International Marketer’s Blog

Coca-Cola recently had embarked on a big move to centralize its European marketing operation into a London hub. Joe Thomas of Marketing Magazine (Marketingmagazine.co.uk, 20.04.2010) reported that Coca-Cola currently uses a roster of agencies from countries across the region, all of which contribute to its marketing activity.

Adding to the complexity, the marketing campaign is decided and activated by marketers at a national level, rather than collectively from a region-wide or global perspective. Not only it results in a total lack of synergy in its advertising in each market, the localized marketing activities and ideas actually create unnecessary costs.

Some may comment that many of the markets in Europe operate, on occasion, purely for their own benefit, without considering a wider regional picture. The Diet Coke TV commercial featuring Duffy was criticized for being an idea that was never going to work outside the UK. Some even commented that a Welsh singer in a supermarket would not appeal to any other audience. Putting aside the fact that I actually quite like the song (and secretly love the commercial), the way it was adapted for other markets by simply dubbing the line and subtitling the song in Austrian, Slovenian, Bulgarian…and so on, it has lost its simplicity. As an idea, it has been diluted as an execution – and it was an international marketing execution that cost Coca-Cola money. (more…)

Yahoo has appointed a new creative agency, Goodby Silverstein & Partners to work alongside its established worldwide agency Ogilvy and Mather.

The surprise move follows the  international roll out of Yahoo’s biggest ever integrated campaign “It’s You” last month handled by Ogilvy and Mather in the US, UK and India.

Explaining the move in an interview with Advertising Age, Sally Baldwin, Yahoo Senior VP-Global Integrated Marketing and Brand Management said:

“We have been planning to expand our portfolio of agency partners for several months, and now that our multiyear effort is under way and our campaign is in full swing in the U.S., the time was right. This move was made to optimize our mix of agencies for the long-term as part of the normal course of business.”

Yahoo’s decoupling of a new creative agency from a its worldwide network is part of emerging trend with international brand managers looking to gain greater marketing efficiency savings in the deployment of international marketing via a centralized creative hub.