Image credit: Anirudh
Superside
feat. Amazon Home
Topics:
The potential perils of using a third-party CaaS vendor
Copyright & Intellectual Property ownership
Industry:
Design as a Service (Third-party Provider)
“Scale your in-house creative team with top global talent powered by industry-leading AI workflows, delivering anything you can imagine, fast and affordably."
Fun Button
The Iron Triangle (made famous in project management)
That's the tagline at Superside – a 'Creative-as-a-Service' business. Based on the many client logos on their site, Superside helps well-known brands work faster and maintain high quality. Amazon Home is a client, offering us a useful case study of their collaboration.
Fast and Cheap, Maybe. But...Good?
You may know the Iron Triangle of project management: time, quality, and cost. Usually, it's only possible to optimize two of the three. Chasing all three often yields poor results. With software (and now creative) services, 'fast and affordable' models dominate. Often fast, often affordable...rarely great. Consider the implications, then, of utilizing a third-party Creative-as-a-Service (CaaS) provider for key business functions.
For example, obtaining creative work quickly and with higher-quality outcomes usually requires higher costs. Solutions that are easy to implement and cost-effective may lead to a longer project timeline. Superside’s model focuses on speed and affordability, yet the work remains high-quality. Somehow, it’s also good. So, what’s the catch?
Let’s look at this through the lens of their Amazon Home project.
Project Details
Instead of recapping the full Superside case study (available online), we'll touch on two key items that highlight the value a third-party creative partner like Superside (or the ever-popular Design Pickle) can bring to a client's team.
Amazon Home's in-house team was overwhelmed by creative requests, distracting them from photo shoots. Superside quickly stepped in, freeing them to focus on photo shoots.
Superside managed asset creation and collaborated with Amazon's team. They delivered assets quickly, building trust and popularity with stakeholders and management.
Is It Worth It if You Don’t Own It?
Despite CaaS costs like Superside, the value to enterprise business is clear. But can you scale labor to meet demand seamlessly? It seems almost too good to be true. Yeah…it might feel too good to be true. See the image below.
[click to expand]
Excerpt from the Superside Terms of Use website page (with our added emphasis) — as of April 8, 2024
>> Who wants to agree to something like: 'You, the client, pay us, Superside, to help build your brand, and then we can freely use the work we made together and anything you gave us… However, we want… Forever. Maybe we'll even sell a version of it as our own.'??
Dramatic? Hyperbole? Maybe. Or maybe you draw your own conclusions to fit Superside's Terms of Use (Article 4.10). We wonder if Amazon's team noticed or cares. This language should at least prompt everyone to consult legal teams on all contracts and negotiations.
Unfortunately, such terms are common in SaaS/CaaS. For example, WeTransfer faced significant backlash after updating its Terms to claim ownership of all customer data and use it as it wished.
Superside's Project Impact
Project Statistics
The Winning Equation
CaaS platforms like Superside or Design Pickle give you on-demand access to top creatives, sure. But short-term help may not be worth the potential loss of creative ownership in the long run.
As far as we're concerned, boundaries are non-negotiable, but it's up to you to decide if that's how you win the day.
A third-party vendor helps you get more done, quicker.
Most vendors will customize a budget for your team.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ It all depends on the Terms, doesn't it?
A Different Kind of Triangle
Before engaging a creative or AI-powered provider, clarify the ownership and copyright terms. Consult legal experts early to safeguard your brand and its assets in the long term.
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