Web advertising work gets outsourced

Online advertising firms are increasingly looking to workers in low-cost regions such as Eastern Europe to do the leg work to in creating web advertising, WSJ.com reports.

Traditionally the domain of highly techie creative sorts at the top of shiny towers, ad agencies such as avVenta Worldwide are now delivering web ads to clients at rates up to 50% less than competitors by having them produced by workers in Kiev, Costa Rica and Ukraine.

While the creative work is still usually done by local ad agencies, avVenta does the back room production work on the web ads – kind of like getting Italian designed shoes made in China.

Workers countries such as Ukraine present a range of advantages to companies like avVenta – not only are they well trained and cheap, but they are also relatively plentiful, a big advantage given the ICT skills shortage in developed nations.

As with all outsourcing, however, the cost savings are balanced to some extent by some of the logistic challenges associated with outsourcing.

“They are not down the hall, and they are not down the street. It hinders communication,” Gunnar Wilmot, senior vice president of market development at advertising company McCann Worldgroup told WSJ.com.

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