Many firms are offshoring web development, software development and even small design projects. What about creative services? Are firms offshoring more complex creative projects (ie. product design/development or advertising campaigns)?
My interest is not in price, but in availability and scalability of high caliber resources.
What are reasonable expectations for offshoring creative services, and the capabilities of talent in regions like India, China or South America?
From my perspective, I would not want to provide creative services for a product being sold in China, because I don’t have a solid understanding of the Chinese market. I believe the reverse is also true.
Jeremy:
Isn’t design/development a core competancy of most organizations? I am obviously a proponent of outsourcing and offshoring, but I’m thinking that product development is something I’d want to keep close to the vest. The products an organization offers are its raison d ‘etre- they are what defines it. Who could do that better than the organization itself? I would not outsource the bulk of my product development, let alone offfshore it.
As regards advertising, I would use extreme caution. If you watch even a bit of TV in foreign countries, you quickly see that the ads are different in almost every way. You need Americans to design ads for Americans, Indians to design ads for Indians, etc.
One of the things that people who are opposed to offshoring frequently say is that cultural differences always cause serious problems. But the reality is they usually don’t. However advertising would be a definite exception.
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