At the 2024 Olympics, Global Brands Made Their Ads Feel Local

As we take a short breather between the Olympic and Paralympic Games, it’s safe to say advertisers most likely won’t as they seek to continue capitalising on the momentum. Some have certainly risen to the top through a combination of a great creative idea and excellently crafted execution. Yet something that tends to fly under the radar with ads that audiences find truly resonant is the effect of localisation.  

Visa’s ‘Level Up Your Game’ used stories of real athletes, artists, producers, fashion experts, pro-gamers and young creators across Europe (the UK, Italy, Spain, Germany, France, and Poland). Hazarding an educated guess, Hannes Ben, CEO at Locaria, suggests that a localisation team was included in creative discussions from the outset. The hero ad from the campaign features athletes from all over the world; a direct engagement with the Olympics’ global audience. Aside from the additional cost of voiceover and subtitling, no additional budget will have had to be spent on the visual adaptation phase of the campaign as it didn’t need to recreate significant portions of the hero ad for individual markets.  

Above: Visa, ‘Level Up Your Game’ 

Nike followed a similar path with its ‘Winning Isn’t For Everyone’ campaign. The idea is simple: a montage of elite athletes in moments of challenge and victory with a punchy voiceover articulating what it means and what it takes to win. Adapting the hero ad is subsequently a breeze. Just a change of the voiceover and the subtitles to connect it to a different market without losing any of the impact.  

Above: Nike, ‘Winning Isn’t For Everyone’ 

Surely, all Olympic-themed campaigns should follow this framework? After all, a global audience deserves ads that consider who is watching. The opposite is usually true and for every thoughtful Nike and Visa campaign, there are dozens, if not hundreds, that fail to do so.  

Not an afterthought  

Typically, this happens when localisation is treated like an afterthought and not a central tenet of campaign planning. Hannes points out that typically a campaign idea is first defined, then created, reviewed by a brand team and only then is it adapted to different markets. “By doing this, which is especially common with large global brands, you end up with a campaign with a hero idea that resonates extremely well in the source-market, but then requires huge amounts of time and resources to adapt to other target markets,” he adds.  

Getting localisation right can be a challenge. Cultural sensitivity has to play a big role since every campaign must be attuned to local customs, traditions and societal norms. “What works in one country might be inappropriate or ineffective in another,” Hannes adds on cultural relevance too. Local regulations are another sticking point since every ad must adhere to varying local regulations and standards for advertising, which can differ significantly between countries.  

Consistency is likewise an issue as it’s not easy to maintain brand voice and messaging across different languages while also allowing for necessary localisation adjustments. “We need to think about quality assurance too, ensuring high-quality translations and adaptations that capture the nuance and intent of the original content, rather than just literal translations." 

Then there are the technical operational challenges like resource management and scalability, and the integration of technology spanning tool compatibility and finding the right balance between automation versus the human touch in the localisation process.  

One of the main mistakes that Locaria sees clients frequently make is underestimating the complexity of media localisation. “Most can’t explain the difference between translation, localisation, transcreation, culturalisation, regionalisation, adaptation, origination or copywriting, let alone the impact each of them has on their different digital marketing channels. All of these localisation strategies demand different talent, timelines and budgets.” 

Not having a centralised strategy is another – a natural effect of treating localisation like an afterthought and scrambling to get it done after the campaign’s creation. This leads to a fragmented approach and work being carried out by multiple agencies or freelancers. Hannes has seen how this results in “inconsistent messaging and quality, inadequate communication between global and local teams, and misaligned goals and expectations.” 

Early engagement for better results 

Including localisation considerations earlier on in the campaign creation process goes a long way to mitigate these challenges and costs. “Instead of simply receiving the campaign material once completed by the creative agency, localisation partners should have the opportunity to connect with the creative and production teams early. Their mission, to first understand the concept created and produced for the source market, before pressure testing ideas, concepts and taglines in the target markets, conducting ethnographic research and providing rationales for different versions. This would allow them to understand the right localisation strategy to use once the international expansion stage is reached, resulting in time and cost savings,” Hannes explains.  

Crucially, this makes for a better campaign in whatever market it’s deployed in, with enhanced cultural relevance and sensitivity, and a consistent brand voice. It’s also cost efficient with design flexibility, reduced reworking and streamlined processes integrated from the get-go.  

While achieving success with multilingual asset adaptation is no easy feat – it requires the right capability, scalability and expertise – engaging with the right partner is one way to ensure it. Hannes says that “the right partner will act as an advisor from the outset. They will centralise the multilingual content adaptation process to ensure global cohesion and find efficiencies wherever possible, deploy the latest tech to streamline processes and drive efficiencies in the content adaptation process.” 

Hannes adds an important caveat to this point by reminding us that while centralisation and global cohesion are crucial to successful campaigns, “the two factors should never overshadow and negatively impact the creation of hyper-relevant local content. Ultimately, it’s finding the balance between central alignment and global governance with in-market content specialists that results in content that has the biggest impact.” Both Visa and Nike’s Olympic campaigns manage to strike this balance brilliantly, creating both hero ads that resonate globally, alongside much more locally nuanced docuseries.

The right adaptation partner can deliver both high-value and high-volume work that performs across channels, platforms, formats, genres and audiences; troubleshoot issues, recommend improvements, and help navigate the complexities of multilingual content adaptation, so that more brand campaigns – not just the Olympic ones – reach and resonate with intended audiences.