When we talk about localisation, implementation or adaptation, we don’t just mean translation. We’re talking about planning and managing a project from ideation through to activation. Follow our four step guide to breaking down silos across your organisation when rolling out your next campaign.
It’s impossible to achieve global consistency and local relevance when working with a fragmented localisation model. But by making these changes, you can increase efficiency and enhance the effectiveness of your campaigns.
1. Misaligned global and local teams
It’s all too common a problem – a central planning team that has ‘boardroom bias’. In other words, it’s mentally (and often geographically) removed from the local consumer that they can’t picture their life situation and therefore make assumptions based on theirs. It’s the kind of disconnect that can result in assets failing to hit the mark and, in the worst-case scenario, a tagline that’s deemed inappropriate or an image that causes offence and ends up damaging a brand’s reputation. But by involving local teams and in-market experts from conception, it’s possible to gain valuable insights and cultural context that can bridge this gap.
And it’s not just about the output – it’s also important to balance the interests of global and local teams internally. Of course, they should fundamentally share the same objectives and be working towards the same business goals, but the routes they take to reach those objectives and goals can be very different. The extent to which teams are aligned and follow the same processes is an important metric of an agile and effective localisation model.
Similarly, global and local teams should align ahead of the production phase to ensure centrally produced assets are applicable to local markets or can easily be localised. Failing to do this can result in asset wastage or local teams creating their own assets that might not be in line with the brand or campaign strategy. And this brings us to…
2. Lack of communication
Whether you’re localising your brand strategy or assessing the global-to-local customer journey from a cultural perspective and analysing specific touchpoints to identify cultural and demographic optimisation potential, it’s essential that the channels of communication between global, regional and local teams are always open.
At Freedman, clients value our ability to establish a central channel of communication – not only across different projects and different teams, and also across the different agencies that are involved in the global-to-local process. In doing so, we’re able to break down silos and share knowledge, key learnings and best practices.
3. Resource bottlenecks
It might be that your team don’t have the time or resources to conduct multi-market planning with all the complexities that can bring, or that you are struggling to oversee a number of specialist agencies with many people who all require different input. Whatever the reason, bottlenecks can slow down the production process, squeeze timelines and put pressure on budgets.
Assigning roles and responsibilities across the global-to-local workflow can help – outlining who is responsible for signing off assets as well as defining the quality checks that are required. Similarly, building in periods for review and rounds of feedback can help keep timelines on track.
Engaging an external localisation agency can also take off the pressure from internal resources who might otherwise have to spend a portion of their time reviewing, rewriting and updating copy. At Freedman, we carry out cultural checks and quality assessments to ensure every asset meets the local requirements while staying true to the global brand narrative.
4. No universal approach
Quality control is something that can slip in favour of delivering assets on time and within budget. But not getting your localisation process right can have far-reaching negative impacts. Ensure cultural relevance and local impact by creating brand style guidelines and a localisation playbook that can help inform all future campaigns. These documents can be continually updated and will act as a useful resource when onboarding internal staff members – from marketing to design to procurement – and engaging the services of third-party agencies.
Find out how Freedman’s proven localisation approach can efficiently deliver an effective global campaign for your brand by contacting us today.