"What makes global advertising work?"(Marketing)

Of course, there isn't just one answer. And it's not even clear that advertising should be global. But a recent campaign for Chivas Regal Scotch Whisky shows it can be done.

The more corporations seek to extend their brand-name products into increasingly diverse international markets, the louder the debate over the potential effectiveness of global advertising will range. Some companies, burnt by the disasters that accompanied poor translations, unexpected cultural differences, regional competition, and, most critically, unresolved corporate politics, have given up on the notion of a unified advertising campaign entirely, lending intensified meaning to the concept of thinking global but acting local. Other companies, however, have decided that the benefits, economies, and consistencies that global advertising promises make crafting a global campaign worth the effort. And sometimes, given the right circumstances, the right product, the right pitch, the right markets, and the right preparation, global advertising has proven it can live up to the promise its partisans proclaim.

The global campaign The Chivas and Glenlivet Group launched, via the advertising agency TBWA, in 1995 for Chivas Regal, was, according to C&G President James Espey, just such a campaign. In the following article, Espey explains why this campaign, six months in the making, is working and, more specifically, how C&G and TBWA plan to ensure its success in the long term.

Michael Winkleman

The Chivas and Glenlivet Group has strategic responsibility for the long-term health of key Seagram brands around the world - particularly our flagship brand, Chivas Regal. But this is not as simple as it sounds. Our company is divided into three regional divisions which work hand-in-glove with the Chivas and Glenlivet team. These other groups control all the distribution companies on the ground and thus are the primary customers for Chivas Regal. They import the brand from Scotland, distribute it to their customers in the trade throughout different world markets, and are responsible for all local marketing initiatives.

That means they live much closer to the consumer and are concerned with immediate, short-term needs, while those of us in a central strategic role have a much longer-term, holistic view of the brand and its prospects. While I, as president of the Chivas and Glenlivet Group, may see myself, then, as the ultimate brand champion for Chivas Regal, it is my peers at these other divisions who are actually responsible for generating the company's profits in the marketplace.

It's important, clearly, to find a healthy balance between the long- and short-term needs of the corporation. This can be difficult in an organization that, like most others, is full of "marketing expels," people who believe that, if they are closest to the consumer and work with local advertising agencies, their ideas should predominate. And it makes it incumbent upon the brand, company, and champions - the C&G team, in this case - to demonstrate positively and constructively that there is a need for a global campaign that transcends local considerations. At the same time, however, the team must make sure that regional management is working with or on behalf of local management in the quest for the best solution.

Just as important as getting buy-in for a global campaign from local and regional management is getting buy-in from top management. When I first suggested the idea of new and truly global advertising within Seagram, our parent company, I made sure I rapidly gained the support of the president of the Spirits and Wine Group, Ed McDonnell, as well as the president and chief executive of The Seagram Company Ltd., Edgar Bronfman Jr. Their endorsements were a major factor in helping to focus people's minds throughout the group on the fact that we actually should consider having a worldwide campaign. Any uncertainty from the top would have been picked up quickly around the globe. The internal problems of then selling an idea not supported unequivocally by top management would have been intolerable, if not impossible.

Global advertising can work against global consumer needs. But local management sometimes overemphasizes the differences between target consumers by market in differentiating local customs, interests, and idiosyncrasies. Some enormous consumer needs are rooted in strictly human attitudes and aspirations that defy categorization by such standard - and locally based - demographic and social terms as age, race, income, or national origin. What makes a campaign successful for a product catering to needs such as the desire to demonstrate success, or to find relief from stress, or to protect the family is an understanding of the brand's intrinsic appeal.

Our consumer research showed that Chivas Regal was perceived similarly in all geographic markets: A legacy of premium pricing; elegant, jewel-like packaging; and high-class advertising imagery (primarily derived from BBDO's U.S.-based campaign from the '60s and '70s) led it to be seen worldwide as a superb product that was largely superior to its competition. Those consumers who identified with Chivas Regal tended to be those who had a desire for success that was keen, but relaxed and stylish. Positive, not gauche. Refined, not pushy.

We saw the brand competing for consumer attention and patronage in a broadly defined premium drinks market, including premium vodkas, malt whiskies, and premium Cognacs. If we were to make sure that Chivas Regal not only is seen by consumers as "the most compelling premium spirits brand in the world," but also continues to grow, we needed to focus on motivating new, younger, more contemporary consumers who are not yet set in their choice of brands, and who might not yet be confirmed Chivas Regal drinkers. For these consumers, we needed to demonstrate that this brand could hold the same appeal in the '90s as it did in the '60s, that it is not, as another advertising phrase of recent years might have it, "your father's Oldsmobile."

