As any avid traveller knows, a little local knowledge can go a long way. As holidaymakers jet off to new locations, many will have spent the weeks before scouring local guides and websites to find the top tips, insider insights and hidden gems that allow them to make the most of their time off.
Local knowledge is just as important for global businesses. However, time and time again, we see local teams sidelined, with attempts to standardise data collection wiping away the nuanced insights that are present in the data gathered by these inmarket specialists.
Media is, and always has been, local in its nature. But with the growth of hyper-personalisation and hyper-localisation, this has become even more obvious. So how do global brands get the best out of their local teams?
Don’t get lost in translation
One of the challenges that global brands face on a daily basis is negotiating the tensions, pressure points, and frictions that can occur between teams spread out in many different locations. Left unchecked, these minor issues can lead to deteriorating relationships that will, in the end, affect the bottom line.
Crystal clear lines of communication are an absolute must, whether head-office has a more hands-off approach or not. Collaborative integration ensures local teams are involved in all parts of the campaign journey, where they can lend their unique insights and expertise to ensure success.
Celebrating differences
Having the insight of local teams is important, but without a firm foundation of data, all decision making will suffer. But bringing together data from all across the globe is no easy task – differing taxonomies, currencies, and languages make it hard to standardise, leaving global teams with a tangled mess of details.
Luckily, there are tools available to teams to make data management easier – including our very own Tuk-Tuk solution. Tuk-Tuk allows marketers to prioritise local data, celebrating its nuances while adapting to each market’s unique workflows. Top-down changes to data management methods can be tough to implement and lead to further confusion – harnessing software that allows for flexibility can help avoid this.
Good data management is a constantly evolving process, and only through a fluid implementation can brands truly gain the insights that local data offers.
Ultimately, the goal of all good data management is gaining a single, trusted view of all data. This data needs to not only be fully comparable and trusted, insights need to be accessed in real time. This is especially important in times of economic uncertainty, giving marketers the ability to pivot spend to more effective areas.
So as you head off on your holiday, indulge in the region’s speciality and find that hidden coffee shop the other tourists don’t know about, remember the power of local knowledge.
