Made in India - the ad story

OUTSOURCING: Now Western ad filmmakers discover the wonders of India.

When Metlife Insurance came to India to shoot a television commercial (TVC) targeted at Indians living in the US, it needed an Indian wedding as its theme.

Shooting the ad in India saved the company around 68 per cent of what it would have spent if the ad had been shot in a Western country.

This is because an ad film-maker, director of photography and crew is approximately 50-90 per cent less expensive in low-cost countries like India, says a study by SmartCube, a business research company.

In effect, a TVC produced end-to-end (production and post-production) in India can save 44 to 77 per cent in costs. Predictably, India has emerged as a lucrative outsourcing destination for production of TVCs.

Fast catching the fancy of Western countries, primarily the US and west European countries, Indian creative agencies are reaping rich benefits from the nascent Rs 150 crore advertising outsourcing industry. Services to foreign clients now comprise less than five per cent of overall service portfolio for Indian production houses, but is growing at around 30 per cent annually.

"Only basic services in the production process are being outsourced at present," says Sameer Walia, managing director, SmartCube.

"Clients have the option of outsourcing either the entire advertisement (from the ideation stage to its final form) to an agency in a low-cost country like India, or some selected elements in the production or post production phase depending on factors such as cost, location, expertise or storyboard."

India has also seen the outsourcing of creative services. This is best illustrated in Perfetti Italy's Alpenliebe TVC where the creative content was conceptualised by Ogilvy India and production services awarded to Corcoise Films based in Mumbai.

"We did European spots for Perfetti after the company liked some domestic Indian ads the agency had produced," says Sagar Mahabaleshwar, group creative director, O&M.

One spot produced specifically for Europe showed a woman blindfolding her boyfriend on bed, then using the opportunity to take a bite of Perfetti's Alpenliebe candy.

Mahabaleshwar reasons, "Perfetti thought it was a good business proposition to use the Indian agency's creative talent for its TVC."

O&M also works on international TVCs for brands such as Kodak, Close-up from India, but it is still a few steps away from claiming to make money from international client accounts.

Offering stiff competition to India are other low-cost countries like Brazil, Argentina and South Africa, in terms of offering rich geographic diversity with mountains, deserts, forests and beaches all within close proximity, so that producers can pass off an outdoor street shot as one from New York or Paris.

"Due to the location of key low cost destinations in the southern hemisphere, clients can achieve outdoor shoots with a summer theme during the winter months of October to February," claims the SmartCube report.

To attract production contracts from foreign clients, the Indian government has reportedly signed a co-production agreement with Italy, France, Germany, Singapore and the UK, simplifying the process for foreigner to shoot films (including TVCs) in India.

"Also, other low cost countries cannot counter India's cheap availability of talent, including actors and key crew members," asserts Walia.

The bulk of the outsourced creative work today is in area of online campaigns which use skills such as computer-intensive image editing and database management in which Indian agencies excel.

"The majority of the outsourced production in near future," agree Mahabaleshwar and Walia, "will be done for ads that require an Indian feel, where the advertiser attempts to target the Indian or Asian demography in the Western population."

However, Naresh Gupta, vice president strategic planning (south Asia), Grey Worldwide adds a word of caution, "Don't expect Indian agencies to throw away their Indian businesses and go for international wins just yet." His agency made print ads for Genpact that ran in magazines targeting senior executives in the US.

Agencies in India charge as little as a sixth of what their counterparts in more developed markets do for a campaign. "But an Indian agency cannot claim to have in-depth insight on a European or American brand," Gupta points.

Outsourced creative work is presently only six per cent of Grey Worldwide's revenues, but the agency is hopeful for more.

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INDIAN FLAVOUR
Services outsourced to Indian ad-agencies

Banerjee and Partners
Designs slogans and ad themes; the staff in Bangalore does art direction and photo colour correction.

Tribal DDB
Manages British Telecom's global online communications operations

Grey India
Does ads to recruit professionals for Genpact in India, China and Hungary

O&M India
Does production work for its offices across the world; also works on the IBM, Castrol and Nestlé SA accounts, which have been shifted to India

Percept Profile
Manages the Nissan LCV account

McCann-Erickson India
One of its Indian ads (for Coca Cola) is being adapted to other global markets