They say you can learn a lot about a foreign country by turning on the TV and watching a few local ads. Every country’s culture has its own unique features and peculiarities. Sometimes it is not easy to understand them, but a quality, well-done promotion offers a glimpse of local customs and traditions.
Inspiration squared
Advertisements from other countries can be original and distinctive. They open new horizons in the form of different technologies, special visual effects, or unconventional ways of storytelling. And that can be a welcome refresher. Companies that manage to break out of the confines of the Czech ‘playground’ can gain a competitive advantage through creative overlap and increase the attractiveness of their TV advertising for Czech viewers.
On the other hand, analysing advertisements from other countries can help us gain an understanding of trends and consumer behaviour in a foreign country. This knowledge of their preferences and buying habits can be used to better tailor marketing strategies and product or service offerings for that market.
One hundred ways of advertising
Globalisation and the rapid technological developments we are witnessing have resulted in a highly interconnected international market. One would therefore expect multinational companies to fall into the trap of universal advertising. But nothing like that has happened. Marketers soon realised that they had to take into account not only local regulatory and legal rules but also specific cultural standards, values and traditions. Consumer behaviour and the specific mentality of the audience also play a role. All of this strongly influences the perception of TV advertising and has a significant impact on whether an ad succeeds with viewers.
Elements, humour or visual style that may be highly effective in one country may be perceived as inappropriate or incomprehensible in another. Similarly, certain puns and linguistic nuances may only work in certain languages or cultures.
Creative marketers have no choice but to respect these differences and adapt their strategies to reach and attract local audiences. As a guide to assess local conditions, they can use the PESTEL framework, which focuses on political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legislative factors in a country.
That this is the right way to go is confirmed by the results of a transferability analysis conducted in 2022 by Ipsos, a global market and opinion research company. The aim of the analysis was to find out whether advertising from other countries would work in the Czech Republic. A test of advertising performance in two countries in the same region found that only 37% of ads achieved the same results in both countries. “Based on our test results, we know that ad transferability works in about 1/3 of cases, i.e. if an ad scores well in one country, it will perform equally well in the other. Or vice versa... if it fails, it will not work in the other country either,” commented Ipsos.
Dubbing an ad into another language is usually not enough
Multinational brands know this as they roll out their large-scale advertising campaigns across different countries. Even if they manage to base their multinational advertising campaign on a universal factor, such as the desire to be beautiful, which works all over the world, there are always differences that need to be applied in different countries. A common denominator that would make it possible to communicate one universal ad across cultures is basically a utopia. The exception to this, however, may be so-called ‘mood campaigns’ that focus solely on aspects of a particular brand.
The differentiated approach is not only reflected in classic TV advertising. A typical example is augmented reality used in sports broadcasts. Television viewers in different countries see different forms of advertising not only on the boards but also on the ice. For example, during the NHL Global Series in Prague, viewers saw real ads on the boards in the Czech version of the broadcast. In addition, they saw virtual Škoda cars in the corners of the screen. Viewers watching the American broadcast could see illuminated boards with sponsors’ and partners’ branding, including an animated Honda ad. The Czech viewers did not see this. Interestingly, the American broadcast also featured an advertisement for the Czech car manufacturer Škoda and a Visit Czech Republic ad. The Czech production had a total of four versions of the broadcasts based on the target audience. At a higher level, there was also the main international version, which - as the only one - did not contain any virtual elements.
Ad success going beyond boundaries
On Friday 23 June, the winners of the Cannes Lions 2023 International Festival of Creativity were announced. This is the most prestigious international festival of advertising creativity. Founded in 1954, it was first held in Venice, then in Monte Carlo and Cannes. Subsequently, it ran alternately in Venice and Cannes where it finally took root for good in 1984. It is usually held in the third week of June - this year’s date was 19-23 June 2023.
In the prestigious Film category, 1,867 films were registered and 49 Lions were awarded: 6 gold, 16 silver and 25 bronze. The jury also decided to award two Grand Prix prizes. The first was awarded to the “Relax, it's iPhone - R.I.P. Leon” advert for iPhone 14 (Apple, Cupertino, USA), the second to the “The Last Photo” advert for ITV X CALM (adam&eveDDB, London, UK).
Video: Apple - Relax, it's iPhone – R.I.P. Leon
Video: ITV x CALM - The Last Photo
A detailed list of winners in all categories of the festival can be found here. We will return to some of the works and creators in our summer series of articles.
What can you look forward to?
In our summer series, we will look at advertising both here in Europe and on other continents. We will visit the USA, the UK, Germany, Japan, India, New Zealand, Malaysia, Northern Europe, Latin America, and the Philippines.
Did you know, for example, that during a 10-hour broadcast, viewers in the U.S. are shown about 3 hours of commercials, roughly double the amount of time that was common in the 1960s? Therefore, if a 1960s film is rerun, it may be edited by up to nine minutes to make additional space for ads. Hopefully, the shower scene in Hitchcock’s Psycho will not be affected by the additional editing.
You will find this and many other interesting facts in the next article, which will take us to the USA. Fasten your seat belts, please. The TV advertising round-the-world trip is about to begin!
