Lost in translation

Five essential truths mark the majority of successful world-wide campaigns and help bridge the global-local divide

 
There is no exact formula for global marketing campaigns. During my time in global communications, I have learnt that each and every campaign has its own requirements, features and challenges, which makes it, at times, a bewildering prospect. This said, there are five truths that typically hold for the majority of global campaigns; pillars I steadfastly abide by when preparing, executing and optimising a campaign. What might be surprising to know is that many of these global principles conversely are focused on locality. Why? I believe that the rationale is best demonstrated with an example:

There is a series of television adverts from a well-known international bank that perfectly sum up how to run multi-region campaigns. The ads are designed to underline that the bank is both international yet local at the same time. It does this by serving some great examples of local cultural nuances, the small habits and traditions that could cause disparity in our globalised business world. In one of the ads, we are light-heartedly told how an Englishman, sitting down to eat with a group of Chinese businessmen, understands that in his culture it is polite to finish all your meal to demonstrate your satisfaction and gratitude – but in Chinese culture, finishing all your meal is a sign that your host has not been generous with the portions. This leads to a farcical cycle of the Englishman finishing his bowl of food only for replenishments to be hurriedly brought out.

As marketers running global campaigns, what we are trying to avoid is this kind of cultural faux pas – or more specifically, we want to avoid our messages being lost in translation. The most effective campaigns use humour embedded within a known cultural context. But this, of course, requires that the campaign has local knowledge and application. For this reason, my number one rule, or truth, of running a multi-regional marketing campaign is to make sure you have a trusted team in each region. If your business is not yet at the stage where it can afford to have directly employed teams in every country it serves, then it pays dividends to at least use a reliable agency or freelance marketer to help avoid being lost in translation. Look for someone who knows the local market and culture, as well as someone who can push back when they see something that really won’t work. But it is not merely about having people on the ground in every market your campaign will be serving; you should ensure you have the necessary skill sets within your extended team (directly employed or otherwise). Understanding the culture and having teams with emotional intelligence – that is those who can execute a level of organisational awareness and manage relationships effectively in market – is crucial to success.

These qualities ensure that the planning and creation phase of a global campaign is a collaborative process. Socialising strategies among the team and encouraging co-creation will set up the campaign for victory – and, for the most part, prevent unforeseen issues arising later.

All around the world
If we bring ourselves full circle and start at the beginning, running a global campaign is all about asking the right questions from the get-go – this is my second truth. We need to know: who we are; what we do; where we are going; why we matter; and what we bring to the market. Once you have short and easily understood answers to these questions you can build your business vision (or product/campaign vision), and the content needed to support it.

This is where your regional managers and teams really come into play, but I must stress that at Dell Software, we already would have given our regional teams input during the development stage. Obviously a hierarchy of sorts needs to be adhered to (too many cooks…), but the intelligence, opinions and ideas of our regional teams are vital. For example, in Germany, Dell Software’s public relations team uses global public relations and marketing firm Waggener Edstrom Communications, which has provided valuable input to help us shape campaigns specific to DACHS.

Why go global? In a world that is growing evermore interpolated, global marketing campaigns make a lot of sense. They allow for consistency of message and worldwide outreach, which, in a connected world, enables brands to achieve global domination in one fell swoop. This said, the appeal driven by the widespread nature of global campaigns could, in fact, prove to be its own worst enemy. In driving content and assets to suit all, a campaign can teeter on the edge of becoming a marketing automaton. Ignoring the idiosyncrasies of individual markets could spell disaster – one size certainly does not fit all.

This is why a global-local approach to marketing campaigns is so crucial. While a campaign may be rolled out across anywhere from 10 to 50 countries, and by its very nature be a “global” campaign, there must be adequate attention paid to local nuances – this is my third truth. Market-specific plans and tactics ensure that brands cannot only receive a bigger bang for their buck, but also tick the internal box of keeping country marketing leads onside. After all, keeping everyone on the same page can prove one of the most challenging aspects of going global. It is important to remember that for a global marketing campaign to be successful, what success looks like needs to be defined. For one country, success may be about generating as many leads as possible; for another, it may be encouraging a few key leads further through the nurture flow. For this reason, ensuring some elements of the campaign are managed locally will be critical to victory worldwide.

The local/global split
While each global marketing campaign is unique, there are some general rules of thumb to follow when deciding which aspects of a campaign should be adopted centrally, and what should be administered locally. Branding and brand guidelines, for instance, are best administered globally. While markets may tweak content to fit local requirements, ensuring brand consistency across all countries is crucial for brand awareness (even if the campaign is not focused on brand-building). To add to branding, social media strategy and guidelines as well as global public relations are best suited to global-level implementation too – again, consistency across these moving parts is essential. And of course, it goes without saying that the overall strategic marketing planning and budgeting should be rolled out globally, with autonomy given to each country lead for how the allocated budget is managed.

