Smartshoring® is an evolution and more modern version of offshoring, making use of the best talent, wherever they may be.
This last year has seen a huge acceleration in digital growth and a change and unpredictability in consumer behavior as well as a mass adoption of borderless working practices.
Therefore, agencies and brands are under increasing pressure to reshape their operational models to meet the needs of their customers and drive greater levels of efficiency. Challenges include:
Economic Globalization
Brands are increasingly widening their outreach and selling into new markets, and they need agencies who can provide global brand consistency. Doing this requires decoupling the management of content from the creative and production processes to ensure efficient re-use of content and artwork as well as streamlining the approval process.
Content at Scale
Content has never been more important. There are now an abundance of digital channels and consumers expect brands to share content across multiple sites. Social media has become a driver for sales for consumers with an insatiable appetite for educational and entertaining video content. There is a primary focus on short form video content to support a digital first strategy and keeping brands relevant.
As a consequence, brands and agencies must rapidly adapt to trends in the market, daily content trends and make the most of the campaign content they produce. Manipulating this into multiple specifications, into different languages and cultural subtleties.
Uncertain Economy
COVID-19 has slashed marketing budgets across the board, putting pressure on brands and agencies to continue producing the same results but with less budget which is forcing them to find cheaper ways of doing things. The market is also getting harder to predict so this uncertainty produces a need to be agile and quick to react to changes in the landscape.
Taking on a partner who can provide more value at the same quality as well as having the capacity to scale up when required is one way to make the most of budgets.
Hyper-personalization
Consumers now demand personalisation. To only be contacted or only be shown relevant adverts, as well as have a unified experience across all brand touchpoints. This creates an increased reliance on data and the need for increased efficiency around how the data is processed as well as utilised to produce a higher ROI.
It is now imperative for brands and agencies to undergo digital transformation, upgrading their own business processes, bringing in outside talent and partnering with other relevant agencies to bring in the expertise and scale which is needed.
Smartshoring®
Smartshoring is part of the solution to these challenges.
Offshoring, redefined and evolved by We Are Amnet led to the creation of Smartshoring® . We blend our low-cost production hubs across the globe with in-country client services teams which ensures a seamless experience on every project.
Smartshoring can work as an extension of your in-house studio, adding a scalable, flexible and highly skilled resource to your team.
A Mature Marketplace
The offshore market has matured significantly in the past five years, due to an extensive talent pool with a wider skillset, market education and more global awareness, continuous commercial value, global campaign management and a move to digital first.
Our recent report found that 50% of agencies have had an offshore partnership for at least five years and 76% of agencies currently offshore some creative production services.
The 4 Steps to Smartshoring®
A successful partnership needs planning and forethought, so before you start on your Smartshoring journey consider we suggest:
Select the right project
Analyse suitability of the project and the scope. Then schedule and plan out the implementation. Some service lines are better suited than others to offshoring.
Process & brand immersion
Collectively agree on processes, enabling technology and ways of working to minimise risk during the pilot project and beyond.
Having access to in-country account managers ensures a foundation for long term success, as they optimise communication and work closely with their key accounts on both planning and execution.
Define success
Agree deliverables, timings and quality control all wrapped up in a strong communications plan. Performance metrics and SLAs are established early on to benchmark progress and success throughout.
The next steps
Get in touch with our team today to discuss your requirements and select your pilot project. We look forward to exploring how Smartshoring® can solve your challenges.
