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A report released by We Are Amnet and TKM Consultants found that the US and European offshore creative production market has matured. Offshoring services has become essential for agencies to stay competitive, to access flexible resource and produce content at scale.

The global pandemic, remote working and socially distanced shoots have been a catalyst for greater spend in more accessible service lines including CGI, animation and display advertising, which in turn has forced teams to adapt to new ways of working and new partnerships.

This is only growing with 70% of survey participants stating that they would be investing more in offshore creative production services over the next 12 months.

The creative production market is not a new proposition, as well as recent increased investment, 50% of agencies have been working with an offshore partner for at least five years. These partnerships have been continuing to grow at a steady pace, forming long term relationships, becoming less transactional and in many instances becoming an extension of the team.

The process of searching for an offshore partner is still heavily reliant on recommendations and referrals, with 69% of participants finding their partner this way. Other methods include being directly approached and utilising webinars and conferences.

“A lack of industry analysis to support the decision-making process is a challenge for many agencies when selecting a partner. Market trends and insights relating to the leaders and challengers in the market is scarce and perhaps a concern for many agencies.” Anil Noorani, TKM Consultants.

The factors considered most important when searching for an offshore partner included their level of experience and capabilities, the quality of their existing work and flexible and competitive pricing. The access to expert and capable talent has developed in offshore studios over the last 20 years, and this coupled with savings of up to 80% has propelled the offshore creative production market forward.

While savings inevitably deliver the business case and ROI, the satisfaction levels in relation to service, cost, communication and quality are also extremely positive among those agencies and in-house studios investing time and energy in creating the right offshore partnerships. 77% of all agencies were either very satisfied or satisfied with their experiences and the service to date. With a further 20% unable to express a clear satisfaction bias.

Measuring the success of the partnership came down to four main criterias; the quality of work being to the expected standards came out on top with 73% of the vote, work being done to the deadline got 54%, and rigorous SLAs and forming trusting relationships both getting 46% of the vote.

Of the many options given for the question of what maintaining a successful partnership looks like, one answer really stood out getting 70% of the vote which was forming a long-term partnership built on trust.  Trusted partner status is now a must have, as businesses invest in the long-term vision and value that a trusted partnership brings, rather than the short term burst to drive momentary profit.

As offshoring continues to grow and mature, Smartshoring® is arguably the most progressive of the offshore models available. It provides in-country client services with offshore global hubs, delivering value at both the client services front end and the production back end.

To download a copy of the report click here.

Saskia Johnson

Author Saskia Johnson

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