Cannes: Global Marketing Disasters
Amid all the excitement over Switzerland’s strong showing in Cannes—sometimes a little schadenfreude is in order. The seminar “Global Marketing Disasters,” organized by Textappeal—a global brand consulting and text and cultural translation agency—promised to satisfy that craving.
Despite all the joy over Switzerland's good performance in Cannes - sometimes there has to be a little schadenfreude. The Global Marketing Disasters seminar, which was held by the global brand consulting and text and cultural translation agency Textappeal, promised to provide this. "Local disasters are global disasters", it was made clear right at the beginning - thanks to today's information technologies, we will learn very quickly, long live schadenfreude. So where are the traps hidden in global marketing communication? A few examples were presented: Electrolux once actually launched a new vacuum cleaner with the headline "Nothing sucks like Electrolux" - that may still work in British English. But the American reads: "Nothing sucks more than Electrolux."
Great brand names that go down well in their respective countries become an involuntary laughing stock in other markets. Want some examples? Homo Soap (homo for man), the sweet toast rolls called Jussi-Pussi and, as the icing on the cake, the "Cock Flavored Bouillon", where cock refers to the cock and not the male genitals.
However, cultural pitfalls also lurk on the path to marketing success. A Nike Air cartoon ad showed a manga-style fight between Air-Jordan and an old monk of the Lotus Order, in the style of Tarantino's "Kill Bill". An unforgivable mistake - the Chinese saw it as a disregard for their traditional culture. Even worse - the commercial was shown worldwide, which is an absolute disgrace.
In Malaysia, on the other hand, people don't like Western actors in commercials who let Malaysians serve them or order them around the office. If the car is then driven on the wrong side of the road, the disaster is complete, even if the main actor in the commercial is called Brad Pitt, as Toyota had to painfully discover.
The French Coca-Cola commercial, which uses only American actors and American fast food as its visuals, also turned out to be a complete flop. Nick Strauss from Mather Communications summed up the cultural difference as follows: When he moved from New York to an agency in London at a young age, the CEO came to the morning meeting and greeted people with the words: "I had a good night, I was completely drunk and out of bounds", and everyone said "Oh you had a great time then". In the States, someone would have taken the CEO aside and said: "I think you have a problem, here's the number of the helpline".
According to the panelists, the reasons for global disasters arise because people at the agency and the client don't listen to each other properly. Ian Ewart touched on the framework conditions that need to be set for creatives. Creatives sometimes build the campaign of their dreams, just as an architect would build his dream house without a brief, and not the client's house.
The costs and consequences of marketing disasters are difficult to measure. It is important to own up to mistakes. You always get a second chance, said Mainardo de Nardis from Aegis. But how do you come up with ideas in America or Europe that also work in Asia? Chris Mendola from 180: "Of course, we have a network that can be consulted, because we attach great importance to looking at the consumer locally. And there are international commonalities that always work: A love of money, sport or health. Every customer has their international aspects as well as their local aspects." Nick Strauss added: "We don't have exactly the same campaigns in every country, just the same idea behind them. We take into account that people drink coffee in different ways in different countries, or that Americans prefer their mineral water non-carbonated."
Nevertheless, the decoding of the advertising message by the consumer is different everywhere and sometimes unpredictable. The global advertising campaign by Barclay Wealth was cited as a good example. A subject intended to symbolize freedom shows a woman on a white horse riding across a landscape for European countries. For the Arab world, a man was placed on a black horse on a beach and a different riding style was chosen for the shoot. Even the globally applicable baby picture was given a more differentiated visual language for China. The baby was given a lucky hat.
As a quintessence, the panel participants finally presented three theses on cross-cultural marketing communication:
1) All cultures don't necessarily relate to your brand the same way.
2) A global campaign doesn't always mean a single execution globally.
3) Cost savings on a single global ad will be wasted if the ad fails at the local level.
Picture, from left to right.
Mainardo de Nardis, CEO Aegis Media Global
Ian Ewart, Head of Marketing, Barclay Wealth
Chris Mendola Managing Director, 180
Nick Strauss, Executive Planning Director, Mather Communications
Great brand names that go down well in their respective countries become an involuntary laughing stock in other markets. Want some examples? Homo Soap (homo for man), the sweet toast rolls called Jussi-Pussi and, as the icing on the cake, the "Cock Flavored Bouillon", where cock refers to the cock and not the male genitals.
However, cultural pitfalls also lurk on the path to marketing success. A Nike Air cartoon ad showed a manga-style fight between Air-Jordan and an old monk of the Lotus Order, in the style of Tarantino's "Kill Bill". An unforgivable mistake - the Chinese saw it as a disregard for their traditional culture. Even worse - the commercial was shown worldwide, which is an absolute disgrace.
In Malaysia, on the other hand, people don't like Western actors in commercials who let Malaysians serve them or order them around the office. If the car is then driven on the wrong side of the road, the disaster is complete, even if the main actor in the commercial is called Brad Pitt, as Toyota had to painfully discover.
The French Coca-Cola commercial, which uses only American actors and American fast food as its visuals, also turned out to be a complete flop. Nick Strauss from Mather Communications summed up the cultural difference as follows: When he moved from New York to an agency in London at a young age, the CEO came to the morning meeting and greeted people with the words: "I had a good night, I was completely drunk and out of bounds", and everyone said "Oh you had a great time then". In the States, someone would have taken the CEO aside and said: "I think you have a problem, here's the number of the helpline".
According to the panelists, the reasons for global disasters arise because people at the agency and the client don't listen to each other properly. Ian Ewart touched on the framework conditions that need to be set for creatives. Creatives sometimes build the campaign of their dreams, just as an architect would build his dream house without a brief, and not the client's house.
The costs and consequences of marketing disasters are difficult to measure. It is important to own up to mistakes. You always get a second chance, said Mainardo de Nardis from Aegis. But how do you come up with ideas in America or Europe that also work in Asia? Chris Mendola from 180: "Of course, we have a network that can be consulted, because we attach great importance to looking at the consumer locally. And there are international commonalities that always work: A love of money, sport or health. Every customer has their international aspects as well as their local aspects." Nick Strauss added: "We don't have exactly the same campaigns in every country, just the same idea behind them. We take into account that people drink coffee in different ways in different countries, or that Americans prefer their mineral water non-carbonated."
Nevertheless, the decoding of the advertising message by the consumer is different everywhere and sometimes unpredictable. The global advertising campaign by Barclay Wealth was cited as a good example. A subject intended to symbolize freedom shows a woman on a white horse riding across a landscape for European countries. For the Arab world, a man was placed on a black horse on a beach and a different riding style was chosen for the shoot. Even the globally applicable baby picture was given a more differentiated visual language for China. The baby was given a lucky hat.
As a quintessence, the panel participants finally presented three theses on cross-cultural marketing communication:
1) All cultures don't necessarily relate to your brand the same way.
2) A global campaign doesn't always mean a single execution globally.
3) Cost savings on a single global ad will be wasted if the ad fails at the local level.
Picture, from left to right.
Mainardo de Nardis, CEO Aegis Media Global
Ian Ewart, Head of Marketing, Barclay Wealth
Chris Mendola Managing Director, 180
Nick Strauss, Executive Planning Director, Mather Communications
