It’s a small world…. after all.
Melanie Johnson-Holliday – Account Director
So, you’ve been asked to create a global PR strategy? It’s a daunting task, your company operates in various countries, but it is critical to your company’s growth plans and your CEO is putting on the pressure to get the organisation’s brand out there, but where do you start?
The first thing to remember is, you’re not on your own. With the right PR partner, you can rule the world from one single point of contact. By this I mean, there are many PR agencies out there that run successful international PR networks that will help you easily move forward with your global PR strategy, but here are a few tips to get you started:
Think about what global teams you already have in place
Many companies claim to be ‘international’ but sometimes it can be just a case of smoke and mirrors. For a global PR campaign to truly work you need to have physical teams and spokespeople in the countries you’re targeting to truly work. By this I mean, for PR in France, it is beneficial to have a spokesperson who speaks the local language, for the Asia Pacific region, have a team that understands that culture.
It is so valuable to have spokespeople and teams on the ground in the countries you want to raise awareness in,
Make sure you have relevant local stories
Having local stories will make a massive difference. Just remember UK journalists aren’t going to want to hear about a US success story as it is not relevant to the country their readers are in, and vice versa, US media don’t won’t to know about a UK story unless it’s Brexit (sorry, I mentioned it!).
Timing matters
We’ve all done it, arranged meetings in Pacific Time (PT) when it should have been British Summer Time (BST). When dealing with so many territories all with different time zones things can get out of control when arranging meetings and conference calls. I’ll be honest, I learnt my lesson when arranging briefings for trade show in Germany and I was an hour late for the first two until it dawned on me, I’d got the time zones wrong in my calendar invites.
But don’t worry, just be vigilant when arranging international meetings. I know always put the time for the country the person is in and my local time as that tends to stop confusion and highlights any problems in time.
Make connections
The PR scene may vary from country to country (so may the costs), so make sure you do your research or engage with a trusted partner that offer you advise. Ask questions about whether you should use freelancers, hire an agency, employ an in-house PR person, what tools and tactics work.
The basics of PR will still be the same in each country, but the setup and execution maybe different.
Remember, you can’t be in all 50 countries you’re targeting at once, but you can successfully run a global PR campaign with the right team beside you.
If you’d like to discuss how you can successfully launch an international PR campaign, why not get in touch with Yvonne Eskenzi on yvonne@eskenzipr.com
