For anyone who is in the digital communications sector, it can sometimes feel like the world is getting smaller and smaller every day.
In just seconds a message can be relayed from New York to Japan, and communication between two people can happen in real-time high-definition video as far apart as London to Cape Town.
It’s great that the world is opening up to allow human beings to communicate across the globe, but what happens when you need to relay a message across cultures and languages?
This is where the idea of glocal advertising comes in.
What Does Glocal Mean?
The Oxford Dictionary characterises glocal as: “reflecting or characterised by both local and global considerations.” and the term ‘glocal’ is thought to have come from the Japanese ‘dochakuka’ which means global localisation.
Put in very simple terms, to be glocal is to think globally but act locally with your advertising and marketing efforts. That is to plan a global campaign but ensure that every local variant will land properly with a local audience, considering cultural nuance.
In terms of advertising, having a glocal approach is vital for a global business that wants to succeed in local markets. There’s a very delicate balance between maintaining your global brand messaging and adapting your approach so that it fits in with the needs of local cultures.
How To Balance Local and Global Advertising
Global brands are very protective of their brand voice and brand messaging. They know that audiences can be fickle, and they can identify a fake message very quickly!
When creating global campaigns, it’s best to keep the messaging simple and easy, something that will be attractive across the cultures of the world without causing offence. That may sound like it’s easier said than done, but it is possible.
Take a fast-food restaurant for example. Their simple branding message might be along the lines of ‘good food, served fast, at affordable prices’. That’s the kind of message that will appeal cross-culturally, from India to China, and beyond.
India and China have very different approaches to food though, and different cultural requirements for their food. For example, in India cows are sacred and there are many more people who are vegetarian, in China, there is a great culture of mixing different food groups such as vegetables and fruits.
While a core menu might stay the same across the world, local variation is a prime example of how a global brand can consider their local customers; and this is something you need to keep in mind when planning your next advertisement, whether it be radio or television.
Global Branding vs Local Branding
When it comes to building a brand across cultures and across the world, keeping some things the same is vital for consistency.
This is where branding really comes into play.
Here at Chatterbox Voices, we have a unique ability to understand the brand ‘voice’, both in how the voice itself should sound and the pace and word choice of the script we’re working from.
Whether you’re working on a radio advertisement, television, a social media advert, or even a film or game, getting your brand voice right, across the globe, is a good way to keep consistency, even if your offering does change in each country to suit local habits.
For example, if your brand is usually known to be fun and playful with your wording, this is something that can be adapted to suit local advertising and sensibilities. Your overall branding message and voice will stay the same as a brand that is fun, playful and doesn’t take itself too seriously. We’ll work with you to ensure that any scripts suit the local sense of humour and playful attitudes.
Contrasting countries and localities see humour very differently. What might be funny to the dry English sarcastic sense of humour might land very differently to a more austere Russian audience. Equally, for brands who rely on tongue-in-cheek advertising, there is a real risk of causing offence if the exact same wording is used across cultures without thought of how different cultures see risqué advertising.
Rethinking Communication
In today’s globalised world it’s easy to think of the human race as one homogeneous being with the same thoughts and feelings as each other across the world, but this simply isn’t the case.
Working with our expert producers, we help brands across the world to create advertising campaigns that speak to local audiences with a local feel.
The Benefits of Glocal Advertising
Investing in glocal advertising over generic global advertising can help to propel your brand to new audiences and gain new fans across the world. It’s critical that brands remain true to their own voice and their own values, but that they also share those values with the people they want to advertise to.
As the world grows up, it’s time that we rethink our advertising approach to keep up with a more tech-savvy and messaging savvy audience, wherever they are in the world.
How We Can Help
Here at Chatterbox Voices, we are invested in humans. We believe in giving humans their voice and sharing voices across the world. From local accents to local dialects, local humour to global issues.
Branding is a big part of what we do, and we’ve been proud to work on some incredible campaigns across the world, bringing people together even if they’re continents apart.
If you’d like to find out more about how glocal advertising can help your business and where to start, drop us a message today and we can have a chat, person to person.
