Sharon Callahan, Diversified Agency Services Healthcare

The mistake that clients, and agencies, often make is the belief that in today's increasingly complex world, global communications means that a ?one-sight, one-sound brand voice will work. In order to achieve the greatest impact and efficiency, marketers must consider how global communications will be defined for their brand.

Sharon Callahan

Many models of global creative are offered and while some cost more to implement than others, strong ideas that travel across cultures and disciplines will always be more efficient and more effective.

Bold ideas lead

Clients are always served best when they let strong ideas lead. The strength of a brand-building idea is not just in creative expression; a strong idea should be able to be produced across all media channels and be readily adapted in local markets, including emerging markets.

There are many ways to reach global efficiency, but the best way for clients is organization. For example, if a client's global organization is decentralized and they allow local markets to "do their own thing," they may be best served by a centrally developed global campaign that leaves a lot of room for adaptation at the local level—this adaptation can be done by an agency chosen by the local marketer.

For a client global organization that is headquarters controlled, they may be best served by an agency network that will deliver consistent global adaptation services through their local offices or through a centralized transcreation service.

Low Internet, high cell penetration

For doctors and consumers in the US and Europe, the Internet has become a well-accepted tool for learning and distributing disease information and wellness knowledge. The situation in emerging markets is very different because Internet penetration is low (<50 percent in most of the IMS pharmerging markets) and cell phone penetration is very high (80-85 percent in most of the IMS pharmerging markets).

This means that mobile health programs that are culturally sensitive can dramatically transform the dissemination of knowledge, improve quality of life, and achieve cost savings.