Accordingly, we set out to create a single powerful message that would match the brand's attributes with the specific aspirations of our chosen audience in a compelling way.

But before we could develop that message, we had to develop the brief. I believe that an agency is only as good as the brief and the direction it receives from the client. Therefore, we analyzed every single piece of available research along with the history of the brand and its global growth pattern - its moving from being primarily a successful U.S. brand to one with some 80 percent of sales outside of North America. We studied the acclaimed U.S. ad campaign from the '60s to get a sense of what had worked - and why. And, since Chivas Regal is the most important brand for all Seagram distributors, we invited each region to share its opinions throughout the process.

We then distilled all this information into a comprehensive brief, made sure the regional presidents agreed, and presented it to the three agencies we'd invited to pitch for the account. We'd chosen a group of agencies - TBWA, Grey, and Ogilvy & Mather - whose creative reputations we had confidence in and that had clearly demonstrated the ability to work globally (with or without a global network), were large enough to take on this project, and could demonstrate an understanding of our business.

We made it clear that we would not be following the age-old practice of choosing an agency based on a presentation and then asking that agency to go out and create an entirely new and different campaign. The agency with the best idea capable of genuine global exploitation would win the account - on the strength of that idea.

While TBWA's presentation was the least impressive in terms of stage management, the idea this agency presented, like all great ideas, set heads nodding in agreement immediately. Captured in one simple statement - "You either have it...or you don't" - was an idea that, we were sure, would capture the target audience's desire to be fashionable and smart, to have the best, to serve the best, and thereby to achieve and demonstrate status. And it was one that by virtue of its simplicity, its flexibility, its visual nature, and its avoidance of lifestyle symbols, clearly had a multitude of possible executions.

The campaign was devised to present, in each of its executions, a pair of alternatives. While the alternative that exemplified the "you don't" half of the equation would never be derided actively, it would be clear, to Chivas Regal drinkers at least, which alternative was the better, more appropriate choice, which alternative, like Chivas Regal itself, represented the choice for people who "have it." This approach allowed us to develop an assumptive campaign that complemented the brand's extroverted personality and leadership position but, thanks to its wit, never actually slipped into arrogance.

Having agreed on a global campaign, we elected to produce a global print pool in London, where the C&G offices are located. To help offset the nervousness executives in other parts of the world would naturally feel about this campaign's being produced centrally, we invited local affiliates and their agency partners to think of print ideas - particularly those that would be relevant to their own markets.

Out of this grew a collection of some 50 to 60 ideas for print ads. We asked each of the major markets to nominate its top six ideas, and we followed this up with a check for both overlap of material and breadth of executional range. Simultaneously, we began work on the difficult process of transferring these ideas to electronic executions, for those markets where spirits can be advertised on television.

At present, some two years after the process started, we've got about 20 print and six TV executions in circulation. Because we have avoided local symbols, we've had to do very little local tweaking; most of the same executions, in fact, run in all of our markets in the U.S., Europe, and Latin America. The exception has been Asia. While the aspirations of Chivas Regal's target market in that part of the world are the same as they are elsewhere, the humor that is intrinsic to the campaign's success doesn't work quite as well. The reason: Asians appear to be less comfortable with the clear, albeit tongue-in-cheek, statement of superiority conveyed by the campaign; they feel that, in public at least, they should be showing sympathy for those who don't have it. The solution: We've released an series of executions that build on the global strategy and appeal to the Asian consumer.

It's too early to judge the business impact of this campaign - especially in mature markets like the U.S. and Western Europe where a key goal is to change some perceptions about the brand and lower the median age of Chivas Regal consumers. And it's impossible to claim from our experience that global advertising is always the answer. However, the indications are good, as Chivas Regal continues to grow, outpacing the competition. But regardless of whether we achieve all our goals and whether this approach works for everyone else, we've made some clear and major accomplishments through this campaign: We've created an exciting, viable, visible, worldwide campaign in a short amount of time and worked as an international team to see it through. But then, when it came to the primary ingredients that we believe comprise a workable global premise - a committed CEO, determined brand champions, a major consumer need, a common brand perception and image, and a powerful advertising idea - we had them. And, as the ad would claim, "You either have it ... or you don't."

James S. Espey is president of The Chivas and Glenlivet Group.