GraphicPeople

Transitioning Across Continents: From New York to Buenos Aires to Dhaka

Tools/Software Used
– Adobe InDesign
– Adobe Photoshop
– Adobe Illustrator
– Microsoft Word and Excel
– JIRA
– BYNDERMarketing communications for the gaming and entertainment industry is a fast-paced area of the business requiring quick response times and roll outs of marketing initiatives. Therefore, the production of all marketing collaterals need to be tightly coordinated to attract casino customers seeking the best gaming and entertainment experience. The Isle of Capri Casinos (IoCC) were producing high-volume, diverse marketing collaterals for all of its 14 properties across the US using different vendors. This complex and decentralized production landscape, coupled with the challenges of synching time and output for simultaneous product launches, provided an opportunity to improve production efficiency.

Wunderman New York pitched a onshore-offshore blended model to IoCC for creative and production work, which would centralize print and digital production in one location. IoCC partnered with the agency, happy with a solution that would offer better quality, efficiency and consistency of production across all of its 14 properties. Production work was first offshored to Wunderman’s Buenos Aires production hub in Argentina, with the Wunderman Dhaka hub also providing some support. Within six months, in an effort to further boost efficiency and consolidation efforts, all production work for the IoCC properties was transitioned fully to Dhaka from Buenos Aires.

Work Cut Out

Centralization of all marketing collaterals production from a complex, multi-vendor production process, integrating workflow processes for all properties, and print and digital production; simultaneous versioning (adaptation) and production of 1000 units of 30+ types of marketing collaterals for 14 casino properties, across print and digital media; real-time synching with client’s US offices.

Shuffling Time Differences and Resources: Offshoring Challenges

Transitioning complex production work of 14 different casino properties across multiple media into a centralized system in another continent requires high quality project management resources. Real-time synching of Dhaka and US times was an immediate challenge faced by the Wunderman Dhaka team. Given the diversity and volume of production, requirements from each of the 14 casinos had to be individually transitioned into a single workflow system first. Production of print and digital media also had to be synched and coordinated with marketing teams in the US to ensure seamless roll outs of high-visibility promotions. This required setting up a strong communication system involving all project and client teams and simplifying the processing of briefs and feedback.

“We completed the transition of operations from Buenos Aires and New York to Dhaka in one month”, says Sahariar Hannan Jitu, Wunderman Dhaka’s Head of Digital Production. “Even though a transition of this nature is complex, our experience in dealing with North American clients made it a seamless one.”

Dealing with a Steady Hand: How Wunderman Dhaka Helped

Benefits Delivered
– Centralized production hub streamlined communications, QC, and optimized resource allocations.
– Shortened time to market utilizing time zone advantage.
– Time zone ‘disadvantage’ turned into advantage for client, ensuring continuity of work during both US and Dhaka times.
– Quick adaptation to changing work volumes – freeing up or deploying additional resources as needed – improved efficiency.The Dhaka team’s long experience in dealing with clients across time zones and complex projects helped to centralize all production activities from the 14 casino properties under a single project management system. This centralization immediately improved coordination, consistency, reporting and resource allocations across print and digital production. The team turned the earlier time zone ‘disadvantage’ into an advantage for the client, dividing client communication and production activities into day-night time slots. Dhaka would communicate with the US with real-time updates during US business hours and resume production during Dhaka business hours using project teams in shifts. Each casino property’s work was transitioned individually to Dhaka first, with team members applying the learning experience of the previous transition to the next one, until all 14 properties were centralized as one large project. Powerful project management tools like Jira and the ability to quickly create customized work flow processes helped ensure quick turnaround times across print and digital production. Real-time resource allocations could now be seen easily and this ease of reporting also enabled the client to optimize marketing budgets for future promotions. Project teams at the Dhaka hub could be quickly staffed with more or less team members according to the volume of the work and this flexibility helped the client optimize production costs on different campaigns across the 14 properties.

Results: Playing All the Right Cards

A month after transitioning all of the production work, the Wunderman Dhaka team produced 1,000 production units of over 30 different types of marketing collaterals in print and digital media for all 14 casino properties. Print materials included over 500 production units of posters, cool cards, booklets, decals (including vehicle decals for casino vehicles), kiosk images, branded stationery, scratch cards, table game signage, and a host of other marketing collaterals. Digital marketing communications included 261 production units of attractive monthly newsletters and animated banners. Centralized production resulted in better reporting, improved transparency and visibility of resource allocations for each marketing campaign. It also streamlined the briefing process under a single system making information flows clearer, compared to earlier practices where client briefs would be sent in variable formats.
“When you bring everything under a single project management system, efficiency is increased and everything can be measured and optimized from a single place” explains Masudur Rahman, Wunderman Dhaka’s Head of Offline Production. “This is an essential aspect of offshoring and a big advantage to our offshore clients”.
The Dhaka hub’s internal client was equally pleased with the results. “It was amazing to see how the project was managed and everything was ready for the client on time. A big thank you to the Dhaka team for making these miracles happen!” says Jennifer Colon, Wunderman’s Regional Marketing Manager in New York.

All Bets Are On: Offshoring and the Future of Marketing Communications

Transitioning complex production operations across continents can be a difficult decision for clients requiring high-volume production of marketing collaterals in multiple media. Distance, quality, communication and time zone challenges are usually top concerns. With more than a decade of experience supporting the most recognized global brands, the Wunderman Dhaka hub has consistently delivered top class production work across print and digital media making offshoring an attractive option for North American, EU and Asia Pacific clients. “Our Dhaka team has turned the time zone difference into an advantage for clients, and our customizable project management and automation tools promise the best quality output wherever our clients are based” says Imtiaz Ilahi, Managing Director of Wunderman Productions Dhaka. As the global production landscape shifts Wunderman Dhaka is looking forward to exciting times in 2017.