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thelinguist.uberflip.com OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2016 The Linguist 23 with staff in different offices across the world, they have the human resources to do that effectively. "The brainstorming was very much part of what we would do. You would try to bring in French people, Anglo-Saxon people… to create this sort of mix of approaches and ideas and experiences," says Riley. The general rule for meetings was that the language spoken well by the largest number of participants would be the main language used. Localised vs global campaigns Much is made of the need for localisation in global marketing campaigns, and the British company Innocent has been singled out for its highly-localised brand strategy, which saw it expand from its home market in 2011 to become the leading smoothie company in the world in just three years. There are 14 versions of its website, with the sites for Denmark and Sweden differing as much as those for Ireland and Russia, particularly in the early days. "The digital teams in the various countries call each other regularly (at least monthly) to exchange ideas. This allows us to duplicate successful projects," said Adrien Deydier, Innocent's Digital and Community Manager in France. Crucially, the local office in each market has the authority to make its own decisions – and fast. Clearly, this level of local autonomy will not work for all brands. Riley has overseen his fair share of localised campaigns, but it is a global campaign that stands out as one of his most successful: as International Marketing Director at Chivas Regal (2002-2009), he designed the 'Chivas Life' campaign that drove the brand globally. "Completely global campaigns are one of the most challenging things you have to do in international marketing," he says. Initial resistance from Chivas's regional offices was to be expected. "They did not believe that one message, one campaign – albeit with different executions – could appeal to everybody: Russians, Chinese, Brazilians, Mexicans. So this was quite a tough argument." Interestingly, this type of global approach is more common in American companies than in European ones, so the first cultural challenge of that campaign lay in getting the teams on board in the 80 countries in which Chivas whisky was sold. Importantly, the campaign was developed through discussions between head office and the regional offices. "You would never just develop something and say to China, 'That's what we want, go and sell.' You would talk to them about the idea and get their views on it, then move to consumer research. We would have a joint approach throughout." In his experience, this style and structure is representative of French business culture. "I think it's very important in French business circles to ensure that all the points are put – what they call thesis, antithesis, synthesis." The answer was to have a very visual campaign, with striking, colourful images of people enjoying life together, superimposed with the simple words, "This is the Chivas life". The localisation element came in the executions: a TV commercial of a couple spontaneously breaking into a tango while dining in an Italian piazza was popular in the Latin markets, for example. Yet the execution that was a universal success was the one that people had been most sceptical about, as it was culturally relevant only to a tiny proportion of the global population. "It was a film of three men going ice fishing in Alaska, blue sky, mountains behind them, laughing, sharing a joke," says Riley. "People saw beyond that scene; it was a moment of tranquillity away from the pressure of modern life, being with friends in a perfect location. If you show people enjoying themselves, that's the kind of human interaction that has universal appeal." It seems that, underneath it all, people want the same basic things, wherever they come from in the world. And with offices around the world, the international drinks companies have staff with the language and cross-cultural skills to tap into those needs and desires in almost every market. Heineken's latest campaign, 'There's More Behind the Star', will run in English and Spanish in 70 markets © SHUTTERSTOCK