We’ve all been there.

Day 1 of an overwhelming project when it dawns on you exactly what you’ve signed up for.

For me this was the 1st June, 2018, 48 hours after I’d arrived in Amsterdam to launch my first major global campaign with six other people in a small glass room.

So there I was.

With a group of strangers.

On the brand of my dreams.

On the brand’s first ever ‘blockbuster’ global campaign.

Reporting into 47 separate stakeholders along the way.

From 13 different regions.

To create a campaign that would eventually run in 120 countries.

Trying reposition a category and sell 4.5 million pairs of shoes.

Skipping the details and jumping to the end - here’s what I learned are the four key differences between working on local vs global campaigns.

1. Deck craft will make or break the strategy

On a global campaign there are going to be a HEAP of people, that will influence the work, that you will never meet, have the chance to speak with, send an email to, or even be made aware of their existence.

You put the trust to sell through a strategy, concept, design, script or storyboard with your global comms client, and then it’s out in the world. In facing this process, the decks you arm them with to crystallise the thinking and get everyone aligned have never been so important.

They need to tell a story. They need to captivate anyone - of any level - who pick them up in a rush to deliver perfectly articulated key points that cater to the needs of everyone in the company.

If your decks fail to leave people with the feeling of wanting to get on board and fully commit to the global campaign, you’re going to have holes picked in the work, which leads to hundreds of differing opinions, which ultimately risks watering down and compromising the idea.

2. Global scale politics

Get ready to get political. Yes, this absolutely exists in local campaigns, spanning every industry, so it’s not a uniquely global advertising concept - but it does go up a notch when going global.

Firstly, there’s the politics within the business. Every market (understandably) wants to create work that reflects the idiosyncrasies of their own culture, and is wary of an overarching global strategy becoming too high and lofty that it then becomes meaningless.

Secondly, there is the always shifting political climate of the world. The time from a global campaign’s briefing until live date can be many months, if not years. So by the time something agreed months/years ago is ready to go into the world... well... the world might be a different place.

On my first global campaign, we created 4x global films. Each story linked to a topic that is universal and timely (eg pollution, immigration, race relations). All it took to kill one of the four films was a US government shutdown and it was deemed insensitive. Whilst it wasn’t able to be predicted, we still should have been prepared and had scenarios planned with more foresight of American geopolitics being at an ‘interesting’ time in 2019.

3. Client approach & motivation changes

A great client who understands their brand proposition, the role in its customers’ lives, the brand strategy which it is executing, and has good creative (& political) judgement... is always a great client, regardless of whether they lead local or global communications.

The difference between them isn’t being intelligent and knowing their stuff (the same could be said agency side), but how they think in terms of going about executing the campaign. This requires a different skill set and approach and therefore approach to working with their agency.

I’ve found global clients to be extremely rigorous and detailed in testing the strategy upfront, and then once they’re on board, become an extension on your team as they defend the integrity of the idea to all their markets.

Local clients generally own a lot more of the process. They write the brief, work directly with you on the campaign, attend shoots, sell in to their company, align media channels and partner agencies, and also get the credit at the end. So they get to make the calls and shape the work as they go.

For this reason, how they think, operate, and get motivated noticeably differs. The global clients are far removed from the detail, rollout, media planning and market intricacies. Whereas local clients are more interested in the details, tuned in to channel thinking, know their audience better as it’s so specified.

4. USA & China come first - then everyone else follows

This point is actually as simple as it sounds when it comes to almost any global campaign, and doesn’t require too much more explanation.

Yes it depends on the product that’s being sold, but these 2 markets generally dominate in terms of cash money spent on stuff that the top 50-100 companies in the world sell. And that has pull.

A lot of it.

So before you even start on the creative work, you should have researched attitudes, consumer behaviour, lifestyle, and product positioning in USA or China as a starting point. Get in the minds of people in these countries, because they will end up determining whether enough money comes in for you to have a job on this brand in the future.

Ok so I’ve written a lot about the differences, but fact is - good strategy is good strategy and good ideas are good ideas.
Great work always depends on the culture of the company for which you are creating comms for.
Smart, collaborative clients always make a positive impact on strategic and creative thinking.
Adaptable people always make things work whether they have vast experience in something, or merely a good attitude to learn a new way of working for a local or global brand.

The trick is in recognising the differences, but staying true to universal learnings that you develop in any agency, anywhere in the world, working on any account, of any size.

Dave Matthews