Know-How Exchange : Advertising/PR

Depends on if you really want to look under the bonnet or under the hood.

In other words, what market are you after?

Michael

If your market is regionalized within the US and Europe, I would argue that a French agency knowing how to sell in Kansas makes as much sense as a California agency selling in Norway. Lower initial cost means nothing if the creative and messaging don't drive sales/return. That said, I would investigate why the costs in the US are so much higher... can you outsource to lower cost, but still high quality professionals in the US? There is a tendency to go with "name" agencies sometimes at the expense of great talent at a lower cost from a smaller, or up-and-coming firm. If you retain control of your messaging internally and just need execution, that might be one way to cut some costs.
Bottom line, I'd look at both the case for keeping regional work in a region (what about a Kansas agency to sell in Kansas, not just a US agency?) AND the case for more efficiency in your US operations.

Best of luck :)

Other than the market familiarity, I doubt there is an argument, you should start looking at lower cost options, utilize regional teams for projects related to their region

Cheers

We've got clients all over the English-speaking world using our designers and production artists in India for ad production. While there is a cultural assimilation process in place, some of our staff have in fact worked in our clients' geographic areas for some years.

Even though there are huge savings to be made here, if we didn't get this right then we wouldn't have any clients!

I believe it really depends on the industry. The higher the competition, the more important becomes marketing = higher prices.

Another reason may be that the in US advertising tends to be more explicit. If in Europe you 'just show a light on in a dark building to say something like: "We are working hard for you" in US you probably would need a someone fighting a tiger with a message: "Solving your wildest problems".

Hope this helps.

D

I don't understand your question.

if we are strictly talking about production costs and not creative costs, then of course it makes much more sense to go for the lower cost option assuming that the quality is the same which I can gues it is.

If production cost is the only issue under discussion here, then why not go all the way and produce your commercials in Manila.

Same quality post pro and 1/10th the cost.

If it is essential that the shoot is done 'on location' in the US, then you don't have too much choice but you can use 'non Union talent' to save some talent costs.

Once the shoot is done, you can still do all the post pro in Asia and save a bundle.

If there is a lot of CGI or animation which is typical with modern day commercials then the Asian market s definately the way to go to save a lot of money.

Good luck,

Matthew