Not surprisingly, the aspects of a global campaign that must be administered locally are those that hinge on local knowledge and cultural preference. When selecting local partnerships, preferred media channels – both media outlets and social media platforms – and campaign tactics, keeping the campaign easy to tailor to each country’s unique requirements is a must. Remember: in initial planning, it is important to explain to the various markets where the splits will lie.

Boundary crossers
Oftentimes, global marketing campaigns are as much about the teams deploying the campaign activities as the activities themselves. Global teams need to appreciate local marketing teams’ market-specific knowledge and use their input and feedback to modify the global campaign accordingly. As previously mentioned, a one-size-fits-all approach will not work. Building close and communicative relationships between global and local teams is a rudimentary ingredient for success, as well as my fourth truth. Incorporating a degree of flexibility into a global campaign from the outset will make sure it caters to cultural differences. For example, in some countries, social media may not be an effective delivery channel or a well-known buzzword in one country or region may mean something completely different to another audience.

Cultural differences are particularly pertinent for digital platforms – especially social media. For example, Germany has its own version of LinkedIn, and China’s most popular social networks are not the same ones you will find in Europe or North America. Not only does this have a knock-on effect on which channels to use in each country, it begs the question: how truly ‘local’ can social platforms be? After all, they tend to bleed across national boundaries, with the content that is pushed out defined more by language barriers than national ones.
This market specificity also applies to the logistical side of global campaigns. For instance, if there is a specified launch date, it is imperative to ensure this works for all countries. A global campaign manager should sit at the helm of a campaign to keep its numerous moving parts in order and ensure that deliverables and deadlines are met by each market lead. Weekly and fortnightly calls for country and global updates respectively will ensure as much visibility as possible – and head-off problems before they arise. Following this best practice will eliminate most of the challenges.

Adding to this, ascertaining each country’s language of choice is crucial from the get-go. While you might assume the Swiss team would like their materials in French, it may be that German works better for that particular region, or even English for the likes of detailed technical papers. By collating language requirements immediately, you can plan and allow proper time for translation and localisation.

Clearly, the hard work does not end when a campaign is launched. There is plenty more to do and numerous challenges to be overcome during the deployment phase too. But with a deeper understanding of the local aspect of global campaigns in your arsenal, you will be certain to deliver a much more prosperous result. With your global-local hat on, you will realise it is just a case of connecting the dots.

New horizons
I must mention the exploding use of data and measurement to shape campaigns. The intelligent application of data is more important than ever, and is an ever-evolving landscape. Seemingly everyone is talking about big data, and we all need to be wary of drowning in the data deluge. Also worthy of note is qualitative data, which often is not considered in discussions of measurement techniques. It is vital that we know how our messages and stories are being discussed, and that we see the feedback and act on it. Naturally, we live in a 24/7 world of always-on news cycles, and my fifth truth is that any way we can find that helps us measure our audiences, markets and campaign impact should be grabbed with both hands. We continually try to assess all kinds of markers: how successful was our spokesperson? Did our messages get through to the right audience? What was the least effective element of the campaign?

Using a “pilot and amplify” approach is one way to test the potential success of a global campaign. By using smaller markets to test campaign assets or the first phase of a campaign to identify successes and issues, the global campaign can then be adapted accordingly and amplified across larger markets.

Looking to the future
So what does the future hold for global marketing campaigns? I see grassroots campaigns becoming more important, as the proliferation of social media helps these small-scale and localised strategies give both marketers and audiences the ability to create them.

Especially in the past few years, we have witnessed media becoming more fragmented. Hyper-local and hyper-specialised audiences are forcing us to create blocks, or pieces, of content for our teams. But these blocks need to allow for a mix-and-match approach, so that the local teams can use the appropriate segments to create a whole that is right for them and their audience. This approach allows for local targeting.
In essence, this brings us back to the themes touched upon at the beginning – the co-existence of the global and local. They are both as important as each other, the hyper-local and hyper-global. You just cannot have one without the other.
 
 
 
 
Image: www.thinkstock.com

Tracy Benelli

Tracy Benelli has more than 22 years of communications experience working in-house as the leading communications strategist at some the world's most pioneering companies in consumer and enterprise technology, including Intuit, Proflowers, HP, Quest Software and now Dell. Tracy has also built and managed communications and corporate marketing organisations at two start-ups, in addition to rebuilding the global corporate communications organisation for a global technology company and creating a world-class global communications organisation from scratch for a new critical division of a consumer/business-to-business company.