BY STEVEN JACKSON
Friday, February 14, 2014
ANIMATION experts will use the outsourcing model to attract US$ millions and create jobs for Jamaicans.
Its a model practised by the local-based call centres which attract Fortune 500 outsourcing contracts and employ thousands. The difference is that animation outsourcing earns more at some US$68 billion compared with US$43 billion for call centres, according to local experts and an industry survey from audit firm KPMG respectively.
“Just give me one per cent,” reasoned Wayne Sinclair, head of GSW Studios, in reference to earning generated by the known cartoon series The Simpsons.
He addressed the three-day Regional Conference on IP and Creative Industries 2014 on Wednesday at the University of the West Indies, Mona.
“As individual territories we cannot compete against the 1.7 billion people in China, 2 billion from India and so on. But we can offer specialised services higher up the value chain given the technology that exists, we can make an impact in carving out a piece of the pie in the global animation industry,” Sinclair said.
The profile of the local animation sector rocketed in the last year following the opening of studios, academic programmes and Government facilitation services. In essence stakeholders view cartoons as serious business.
“Companies will be outsourcing to India or locally to for instance, GSW and [they] want to know that you can produce the level of quality that their fan base expects to see,” reasoned Kevin Jackson, director of public relations and finance at Jamaica Animation Network in his address at the conference.
The island’s lack of scale and experience is balanced by the common language with North America and UK producers; proximity and time zone similarity; and competitive pricing.
“This expansion is expected to provide 5,000 jobs in the Caribbean over the next few years,” stated Robert Scott head of exporting at JAMPRO at the conference.
The global animation industry earns some US$250 billion annually with roughly one-quarter outsourced mainly to India, South Korea and Philippines, according to industry estimates. The opportunity for Jamaica comes when these markets are buckling from excess work.
“When we look at the traditional outsourcing markets. They themselves are developing own intellectual property [shows]. So guess what — they don’t have any time to do other people’s work. That creates an opportunity for us,” said Scott.
In the short-term JAMPRO wants to drive job creation by taking advantage of outsourcing opportunities in animation. Then transition to more content ownership of animations for export.
“We don’t have enough animators to do the jobs,” he said of shortage of supply within the context of UWI recently graduating its first cohort of animators.
The medium term is the creation of locally owned shows exported globally. Currently Cabbie Chronicles developed locally is exported to seven countries, said Scott.
Regionally, the Caribbean Animation Cluster Project was established. It’s a programme sponsored by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) which involves studios from a select number of Caribbean territories.
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Animation outsourcing to attract millions and jobs for Jamaicans
