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In today’s digital-first, interconnected world, brands don’t need to speak to just one audience – they need to engage in global dialogues more than ever before. So how can marketers avoid one-size-fits-all messaging which gets lost in translation?
Despite the rollercoaster ride that is today’s global trading markets, most brands still look beyond their domestic boundaries to stay successful. But connecting with today’s global consumers takes more than just words.
Why do consumers increasingly expect brands to connect with them on a deeper, cultural level? And how can marketers embrace the power of local storytelling in global content production strategies?
You talking to me?
Marketers are facing a perfect storm of consumers’ increasing need to feel understood. As AI and machine learning increasingly transform our lives, there’s a rising, counter demand for human-led truth and authenticity.
Meanwhile, we’re living in an age of customer-centricity and hyper-personalization, so consumers increasingly expect their needs to be understood and met instantaneously.
And, at the same time, people are turning away from a one-size-fits-all global identity to embrace their own cultural heritage and language. Seventy-nine percent of global consumers express pride in their national culture, history and identity – up from 72% in 2022, says the RWS research. And younger generations in particular are rediscovering their heritage, sharing that identity across their digital channels, and then seeing it echo around global markets.
Little wonder that 40% of consumers say that local market brands engage them more than global competitors, according to the RWS research.
The upshot? Global consumers expect brands to communicate in their preferred language and understand the nuances of their culture more than ever before. The table stakes are that 76% won’t buy products or services that don’t offer local language support, and 96% expect automatic, real-time translation as standard. But the majority also expect that brands pay more than just lip service to them: 91% say global brands need to go even further than words and demonstrate cultural insight.
Want to go deeper? Ask The Drum
Native is the new norm
Today’s canny consumers immediately sense when content feels inauthentic. Silvia Sanchez, creative director – language, from RWS’s in-house creative production arm Small World Studio explains: “Inclusive cultural representation is a complex tapestry involving multiple threads, with language at its heart.
“The key to true global brand success is storytelling that is both localized and universally compelling – storytelling that goes beyond words to capture local heartbeats and global minds, driving efficiencies and building brand loyalty at the same time. This kind of storytelling, from its creative strategy that’s based around local truths to its assets, allows global brands to compete better with local players.”
For instance, Small World Studio worked with a team of regional, native strategists, planners and copywriters to ensure that a global financial services corporation’s Diwali and Ramadan campaigns were informed, validated and transcreated from a local point of view in key global markets. Amplifying and extending the brand’s global creative toolkit in this way resulted in higher relevancy and engagement rates with both sender and receiver audiences.
AI as a passport to global campaign production
As native becomes the norm, brands are increasingly turning to AI-powered solutions to scale up global campaigns more effectively. Combining AI with human expertise ensures that local campaigns are not only accurate but also culturally relevant, preserving the intended message and tone across different regions.
Sanchez advises brands “to ensure that machine-generated outputs are as rich and diverse as the cultures they reflect. Tools must prioritize accessibility and inclusion, creating meaningful human connections that respect the dynamism of language and culture. Keeping pace with evolving community trends and behaviors will be essential to ensuring AI outputs remain authentic and relevant.”
So, how can brands optimize their global campaign production strategy, in a world that’s both global and deeply local, where marketers must blend human instinct with machine intelligence?
The new global content production playbook
1. Bring in local teams from the start: To truly connect with local audiences and drive stronger brand impact, involve local strategy and creative teams from the outset. Their understanding of consumer behaviour, cultural insight, language nuance, and market expertise will ensure content feels authentic, not just translated.
And collaborating early and agilely means you embed genuine relevance into every stage of the campaign – from its creative strategy, to design, art and messaging outputs like tone of voice, imagery, color palettes and even the timing and packaging of communications. This ensures campaigns are relevant by design, not retrofitted after the fact. Global is the startpoint, not an afterthought.
2. Anchor local truths in a global toolkit: ensure local relevancy without losing brand consistency. Collaboration and clear brand guardianship keep messaging unified yet locally resonant.
For example, after developing the localization strategy for a global technology and creative software company, Small World Studio created global, back-end templates which guided local teams on how to publish the content across all channels. The templates included overarching design principles and elements that resonated across different markets, age groups, and audiences.
3. Think about sentiment and intent, not just words: Adapting content for local markets is about capturing its meaning, not just its language. To truly resonate, use local creative consultation upfront to anchor the campaign in the right sentiment and intent, then use that as a filter throughout every phase of production.
To make your global brand feel authentic and real to local customers, visit RWS Small World Studio.
Download the RWS research report here.
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