global delivery model to ensure quality delivery and continual optimization.

Deliver New York engagement managers established and educated dedicated production teams in Bogota and Dhaka. Deliver employed three specific engagement models to efficiently service the client, as well as our client’s digital agencies:

• Dedicated Agency Team – responsible for executing the digital agencies’ creative vision
• Local Market Teams – responsible for local marketing program execution based on creative provided by agency partners
• Global Production Team – responsible for Deliver localization of our clients’ global web property. The digital creative agency develops master materials and Deliver works with their offices, with the help of a translation partner and local media agencies, to adjust master creative to meet local market requirements.

The Results:

With hundreds of thousands of dollars in savings, our client was able to expand their digital reach in 2011. Deliver produced over 1,000 banners, launched over 50 websites, and developed iPad applications and Facebook game localizations in 30 markets.

Steve Forcione who works as the WPP Managing Partner for this account stated, “The successful partnership between our client’s creative agencies and Deliver proves that leveraging a global production solution can be easily and seamlessly integrated into any client’s digital program.”

I hope that 2012 will bring forth new collaborative relationships between Deliver, your agency, and clients that produce these same positive results for all of us. I’d be happy to speak to you at your convenience regarding our process and how Deliver can save your clients 20-40% on your digital production costs while opening up new creative and strategic opportunities.

Ad Age published the article, “Friends With (Digital) Benefits: CMOs Link With CIOs.” It discusses the growing importance of the collaboration between the CMO and CIO. Although this article was published a few months ago, its message remains extremely relevant.  In order to successfully execute strong digital advertising, a strong relationship must be established between these two individuals.  No longer can great creative stand alone; today’s market defines an effective campaign as one that is not only strategically and creatively executed, but also measurable, targetable, and analytical.

Mr. Paderni, an analyst with Forrester Research who has been studying the relationship reinforces the significant shift within the marketing world, instigated by the digital revolution and fueled by the economic crisis. “Now, both functions are under pressure from the CFO and CEO. The market dynamics are pushing accountability for both functions,” he said. “And, at this point, even the marketer that would like to go it alone is realizing the level of complexity and data management is too big to manage alone.”

Working in digital production we have always seen the importance of the marketing / client technology lead relationship.  Due to the increased complexities concerning client deliverables, we believe the involvement of technology leads is a vital component to a successful campaign kick-off and execution. Production campaigns always tend to run smoother when we have the lead technologist available to communicate directly with production teams and specify technical details that a strictly marketing focused executive might not be able to effectively communicate.

Various reports about the overall advertising outlook suggest that we are in a “good news, bad news” situation. On the one hand, overall advertising spend in the U.S. is projected to decline in the third quarter, according to our WPP colleagues at Kantar Media. Details are available here. Another survey suggests that the optimism of ad executives is at record lows. An overall weak economy will do that.

On the other hand, the outlook for digital marketing is much brighter. Digital and especially mobile media spend continues to build ad budget confidence.

Overall budget shrinkage is primarily driven by reductions in print and TV, while digital marketing budgets continue to expand. Some industry analysts have cited these trends as evidence of two separate advertising markets – digital and traditional.

It’s no surprise that digital is on the rise, but we think what’s missing from the equation is what you might call the “value index.” It’s not just the size of budgets that matter, but rather the value that is created (the sales produced and connections made with customers, etc.) from them.

Especially in digital channels, more marketers have learned that they can stretch existing or even smaller budgets to produce more creative or fund initiatives in new formats by embracing digital production best practices. That’s the proven way to produce higher value from budgets, whether they’re growing or shrinking.

And if digital channels are to be thought of merely as an extension of traditional channels, that’s all the more reason to set up integrated processes for converting core brand messaging and campaigns from traditional into the digital world. 

Considering that travel can be expensive, what is the payoff when a client meets their digital production teams in person?  In my experience, there are several immediate and tangible benefits:

Increased buy-in (executive level):  Moving critical client work to a location they have never seen in another country can understandably make some executives nervous.  A personal visit can confirm that the facility being considered is safe, secure and fully modernized. Having executive clients visit our Deliver hubs, tour the office, meet the production teams, and spend time with office leadership allows clients to quickly get past their fears that offshoring significantly increases their risk profiles.  An IT review to see back-up generators, redundant network lines to ensure Internet connectivity and the latest servers demonstrates that our hubs are up to global industry standards.

Better communication:  As simple as it seems, “putting a face with a name” is critically important within global teams.  I’ve seen time and again how our clients appreciate the perspectives of our specialists more once they realize they are experienced professionals who are as committed to the work as they are – not just voices on a conference call.  Building relationships in person leads to improved communication even after the trip is over, as people learn to understand each other better and trust each other’s input.   And being there gives you a chance to meet everyone on the team – not only the project managers and leads who might be the most vocal on the phone.

Increased buy-in (Staff level):  When work is being transitioned from a local team to a production hub, the agency staff tasked to manage the work – typically project managers, or technical leads – is often understandably upset about the change from working with the designer in the next cubical to one thousands of miles away.  Asking them to meet the new team in person to share their knowledge, and to be responsible for an element of training or onboarding, not only helps build relationships, but also helps return a sense of accountability and ownership to those project managers and tech leads.  It gives them a stake in ensuring the new model succeeds, and helps them to focus on solutions, rather than complaints. 

In large team transitions I believe this is a particularly critical component – during one multi-brand transition, each month we cycled 1 or 2 project managers down to visit the hub for a week.  After each trip we saw a marked improvement in the performance of that project managers group.  Interestingly, as time went on and we hired new project managers, the trips were still helpful, but less dramatically so – the new PMs accepted the model as business-as-usual and so were bought-in from the beginning.

Deeper brand knowledge:  Production teams love to work on well-known global and US brands just like we do.  Hearing more about the clients is exciting to the team and helps give them real insights into those brands.  When the team better understands the real-world business challenges their clients face it gives them a much better understanding of why the work is important (and why they see all those “crazy, last-minute” requests.)  That sort of context is invaluable in really tailoring processes to work their best for your business.