Global marketing campaigns by their nature are fiendish, complex and unwieldy – some industry observers feel that the very idea is a misnomer.
But the expression of “one big idea” across many markets, when executed with knowledge and skill, ensures a continuity with the overall brand, saves time to market and minimises the problems faced throughout the campaign process.
This is a monumental task, as many have found to their cost, hence the industry focus on “glocalisation” of marketing campaigns to find a better way to make global campaigns resonate locally.
Glocalisation is the marriage of art and science. Art brings cultural insights and understanding of people, while science adds technology and process. Successful global campaigns are built around understanding the importance of implementation in the marketing journey, a unity of processes, tools and people.
This unity should ensure the consistent delivery of great customer experience in all territories, balancing the big global idea with local relevancy, spanning websites, social media, mobile apps as well as brand campaigns and promotions.
Managing marketing campaigns and making sure local teams have everything they need takes knowledge, skills and patience, blending project management and implementation power to deliver campaigns anywhere.
Six essential tools for better global marketing campaigns
- Content management system: A prerequisite when rolling out online campaign assets such as websites and blogs.
- Translation management system: For effective control of copywriting, translation and trans-creation, bringing together project managers, linguists and clients.
- Validation tools: Simplifies the process of sharing assets for checking with reference county managers.
- Survey builder: Project completion feedback is vital to guide improvements and innovations in further work and an online survey provides an elegant way of doing this.
- Team collaboration software: Effective teams thrive by sharing everyone’s knowledge on a common platform, allowing any team member to find the most up-to-date information.
-
Project management tool: Helps managers and team members have a necessary overview of a project’s progress.
Brilliant project managers and great relationships are what really make global marketing campaigns fly. Technology powers the process, ensuring speed, accuracy, consistency and visibility, but people are the key.
Kevin Freedman is founder and CEO of Freedman International
This advertisement feature is brought to you by the Marketing Agencies Association, sponsors of the Guardian Media Network’s Agencies hub
