WPP accelerates digital production offshoring

by Daniel Farey-Jones, Brand Republic 28-Aug-08, 15:45

LONDON - WPP Group is establishing an operation that will distribute digital production work across the group's global business, headed by former Digitas technology head Neal Prescott.

Part of WPP Digital, Deliver is intended to give clients "the best solutions at the best price" by exploiting the scale of the group's digital production facilities and 700-strong team of production professionals around the world.

It means WPP agencies such as Agenda in China, Aqua in South Africa and Schematic in Los Angeles, which has an operation in Costa Rica, will be encouraged to handle a wider range of offshored work.

Prescott, who has been appointed chief executive of Deliver, said: "My job will be to act as the conduit through which the global demands of WPP's agencies are matched with the people who can execute the work in a seamless and economic fashion."

Rob Norman, chief executive of Group M Interaction Worldwide, said: "We have always had the resources, but Deliver will aggregate and catalyze our production assets and make them simpler to deploy."

In a recent Campaign feature on digital outsourcing Bill Brock, the founding partner of AnalogFolk, argued that clients are being ripped off by UK agencies and the work coming out of South Africa, Australia and Asia was good if not better.

Comments

Gelos Grapos - 29/08/2008

There is something very sad in the content of this article. The UK ad industry were masters of all that was not only creative but had some of the highest production standards and values. Sure it was expensive but the "value" it delivered and the contribution to brand communication and brand building was priceless - ask Stella, Honda, BMW, The Economist etc, etc. I know someone is bound to tell me that I am being nostalgic and the way of this brave new world we live in is all about leveraging resources, having a competitive advantages and overall doing things cheaper and faster than before Will the last person left in the UK please turn the lights off