GreatGlobalAds.pdf

8/17/2019 GreatGlobalAds.pdf

1/4© Millward Brown November 2006Great global ads: the secret of success 1

Great global ads: the secret of success

In our earlier Knowledge Point, “Why is it so difficult to pro-

duce world class international advertising?”, we highlighted the

pitfalls to be avoided in producing global advertising. Here, we

look at the steps you can take to help ensure a successful inter-

national campaign. Broadly, there are four approaches proven

to work well: identifying clusters of countries where the brand’s

standing and cultural attitudes are similar; finding an idea that

represents the brand’s unique perspective on a “human truth”;

creating a “brand space” in which to express this perspective;

basing ads on a genuinely unique product benefit. In addi-tion, we consider how international ads across all media can be

adapted to bring the idea alive locally.

K N O W L E D G E P O I N T K N O W L E D G E P O I N T K N O W L E D G E P O I N T K N O W L E D G E P O I N T

Ads without frontiers: four proven approaches

From our studies, we have identified four approaches that

have been used successfully by international advertisers:

The “brand status cluster” approach

Brand status has been found to have a considerable influ-

ence on the kind of communications that are effective for

a brand. For example, ads with an implicit message tend

to work best in countries where the brand is very highly re-

garded and familiar; where the brand has “permission” to

invite the consumer to fill in the gaps based on what theyalready know and feel about the brand. In countries where

the brand is less well known and of lower status, consumers

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tend to respond less well to this kind of advertising.

The example below illustrates this approach, showing the

world segmented into three regions according to the status

of a particular brand; note these clusters do not represent

traditional geographic divisions:

Cluster one — USA, Mexico, Brazil, Poland, South Africa;

consumers know what the brand stands for (high efficacy),

but this is not enough — it is seen as a category entry-point

only. The brand needs to finds additional benefits, or find

more differentiating ways to talk about efficacy.

Cluster two — Argentina, U.K., Germany, Turkey, Australia;

consumers know what the brand stands for, but don’t feel

close to it. The brand needs to become more emotionally


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appealing.

Cluster three — Chile, France, Italy, Japan, Thailand; the

brand is relatively unknown, there is a need to establish whatthe brand stands for.

In each cluster of countries, the advertising task is clearly

different — although it is possible that, in cases like this, the

same advertising idea could work well for more than one

cluster (e.g. advertising that differentiates the brand in an

emotionally appealing way could work well for clusters one

and two).

The “shared global culture” approach

The three aspect s of global culture most often used

successfully in international advertising a re:

Movies — especially big Hollywood productions,

seen all over the world.

Love of sport — many brands, like Pepsi, havesuccessfully exploited the global obsession with

football — the world’s most popular sport.

Youth culture and music — another way of unit-

ing audiences across the globe, since the birth

of “pop cul ture” in the 1950s. Coke was one of

the first brands to use this approach with the ir “I

want to teach the world to sing” campaign.

But it’s also worth noting that some advertisers have

created effective global advertising by celebrating the

cultural diversity that exists in t he world (like HSBC)

or the ethnic diversity of its customers around the

world (like Benetton).

The “fundamental human truth” approach

Successful global advertising campaigns can also be

based on an idea that expresses a fundamental truth

or insight about human nature. Most often, these re-

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late to the drive shared by many people across the

globe to find a partner, or help the next generation

to thrive and to live a long, fulfilling life.

What else unites us as human beings? This TGI data

shows that spending time with t he family is a priority

for many people in all countries:

“I enjoy spending time with my family”

Brazil Russia India China Europe

76% 75% 62% 73% 81%

And related to this, people all over the world feel

that children should be free to learn and express

themselves in o rder to develop:

“Children should be allowed to express themselves

freely”


75% 49% 63% 66% 64%

At the other end of our life-span, people also like

to see the older generation still getting a lot out of

life:

“It is important to continue learning new things

throughout your life”


95% 78% 59% 79% 84%

There remain other human truths, (such as the de-

sire for health, exploited by pharmaceutical brands,

and wealth, used by National Lotteries), which argu-

ably have yet to be fully exploited.

