LA MISE EN OEVRE DES CAMPAGNES PUBLICITAIRES INTERNATIONALES: BABEL OU ESPÉRANTO?

For over 30 years, one of the hottest questions stimulating the debate on advertising, especially inside advertisers and agencies organizations, concerns international campaigns. Key issues can be summarised as follows: 1. Should advertisers develop local campaigns, totally adapted to local specificities, taking the risk of a certain part of their communications, which may result in dispersed brand images over countries? 2. Or, is it necessary to impose to all countries a single, centrally developed campaign, integrating only the major constraints, forgetting the specific constraints and objectives of local markets, therefore taking the risk of a common, fully homogeneous communication, but one which may be difficult to adapt in local markets, moderately appreciated, and finally poorly effective in certain countries, and maybe optimal nowhere? This article reviews the key dimensions of this big question, the main resulting issues and the evolution of practices.