Letter from London: multi-culturalism and global comms

Around 70% of the agency search and selection tasks we handle from our London office are to appoint pan-regional or global agencies, to deliver communications which will travel across borders.

Finding agencies in London capable of delivering on this most basic principle isn’t difficult. At least in theory…

Any network agency worth its salt can provide evidence of international capabilities by the bucketload. However the proof of the pudding is, as they say, in the eating, and time and time again, when it comes to the creative ‘reveal’, the client team is left with a good deal of indigestible recommendations.

The reason is simple. The English language is as rich as our creative ability for wit and humour. UK advertising is renowned for its cleverness and its ability to connect with the consumer. And that’s fine if you’re advertising to a UK audience.

But too often this simply gets left at the door of the agency meeting room.  As the UK client team sits with wry smiles – those from Italy, Denmark, China and the US sit blank-faced, either not getting the sentiment or agonising over how it could possibly be relevantly translated with any level of effect in their markets.

Unsurprisingly, London agencies are UK, if not London-centric. Too often the vast majority of their personnel come from similar backgrounds and have a similar type of approach to delivering creative – and having a token creative team from Buenos Aires on tap in the creative department counts for little.

Just a short hop from T5 you’ll find a very different picture when you’re talking to international agencies. Firstly, when you meet an Amsterdam agency team it’s very difficult to work out what their nationalities are (with the exception of the planner who seems, invariably, to be Scottish!). But the one thing you can be sure of is that they don’t all come from the UK.

The city attracts true internationalists that bring an internationalist approach to the work they do. They are not confined by their homeland borders, let alone those surrounding Soho or South Bank.

Because they are from outside their own home market, they naturally think how work will interpret for countries outside of the one in which they work. And therefore deliver work that does just that from the outset.

With all the talk about the UK’s involvement with the EU (and beyond) it surely isn’t beyond the wit of man for London agencies to recruit more truly international teams to work on international business.

Thankfully, some do – and some have techniques for bringing in brains and capabilities from other markets both at pitches and beyond. And it makes a significant difference to the quality of the work and its ability to work in different cultures and communities.

In the main however, the issue gets ignored – as does the communications work that ensues. Definite evidence that, in some instances, British isn’t always best.

Stuart Pocock is Co-Founder & Managing Partner of Roth Observatory International, London.

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