As reported by Brand Republic, the new operation, and 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.
By creating a single outsourcing partner on this time zone, WPP will have literally hundreds of agencies in the UK alone that could be directing work to it.
Aqua in South Africa could easily have over 100 clients (in the UK alone) that need to be prioritised in a democratic (who pays most gets) or communist (we have a ticketing system and you'll just have to wait until it's your turn) way. Both of these models present problems when you consider the sheer volume of work.
Aqua in South Africa will inevitably begin to focus on coping with the work load which will impact on financial efficiency, quality of work and, arguably most importantly for production agencies, responsiveness and direct access to those who work on the jobs.
Each WPP agency may compromise its buying power and ability to build relationships with partners who see them as an important client to have and to retain.
Lemon has learned over time that the best smaller businesses/self-employed people we work with are the ones we give lots of work to and for whom we become a key client. All the others to whom we give ad hoc work have no commitment to us -- they will happily take on work when it suits them but will never bend over backwards to help us.
This is what we need from our suppliers to ensure we can be responsive to our clients, especially when the unexpected happens and the pressure's on.
Matthew O'Riordan is managing director of Lemon Digital Production, a UK agency- to-agency digital production outsourcing house.