January 18, 2005
ad creative outsourced
Ad Creatives May Lose Jobs to India
Just as many other industries outsource the bulk of their work, it’s not surprising it’s now being done in the advertising industry. Ad execs David Banjeree and Seema Trivedi have launched Banjeree & Partners, a New York-based agency which will outsource a portion of the creative process to India. Founder Banerjee says research and initial concepting will be handled in New York and then sent to 15 teams in India who will create the actual work. Banerjee claims his shop can do the work for 40 to 60 percent less than going rates.
Am I surprised by this? Of course not– outsourcing is the future and all that.
What they’re not telling us, of course, is how good these creatives in India are. If they’re good, a 60% savings means nothing. If they’re not good, then at 60% off they’re still a waste of money.
Any advertiser who thinks of his creative product as a commodity deserves to fail, and funnily enough, probably will.
[PS:] Actually, this isn’t an ad for Adrants. I just like the image so I put it up etc.
[AFTERTHOUGHT:]
Having any kind of “creative job” has always had the same problem: lots of other people wanting to do it. Puts yourself in a very crowded market. And thanks to technology and globalisation, it’s getting even more crowded.
The trick has always been to find a creative job where you, yourself become hard, or even impossible to replace.
Usually that means “owning” some sort of primary relationship, unique tradeskill, or unique piece of intellectual property.
But whether they are American, Indian, British, Bulgarian, whatever, the creatives “who just do the work” are invariably perceived as ruthlessly exploitable cannon-fodder.
NOW: Outsourcing creative jobs to India.
NEXT: Outsourcing creative jobs to your customers.
http://socialcustomer.typepad.com/the_social_customer_manif/2004/12/the_purpose_of_.html
Did not the Indians produce the zero ??
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Outsourcing is a global. US outsources to India, and in turn, India outsources to Hungary and brazil..got figure..who has figured out the business model ..
zero.. means …zero
I had to decide whether to blog this development today. I chose no. But, I’m gald to see it here in the Void.
If you read the source story closely, the concepting will be done in New Yawk. The Indians will be production artists paid to execute the ads and other ideas.
Hugh,
you are terrifying me. Next time you’ll say that as soon as I’m not young and cheap I’ll be out of the job market.
it will be interesting to see how the artistic taste of those Indian creatives will appeal for the US (or European, anyway) people’s tastes. Maybe it will bring new flairs to advertising, maybe not.
However, for clarification: they won’t really outsource to Hungary. Here wages are much higher than in India… I don’t know what’s going on in Brazil, however
It’s fairly simple. Any “commodity” skill that can be outsourced will be. My commodity skills where outsourced years ago. Yours were too…you just didn’t know.
Any skill that can be done anywhere is on (or soon to be) the commodity list. The skills that are least likely to be outsourced are the ones that require physical contact and cultural sensitivity. Ahhh…the fuzzy front-end of the creative process. It’s the best part anyhow…
Chins up! …and just to be safe make some friends in India, China, and the Ukraine.
Regards,
Has advertising creativity been commoditized to the extent that it can be outsourced like the production of a DVD player?
If so, that helps to answer why advertising is dead.
Surely, it’s a commodity. It’s template commodities.
It didn’t take me longer than a semester to realize that much of printed graphic work is designed around templates. In a megabook store even the “uninformed” and not so critical eye could pile the books into categories of book design templates.
Check the progress in a product like Photoshop over the years. Where it started, the tutorials that have been created, and then how much of that gets automated and becomes a button (commodity) on your screen.
After a semester of interactive design, it was easy to see how much the web would be designed around templates. How do most publish their blogs?
Another course in 3-D technology and it was easy to see how actors and actresses could be designed around a template.
So how are you going to stop it when it comes your time?
When they outsource YOU
If you’re a copywriter, that snarling and growling you can hear may be the wolf at the door.
You guys have any idea how many international advertising awards India win every year? I saw the portfolio of this agency called banerjee. Some of the stuff is very cool. I don’t think we should underestimate the brain power of Indian advertising folks.
I agree, Greg– there’s no reason why Indian advertising can’t be good.
Some things are easier to outsource than others…
We’ll all be watching this story with great interest, because obviously if it works out well then WHOOOOSH! expect more advertising to be outsourced to India, and expect it to happen very quickly.
Hugh et al : I am not in Advertising, but I do have folks in India who are in Advertising and just let me say the “whooooooosh” word is already happening.… !!
I wish I were back home. They kick back and lease out an entire Club w/open bar for an evening.. b’cos they sign up a big Account.
.… just like the good old days.. Bloody party animals !! Miss em … drunk’m sods !!
You guys won’t believe this one. I just learnt that the head of the Cannes ad awards jury was an Indian! Which means we are probably in a state of denial. A country has to really hot in advertising to be recognized by Cannes. That too as the head of the jury!!!