Global advertising, cheap or clever?

Large multinationals, can these days employ an advertising agency in one country to create a campaign which will be viewed across the world. A TVC that is created in New York, can be sent to Australia, dubbed over with an Australian accent and aired on television. The problem with this is that not one culture is the same, and if careless, global advertising can be a disaster for a company.

There are some fundamental reasons why large corporations use global advertising:

1- It is cheap. No corporation wants to waste money on creating new communications when the ones developed for New Zealand could be used in Australia.
2- It is quick. Why waste time briefing another countries marketing team, who is then to brief another advertising agency? The already created communications can be sent over in faster time than it would have taken to create a new one.

That said, global advertising can be great for a companies bottom line, it is very efficient. The importance lies therefore in whether it is effective.

The target audience in the world of advertising is vital, who are you trying to talking to? It is important to understand who they are so that the communications are as effective as they can be. If its not relevant to them, they will tune out.

Some cultures do have some likenesses, this can be used to a companies advantage. However, do not become careless, they are still different, so take the time to work out how. If a company has not taken the time to figure out the people, it will show. It is important, despite being a mass produced campaign, to be relevant to each culture you are communicating with:

1-Is your product actually of use to the culture? Would Chanel try to advertise a skin whitening cream in Australia? Probably not.

2-Communicate in ways that they will take notice.  Just because a TVC worked in one country, doesn't mean it will in another. Perhaps women noticing a chanel ad in China did so because it was in a magazine, but in Taiwan, magazines don't impact beauty purchase decisions as much as billboards? 

3-Authenticity is key. Is it actually believable to the Australian public that Simon Baker is American? The Australian actor was used in ANZ's global advertisements using the same American accent that is used in his hit TV show, the mentalist. To Australians, it was just confusing and a little silly. 

This is not to say that every ad that comes into a different country should be dubbed over with the local accent. L'Oreals, Maybelline NY ads are filmed with the backdrop of New York and feature models usually strutting around showing off their eyelashes or other features. It would be silly to dub an Australian voice over the top to make the models sound Australian. It would not be authentic.

Global advertisements can be efficient and effective when used appropriately, when done poorly they can be a PR disaster. Cheap or clever? it is dependent on the corporations marketing team and the advertising agency to create a campaign that can be relevant to an array of cultures.


Advertisement: ANZ Global TVC (Hong Kong and Australia)
Cited from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xlign86r7Ck
Sourced on: 24/01/2012

General information
Launched in 2011 by ANZ, to communicate the benefits of being with ANZ over other banks. Using Simon Baker, a popular actor from the hit TV show the Mentalist, the TVC was used in multiple cities across the world.
This shows the Australian and Hong Kong versions of the same ad side by side. It was obviously shot a few times for different cultures, ie in both cases the backdrop city was altered. First it was made to look like a Hong Kong city street, then an Australian one.
Target audience
People in multiple cultures who use banks.
Objectives:
To communicate that ANZ isn't like other banks because of its forward thinking.
My opinion:
I think that the TVC does its job in portraying ANZ as more "humanized" and forward thinking. The use of a popular actor makes it interesting to people, and also simple to convert into different cultures. However  for the amount of trouble that was taken to shoot with different backgrounds for the different cultures, they could have had Simon Baker use his normal Australian accent for the Australian version. In this way, the TVC is a tad in authentic for Australian audiences.