Navigating Advertising Across Cultures – B&T

In this op-ed, Ajaz Khan, department lead and account manager at BlueMelon Design, explores the challenges and opportunities of working in advertising in a different cultural context from your own, reflecting on how cultural understanding is the crux of creating meaningful work that connects with audiences. Khan has spent over a decade working in advertising agencies in Bangladesh before moving to Sydney.

A Personal Journey into a New Adland

A decade ago, my days in Dhaka were spent in boardrooms full of brand managers, art directors, and copywriters who all spoke the same cultural language. We could throw around a Bengali proverb or a cricket reference, and the room would burst into laughter because everyone understood the context. Campaigns didn’t need lengthy explanations; the shorthand of shared experience carried the message.

Fast forward ten years and a continent away: I was sitting in a Sydney advertising agency brainstorming campaign ideas for a tech client. I threw out a tagline that I thought was clever, borrowing from a phrase we used often in Bangladesh. The room went quiet. My colleagues smiled politely, then someone asked, “Sorry, what do you mean by that?” It was a jolt. What was once a surefire way to get a chuckle back home now sounded alien here. That moment summed up the paradox of advertising across cultures: the technical skills of strategy, creative, and media planning are universal, but resonance is not.

Resonance is local. Resonance is cultural. And unless you have lived and breathed the rhythms of a place, it’s almost impossible to fake.

Why Culture is the Heart of Advertising

Advertising at its best is about connection. It’s about finding the pulse of a community, tapping into its inside jokes, its collective anxieties, its sense of pride. A clever line or visual is just the execution; the real magic is the cultural empathy behind it.

Think about Vegemite. To Australians, it’s more than a spread; it’s childhood, nostalgia, a national inside joke about who loves it and who can’t stand it. A foreign creative who hasn’t lived with Vegemite might treat it like any other product in a jar. But to Australians, that misses the point; it’s culture in a jar.

This is why cultural understanding is not a “nice-to-have” in advertising; it’s the very substance of the work. Technical expertise will get you in the door. But to win hearts, you need cultural fluency.

The Outsider’s Lens

When I first landed in Sydney, I thought: “I’ve got a decade of experience, I know the principles, I’ll be fine”. But soon I realised I had entered a landscape where humour worked differently, references carried new meanings, and even colours had baggage I didn’t know about.

Australian humour, for example, leans on irony, understatement, and a kind of casual irreverence. A self-deprecating campaign line that makes Aussies laugh could come across as weak or unconvincing in another market.

At first, this outsider position was intimidating. I felt like I had to catch up, constantly learning slang, understanding sporting rivalries, and decoding memes. But then I realised there was another side to being an outsider: I could bring perspectives no one else in the room had.

When you are not bound by the same cultural assumptions, you are free to ask “why not?” Outsiders can see blind spots, challenge clichés, and inject fresh energy into stale formulas. Where locals sometimes see constraints, outsiders see opportunities.

Stories from the Field

In my early days working in Sydney, I learned quickly that what feels obvious in one culture can be confusing in another. Back in Dhaka, urgency and energy often define a campaign: louder music, brighter colours, faster cuts. In Sydney, I discovered the opposite: people tune out when they feel pushed. They prefer subtlety, humour, and a sense of ease. What I thought was “impact” sometimes landed as “too much”.

But there were moments when my background became a strength. In one campaign, the team kept circling around the same idea, a safe but predictable storyline. I suggested weaving in themes of family and community gatherings, something I had grown up seeing brands celebrate back home. That small shift gave the work a heartbeat, and the client called it the most “human” campaign they’d seen in years.

These experiences taught me something important: being an outsider is not a weakness. It forces you to question assumptions, to see what locals overlook, and sometimes to bring in ideas that feel new precisely because they come from somewhere else.

How to Bridge the Gap

So how do you, as a creative or strategist moving across markets, bridge this cultural divide?

From my experience, it takes humility, curiosity, and intentional practice.

1. Immerse Yourself in Local Culture

Culture isn’t learned from textbooks; it’s lived. Watch the TV shows locals watch, listen to the radio stations, scroll through TikTok trends, and pay attention to what people talk about in the pub. Even memes tell you something about humour, priorities, and values. Back in Bangladesh, TikTok wasn’t nearly as embedded in daily culture when I was there. But in Australia, it’s a mainstream pulse check, the platform where slang, humour, and even politics often break first. If you ignore it, you miss the conversation.

2. Listen More Than You Talk

One of the biggest mistakes newcomers make is assuming their past experience will automatically translate. Instead, I have learned to ask questions “Why does this joke work here?” or “Why would this reference resonate?” and let colleagues teach me.

3. Find Cultural Guides

Pairing with local colleagues who are willing to explain the “unwritten rules” has been invaluable. Sometimes, just having someone decode a sports rivalry or a political nuance can save you from a creative misstep.

4. Test and Iterate

Don’t be afraid to float ideas, even if you’re unsure. Use small groups to test whether a line or concept resonates. Feedback loops help you learn faster and prevent public stumbles.

5. Blend the Global and the Local

The sweet spot is not abandoning your own perspective but combining it with local insights. A Bangladeshi way of storytelling, infused with an Australian sense of humour, can result in something truly unique.

The Bigger Picture for Adland

My story is personal, but it also speaks to a bigger question: how does Australian Adland embrace diversity of experience?

As agencies compete in a globalised world, they are increasingly hiring talent from different backgrounds. But often, the onboarding assumes that skills are enough. What’s missing is cultural onboarding. Agencies that invest in helping international talent understand local culture will reap the benefits of their creativity faster.

Clients, too, have a role. It’s easy to assume the “safe bet” is to stick with local creatives who instinctively understand the culture. But sometimes, the boldest, most memorable campaigns come from the collision of outside and inside perspectives. An agency that combines the grounded knowledge of locals with the fresh eyes of outsiders has a real competitive advantage.

Beyond business, there’s also a human story here. For international professionals, feeling included in the creative process is about more than just doing good work, it’s about belonging. And belonging, in any workplace, is the foundation for creativity.

Culture as Connection

When I think back to that quiet Sydney boardroom where my Bangladeshi reference fell flat, I no longer cringe. I see it as the first step in a new kind of learning; a reminder that advertising isn’t just about clever ideas, it’s about cultural empathy.

Culture is not a barrier; it’s the brief. And when we embrace it, we create work that does more than sell; it connects.

For those like me who come from elsewhere, the journey may feel daunting, but it’s also rewarding. You learn to see not just the work, but the people behind the work, in richer ways.

For agencies and clients, the lesson is just as important: diversity of background isn’t a hurdle, it’s an untapped asset.

Across continents and cultures, the heart of advertising remains the same: humans connecting with humans. It’s never B2B or B2C; it’s always B2H: Business to Human.

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