The “unique product benefit” approach

The last of the four proven approaches to creating

international advertising is to clearly demonstrate a

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© Millward Brown November 2006Great global ads: the secret of success 2


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unique product benefit. Brands like Gillette, L’Oreal

and Head and Shoulders have successfully adopted

this approach. This can be an effective and success-

ful strategy when there is a genuine product-basedadvantage — and a large marketing budget.

How do we make the idea come alive in local

markets?

The challenge all internationa l advertisers face is how

to bring alive a global advertising idea in al l the local

markets across the whole communications mix.

With its relatively low production costs, poster adver-

tising lends itself to local adaptation. Here are some

examples of how the “Make the most of now” poster

ads created by the central Vodafone team have been

adapted to optimize the campaign’s effectiveness in

local markets, by accommodating cultural differenc-

es and tactical needs:

Here’s how the Dove “Real Beauty” poster campaign

was adapted for Russia following qualitative research

that helped identify the beauty stereotypes appro-priate for being criticized and images that were best

for maximizing the power of the idea for Russian

consumers:

Print, leaflets and Web sites are other channels that

can usually be adapted for local markets without too

much expense.

But what about TV advertising? It’s certainly true

that many successful TV campaigns have traveled

well without any changes to the execution. But there

is sometimes an oppor tunity to optimize the power of

the advertising idea in local markets through adapta-

tion. For example, an ad using a divining rod worked

well in France; but divining rods were not understood

in Thailand, so the ad needed to be adapted to use

locally understood symbols.

Create your own “Brand Space” and there’s no

need to adapt

Many successful campaigns have created their own

unique “Brand Space” which isn’t tied to any part icu-lar place or time, but is owned by the brand.

Creating this kind of Brand Space isn’t easy. It’s es-

sential to avoid any reference points, iconography or

use of language which are not shared across cul-

tures. But once found, a Brand Space can form the

basis of an advertising campaign that is distinctive

and travels well.

Successful examples of this include the iPod adver-

tising, the distinctive world of Bertolli with its young-



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at-heart older people, and the Comfort “Cloth

People”. In a series of ads, Huggies created a b rand

space where children from many ethnic backgrounds

have fun playing together in a specially created, col-orful soft play world. In addition to having a Brand

Space, the advertising celebrates something that

unites parents the world over: pleasure in watching

them have fun.

Coke created a fantastic brand space with their fa-

mous Christmas ads “Caravan” and “Convoy”. With

these ads, Coke created a highly appealing magi-

cal world which evoked the childhood excitement

of Christmas. This carries on what Coke started a

century ago when it created its own Christmas world

featuring the brand’s color red (even going so far

as to dress Santa Claus in red instead of his tradi-

tional green or white). They are ads that generate

strong enjoyment through emotion and the use of

icons and symbols. The now familiar Christmas Coke

ads successfully leverage the emotion of the season

using icons such as the red trucks which have de-

veloped into st rong brand cues over 30+ years and

are now seen by many viewers as a welcome signal

that the Christmas season is approaching. In Latvia

and Lithuania, where the campaign was one of the

first expressions of western Christmas icons to be

seen, there is a big media event every year called

the “Coca-Cola Christmas Caravan Tour” where the

big red lorries drive around the country and bring

gifts to people in need.

The material in this presentation originally came from

a joint project between Millward Brown and Ogilvy &

Mather in 2005.


Knowledge Points are drawn from the Millward Brown Knowledge Bank,

consisting of our databases of 50,000 brand reports and 40,000 ads, as well

as 1,000 case studies, 700 conference papers and magazine ar ticles, and

250 Learnings documents.

www.millwardbrown.com

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GreatGlobalAds.pdf