Consciously Decoupling: ‘Should I Use a Production Agency?’

The agency landscape is constantly shifting along with the requirements and demands of advertisers. There is a growing trend to ‘decouple’ production from creative agencies as  production functions are going independent and the word ‘decoupling’ is cropping up in more and more global marketing strategies.

But what is decoupling production? What are the benefits? Is it worth it?

Decoupling production essentially means outsourcing your global production function away from your creative agency and into a bespoke production house, like TAG, Hogarth or Freedman. These houses have whole global networks and processes set up for translation and transcreation and can offer plenty of benefits, including:

–          Cost efficiencies: by placing all of your production under one roof it becomes a consolidated piece of work (and, therefore, a consolidated cost). Not only is visibility over your spend much clearer, with many houses operating on a ratecard model, but you steer away from hidden costs and network charges, giving you greater transparency over your budget. Decoupling can often lead to an almost 30% savings for clients on production.*

–          Greater creative freedom: having your production outsourced means that capabilities in this area are no longer a key criterion when choosing a creative agency. We asked Kevin Freedman at Freedman International what he thought the impact would be of production firms on agency ecosystems: “decoupling partners can open the door for global brands to access the benefits available through engaging the best agencies, irrespective of size or specialisms.”

–          Better quality output: production houses are specifically geared up to produce the best quality work for your local markets. Production agencies are specialists in building relationships with local markets and understanding the nuances culturally to ensure that it’s the right creative, message, language etc. in every market. They work with you locally to ensure that everything drives ROI. They adapt and implement Global Master Assets into hard working local campaigns.

–      Scalability & Agility: the decoupling process enables, “the creatives to focus on the creative, which is where they excel, add the most value and deliver their best returns. The stress related to producing a global campaign with a large volume of assets, in multiple media, multiple languages and multiple markets, fast, is pass onto a specialist implementation agency.” – Kevin Freedman

Sounds good? For a lot of brands, especially those with a wide-reaching global output, it really is a great solution.

At Flock we have run numerous decoupling pitches (see an example of one here). If you’d like to know more about how we can help you, please do get in touch.

*Forbes