Home Sweet Home

We had a great trip to India to visit our design production and programming partner, Basil. But it sure is nice to be home and back in Chicago – even though we had to experience a nearly 50 degree difference in temperature.

Over the next day or two, we will be summarizing our trip and will include final thoughts. This blog will then act as an archive of our trip for anyone interested in visiting India, exploring creative global sourcing or is just curious about what Sanjeev and I did in India.

Thanks for your interest and thanks to the great friends, family and business partners in India who made our trip memorable and successful.

Expect Challenges

We are having some great dialogue today with Basil executives and the agency that is visiting from the United States. One hot topic is about potential challenges and obstacles. In short, people get used to working in certain ways. And when looking at any kind of change, many things come into play and get in the way — such as established processes, relationships, personalities and comfort level.

This especially holds true with the whole idea of creative global sourcing and looking at different ways to produce creative work. My simplest answer to people who ask me about potential obstacles to success in this arena is that they should expect challenges. More importantly, your mentality must be that there will be obstacles and “I need to plan on how to overcome them in order to give this new way of doing things a fair shot.”

We often advise agencies on a pilot project with a minimum number of hours attached so that the entire process can be experienced fully. Every step of the process should be a time of open dialogue of what is going right and what is not. Both parties should be dedicated to moving to a second pilot project in order to work out the kinks and develop a working relationship and understanding that lays a groundwork for long-term success. Ideally, that would lead to a longer term engagement with visibility to projects over the course of several months or a year that would benefit all parties involved.

Be Proactive

Agencies need to start exploring global production sources and bring solutions to their clients before they get an e-mail from procurement telling them they must explore global resources, or worse mandate a particular organization to work with off shore.

For Fortune 500 marketers, you also want to stay ahead of procurement and work with them to come up with the right solutions for your team and your agencies.

We Arrive at Basil!

We have had a fantastic trip so far, but meeting with our partners at Basil is the main reason for our long journey. It is great to be here and we are looking forward to a productive 24 hours.

They have very cool space in the AVS industrial corridor of Bangalore. They have been at this location for a little over a year and have 50 full time professionals on three floors with room to expand. More on the facilities later.

About Basil

So who is Basil and how does BlueSilver work with their team in Bangalore?
Basil is a creative design production and programming studio that BlueSilver represents in the United States. BlueSilver also uses Basil services for current consulting clients who have various print production and programming needs. The full scope of services through Basil includes a whole suite of global creative services including print design production, illustration work, interactive programming (including Flash development) and data management.

This is an important point. The services Basil provides through BlueSilver are not meant to replace the big ideas or strategic direction coming out of an existing agency relationship or corporate marketing team. Rather, they allow creative and interactive marketing professionals to spend more time thinking about the next big idea and developing original thinking and design, with an eye toward growth. Leaving the production work to Basil.

A few other important points about Basil:

• Basil was founded by former advertising agency and creative executives.
• Its staff works on United States and United Kingdom time zones.
• It has a proven track record of success serving some of the world’s largest brands such as Coca-Cola and Uniliver.
• Basil has leadership experience working within agency organizations including Y&R, Dentsu, Bozell, Lintas and JWT.

We’ll talk more about Basil as the day progresses and our trip concludes.

Nizam’s – Kolkata Institution

We had a fine lunch at a Kolkata institution, Nazim’s. It has a long history that dates back to 1932 and is known for its rolls and kabobs. The roll I had was chicken wrapped in bread that is fried. You eat it like a burrito and it is called a kathi (stick) since the chicken is grilled on a stick on coals before being wrapped into the bread. I am linking to this article because it does a good job at bringing the experience to life.

Sanjeev’s father used to go there in the 50s and was the first place he took his new wife after a long honeymoon driving trip across India. Nothing else was open as they drove into town so they went to Nizam’s.

If you are ever in the area, definitely stop by.