Does offshore outsourcing make sense for advertising?

The benefits of offshoring aren't just limited to the IT world. See if sending your ad production overseas might work for your cost-containment initiatives.

Capitalizing on lower cost resources overseas is certainly not a new phenomenon; but what may surprise you is that offshore outsourcing is rapidly moving from experimental to mainstream in the marketing world.

Forward-thinking businesses and agencies can lower ad production costs by 40 percent or more by moving components of the process offshore. Though this capability has existed for a number of years, a few recent trends are making it a mainstream reality

You’ll probably be surprised to learn the companies leading the charge. For example, Ogilvy & Mather recently opened a 24-hour creative support studio in Bangalore for its global accounts such as Lenovo. Wieden + Kennedy opened an office in Delhi to serve local and global accounts, merging with A Creative Agency to form W + K India. And they're not all new ventures. Sapient, opened an office in Delhi in 2000 and currently has over 3,000 people across three offices in India alone. Sapient integrates U.S.- and Europe-based studios near the client geography with creative and technology teams in India to produce banner ads, microsites and web/mobile applications.

India has a natural advantage in an English-speaking workforce and scale. However, while agencies vary in their scale and maturity with respect to offshore ad production, the phenomenon isn't isolated to India. Indeed, the talent is abundant globally, and advertising executives can choose from agencies with services based across India, China, Latin America, Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia.

Now, before you slash budgets and reduce your staff, understand what it takes to be successful in offshoring ad production.