Decoupling the production of print and press advertising away from advertising agencies and into specialist production companies is nothing new. However, through the unquestioned value that the decoupling process brings to brand owners, it is likely to be of increasing interest over the coming 12 months given the austere times we are all experiencing.

Brand owners who decoupled/outsourced press and print advertising production as the point of least resistance from their advertising agencies are now looking to decouple with other media channels in order to replicate the same benefits, such as TV advertising and digital adapts from master. In addition brand owners are also looking at Point Of Sale and Direct Marketing as areas to centralise production, not just for cost saving but also for the efficiencies of process that production companies have grown up with, saving clients time and improving brand consistency. In the coming months the outsourcing of digital production activity in particular is likely to be an area of key consideration for advertisers. Also, as production agencies work across many channels they are able to provide additional value through pushing the marketing assets to social media sites, providing a feed to social media sites who are ever-hungry for content.

Global brands who have decoupled in the UK or Europe are now looking for a global production partner who can not only integrate other channels into the process but who can deliver a centralised global solution. Ideally, these partners should have the footprint and capability that comes from also working locally in regions where the brand message needs to be deployed so that local cultural differences and nuances can be applied to gain maximum traction in the market.

Advertising agencies should also be mindful that through the success of decoupling, production agencies now have grown their own, direct relationships with brand owners; they have achieved trusted partner status and they are being asked to move into the low touch creative space that the advertising agencies have occupied until now to produce the master for the client.

The challenge for the production agency to maintain its margins in 2012 is a tough one with production viewed as a commodity; simple back end production continues to be offshored to low cost production centres in developing countries. However I believe success for the production agency is to further develop their services upstream of production where projects can be taken on at design stage and delivered in a seamless process, providing the client with creative, project management and best in class deployment.