Richard Bailey points to a very interesting speech given by Colin Farrington, Director General of the IPR – the UK’s variation on the PRSA – on PR trends in Europe.
Europe presents a difficult business environment, particularly for marketing. Whilst the stated goal of the European Union is to bring Europe closer together, and it has achieved an awful lot of that through shared legislation, reduced trade barriers etc. Europe still remains a loose collection of individual states from a marketing perspective.
Part of the problem is that the European Union is percieved as a peer to the United States, but it’s very different.
Europe is a collection of very different states, each with their own cultures and preferences and each proud of their differences. For example, Ireland, a very small country and a relatively new state (1949) is one of the most pro-European members of the European Union. The country views itself as a fully committed member of Europe, but we still see ourselves as Irish.
Now extrapolate those feelings into countries which have been independent for five hundred years or more. They are unwilling to completely give up their nationality even though they embrace Europe and the collective trading bloc.
During my time working on PR and marketing programs around Europe it quickly became apparent that each European country is proud of it’s differences.
Anyone who has worked on pan-European campaigns will have heard the familiar refrain from every country – “oh it’s different here you see.”
Couple that with a general mistrust of central command throughout Europe and you have a very challenging environment that requires a significantly higher investment.
It’s not easy and in my view it’s not going to get any easier in the near future.
If you are planning to move into Europe or undertake a European campaign, be clear on what you want to achieve and how you will work with each country and beware of empty promises.
Do not assume that a generic campaign will work. It won’t.
Respect each country, if you want to launch in a country then invest in local knowledge and resources. Bland campaigns which blindly throw money into a country will fail. If you want to be successful there demonstrate your commitment.
Finally spend the time building local relationships. It will pay huge dividends immediately.
Murphy's Law 