Archive for 7 January, 2008
Outsourcing – could it happen to Planners?
I wouldn’t like to be starting a career in artwork right now as it seems to me that its one of the most likely skill sets in our industry to end up being outsourced. I’m already coming across new local specialist artwork studios set up to mop up the overflow from larger agencies and remove the whole department from smaller agencies. Outsourcing artwork overseas would just mean that more work could be turned around overnight.
I do appreciate that there’s artwork and then there’s artwork, with many mac operators being the vital final link in a chain producing complex, intricate work – but I think we 
could start to see some retail press work disappear to the other side of the world in the next few years. Catching Storyville on the BBC late last year about India’s Office Tiger was a sobering experience – legal and financial services roles being outsourced to a place that would fulfil them cheaper, faster and do so 24 hours a day. The Office Tiger staff were veeeeery ambitious. Never mind work/life balance, for them the problem was managing a work/sleep balance in order to continue functioning and working even harder.
So my thought is that if you could say that at least part of a Planner’s role is to understand and interpret cultural and market neauances …if W+K can plan a mobile phone campaign for Romania from London, why can’t someone else plan UK campaigns from the other (cheaper) side of the world?
