Stunning Examples in Global Marketing Success
Name two brands that have gone global. While it might be that you could find a common thread, it’s likely that every campaign looks very distinct. And it’s true, every campaign must consider its own branding, target audience, platform, and budget among other factors. But in the end, it’s about creating a global marketing strategy that is thoughtful, poignant, and stays true to the goals of your brand. But rather than learning in theory, we analyze some real companies in recent history who got the job done, and how they achieved such impressive results.
The 2021 collaboration between these two global giants was a colossal success born at the intersection of two icons of the Food and Beverage and Music industries, heavily underlined by the K-culture factor.
With a smart understanding of the BTS fanbase, McDonald’s played on classic K-pop elements in their social media, playing on concert date releases, launch parties, and merch to hype up their collaboration. While recruiting the love of BTS fans, McDonald’s “BTS Meal” stayed true to its roots with a classic menu that featured a Korean twist on the sauces. The global marketing strategy was this–that BTS, like anyone else, has a “usual” order. And you can get a taste.
A visible global marketing success, the BTS Meal resulted in a whopping 74.6 billion potential reach, 41% global sales increase, and 11.5 million social mentions. While the collaboration was of course between two icons, the it factor appeared to be the expression of each brand’s values in a thoughtful new way that accentuated without undermining one another.
A highly thoughtful campaign involving 7 brands and 3 separate regions, Wieden + Kennedy managed to harness the power of a worldwide event like the FIFA World Cup 2022. Including a slew of memorable work like Nike’s Footballverse and Visa’s For Fans Everywhere, the global excitement of the occasion was effectively captured into a series of strategic and immediately evocative campaigns.
In particular, the Budweiser: #BringHomeTheBud campaign stands out as a particularly brilliant show of quick thinking and problem solving, absolute necessities in any global marketing strategy. With only two days left before the beginning of the Qatar World Cup, Qatar announced the banning of alcohol sales in the stadium, leaving Budweiser in a bind.
With beer left to sell and no venue to sell it, Wieden + Kennedy utilized influencers, social media, and the power of national pride into one genius move to send the beer to the winner of the World Cup. Tweeting “New Day, New Tweet. Winning Country gets the Buds. Who will get them?,” the strategic pivot gained a whopping 4MM+ social mentions, 3.1B social reach, and impressive media coverage.
Garnering replies in a vast number languages from fans with loyalty to a wide array of countries, this campaign spoke volumes about the gravity of flexibility in transforming an unexpected event into a world-uniting opportunity.
While National Geographic is, to many, a TV channel best known for featuring the great outdoors, it has been licensed as a fashion brand in Korea. The Nature Holdings, who “discovers overseas brands,” has worked with National Geographic since 2013, as just one of many brands which have been similarly licensed. The logo was just one recognizable marker of a trend of licensed brands in Korea like Kodak, Discovery, and MLB.
The National Geographic clothing line not only fell in line with a trend of licensing brands in Korea, but it also highlighted the core of the brand while capturing the local audience. The marketing strategy also featured a celebrity model (Da Mi Kim), another trendy move. With the K-pop craze, this move ensured local recognition and global relevance in one fell swoop.
The 2022 Fall/Winter campaign smartly featured wordplay in Korean with the name “National Geographic.” In the ads featuring heavy winter coats, the concept of being unique and true to oneself is emphasized (playing to Gen Z interests), with the background featuring the cold weather (staying true to National Geographic’s outdoorsy roots). The numbers spoke to this global marketing success, with a 65.1 billion won first quarter revenue reported by The Nature Holdings (an increase of 30.5% from the previous year).
Creating a legendary global marketing strategy requires more than just creative chops (although that definitely helps!). These examples of global marketing success speak to thoughtful messaging, quick thinking, focused branding, and plenty of personalization, using an engaging social media strategy to punch above your weight. With a purposeful strategy, the world is your oyster.
If you’re ready to get started on your own ground-breaking global marketing strategy, you can say hello here.
