A successful multi-national PR campaign takes a great deal of work from client and agency alike. Many companies embrace global PR on the basis that they can ‘build once and use many’ thus saving money and time. Experienced PR practitioners will know that it takes a great deal of on-going investment to build an international brand. Not only are there the perennial challenges of multiple languages, diverse cultures and local management ‘fiefdoms’ to contend with but there are also the ever-changing corporate agendas and product road-maps to contend with.
Oriella PR Network partners don’t pretend that we make running international campaigns easy - but we do try to make it as easy as possible.
Here are some of our key processes and tools:
Clear Brief
You will never achieve your goals for an international campaign unless you clearly articulate them and get buy-in. Our senior consultants work with clients to develop and hone the brief so that objectives are ambitious but realistic. We also help ensure that everyone who matters in the organization understands and buys into it. Does the CEO know he will need to give the time to go on a global media tour? Does the European head appreciate that he will need to deliver on his plan for a native language spokesperson in each European market? These are the kinds of questions we help our clients work through so that the brief is truly actionable.
Shared Planning
We think everyone should be involved right at the inception of a campaign. In this way no-one has an excuse to stand back and say’ this won’t work here’. For this reason we encourage our clients to hold twice-yearly agency get-togethers to brainstorm plans and campaign ideas. In some cases we give our time for free and ask our client only to pay for transport and accommodation.
Experienced Coordination
It takes a special skill to run an international PR campaign well. The individual or team needs to understand the complexities of global marketing and posses a great deal of energy and patience. Each multi-national Oriella account is given a global account manager from the lead agency who is responsible for overseeing the cross-agency work. We give as many of our staff as possible exposure to international work so that they gain the skills and experience required to run such campaigns. In some cases our staff have even stepped in as interim international PR managers for the client when the client contact has taken leave of absence.
Global Collaboration and Project Management
A shared place to store and access information is vital for international PR networks. We use products such as Basecamp and Webex’s WebOffice which enable all client and agency team members to share one desktop with email, files and calendars built-in.
Regular Calls and Reporting
We give all our clients - at the very minimum - a monthly call and report with details of all on-going activities on the account. Press release pipeline, upcoming interviews, on-going issues - all of these are to found here and are discussed on the monthly global team call. Many of our larger campaigns have fortnightly or weekly calls in addition to the daily interchanges required to keep busy, ambitious campaigns on track.
Access to Innovation
Around the network we have all kinds of experts and innovators that multi-national clients have access to throughout the engagement - from regional media specialists and local media trainers to creative design and branding specialists. Feeding in new ideas makes working together more fun and it lays down the ground-work for future campaigns.
