Creative Voices, Global Impact
Global Strategic Communication is not just about adapting the advertising campaigns to a new market – it is about making your voice resonate with unique and diverse audiences from around the world. In this course our students had an exceptional opportunity to work in international creative teams to explore real problems of global marketing campaigns – and resolve them!
Unique creative solutions were developed as a result of an intensive and diligent 8-week collaboration in international COIL teams, where our students partnered with peers from La Salle University, Mexico, to look into real-world global communication challenges from their cultural perspectives, reveal paradoxes and suggest solutions based on cultural dimensions they learned in this course.
Blending creativity with strategic insight, the students’ final projects bring global brands to life through bold ideas, sharp cross-cultural analysis, and compelling digital storytelling. Our bold creatives explored cultural nuances, uncovered hidden tensions in international marketing strategies, and transformed their research into visually engaging multimedia presentations that capture the complexity of communicating across cultures.
They didn’t just analyze – they created solutions. Each project offers unique culturally intelligent recommendations designed to strengthen global brand impact and relevance. The result is a dynamic showcase of emerging professionals who are ready to think globally, collaborate across borders, and shape the future of strategic communication.
Noor, Victoria & Ana: Twist Oreo – and Connect with Culture!
The key communication challenge is how a global brand like Oreo can create one cohesive campaign strategy while adapting to the different cultural values, communication styles, and consumer behaviors of the United States and Mexico. Because these markets differ significantly in Hofstede’s dimensions, particularly individualism versus collectivism, the same global message may not resonate equally across both audiences.
Noor and her team approached this case focusing on Oreo’s campaign adaptations in the United States and Mexico, comparing Stuf of Legends and Hola Mexico as culturally localized executions. The U.S. market reflects a more individualistic and low-context culture, while Mexico’s collectivist and high-context communication style makes emotional and symbolic storytelling more relevant. This cultural contrast makes the challenge of building a globally consistent yet locally meaningful campaign especially important for Oreo’s long-term brand relevance.
To resolve this tension, the team created their own version of culturally sensitive campaign. The campaign is based on the idea that Oreo transforms everyday moments into something special. The core action of twisting the cookie remains the same, but its meaning adapts depending on the cultural context.
The solution’s main value lies in transforming cultural differences into a shared, participatory experience, allowing Oreo to stay locally relevant while strengthening a unified global brand narrative.
Watch Noor’s amazing creation here:
Alejandra, Daniela & Mariana: NIKE – You Can Join Us
This team faced a really difficult task: to re-imagine one of the most successful advertising campaigns of all times – Nike’s You Can’t Stop Us
Alejandra, Daniela & Mariana saw the gap in the campaign’s focus mostly in highly professional athletes, rather that broad audience of Nike’s customers. Their creation invites all of us to join in!
Alejandra: “For our COIL project, we took inspiration from Nike’s 2020 global campaign and reframed it. Nike’s “You Can’t Stop Us” campaign successfully communicates a global message of unity and resilience.
Based on our research, the main problem we identified is that Nike’s “You Can’t Stop Us” campaign is very powerful emotionally, but it doesn’t really translate that inspiration into action. People feel motivated when they watch it, but they don’t know how to be part of it.
So our idea for the video is to propose a solution that turns the campaign from inspiration into participation.
“You Can’t Stop Us… But You Can Join Us” is a global movement based on user-generated content, where real people (not just athletes) become part of the campaign. Visually, we would keep the split-screen style from Nike, but instead of only showing elite athletes, we would match them with everyday people from different countries (like the U.S. and Mexico)”.
Saige, Emma & Ana: Netflix’s trying to use a logic-based USA model in a feeling-based Mexican market creates a massive disconnect.
If we look at the numbers, the difference is clear. The U.S. is a mature market with over 66 million subscribers and high revenue per user. Engagement there is driven by speed and self-expression. It’s very ironic and meme heavy. People in the U.S. value their solitary watch list.
Now look at Mexico. It’s a fast growing market with nearly 14 million subscribers, but here, a strategy has to be different. It’s about national storytelling and using local slang to feel like a friend. Engagement in Mexico is driven by shared social experiences and emotional resonance.
If Netflix treats a Mexican viewer like a U.S. viewer, they lose that national spark that makes us care about the content in the first place.
Solution to this paradox? – Universal visuals that transcend cultural barriers.
Saige: “Our research design includes social listening. We are looking at Instagram and YouTube trailers in both countries to see how Netflix changes its voice.
Instead of relying only on traditional 2-minute trailers which only feel like long formal advertisements, we should focus on edits. These are short fun style video montages that are already taking over platforms like Tik Tok and Reels”.
Why/How it Works:
# One, emotional rhythm storytelling. These edits use music and fast rhythm cutting to create a vibe rather than just a plot summary.
# Two, Gen Z and Alpha engagement. This is the native language of the new generation. Gen Z doesn’t want to be sold a show. They want to feel the energy of it.
# Three, solving the paradox. This is the most important part. By using these synchronized global campaigns, Netflix can maintain one cohesive brand identity. It creates a win-win situation.
Navigating the Global Local Paradox in the U.S. and Mexico
Julio, Daniela & Ana: Burger King – Let Her Cook
Julio and his team studied a very sensitive case when, after numerous successful campaigns, something went wrong…
The culinary arts remain a male-dominated field in America. Only 24% of chefs are women; 7% head chefs. To show support for aspiring women chefs, Burger King launches the H.E.R. scholarship on International Women’s Day 2021. However, the original ad’s attempted play at the “Women belong in the kitchen” stereotype inadvertently nullified any goodwill of the campaign.
How can we better deliver a message of encouraging the women to pursue chefs’ careers?
Julio’s response was empowering:
Let H.E.R. Cook!
Julio: “The phrase “Let ____ cook” is a modern way of expressing that someone deserves a chance to explain or prove themselves in otherwise impossible circumstances… Burger King will play on this concept to create a truly empowering message for women across the globe, especially understandable among young women applicants”.
The H.E.R. scholarship is the hammer she needs to break the glass ceiling!
Alejandro, Louis & Edgar: Case Study of Apple’s Global Strategy
Much like Dubai is a brand for “Good Marketing” or Italy is a brand for “High-End Art,” Apple uses the “Silicon Valley” icon to communicate disruptive leadership. Yet, cultural differences are in the way of smooth acceptance of this leadership.
Key Insight: What works as “efficiency” in a low-context culture can be perceived as “coldness” in a high-context culture.
Success in Mexico requires Apple to move from being an “Official” brand to a “Relational” brand—shifting from a Genius to a Maestro.
The Big Idea: From Genius to “Maestro”
The Maestro acts as a mentor who explains the “craft” face-to-face, providing the Relational Recognition the consumer sacrificed for to join the ecosystem.
The Persona Shift:
• U.S. Genius: Focused on the device. (Low Context / Analytic).
• Mexico Maestro: Focused on the person. (High Context / Holistic).
By providing to Mexican teens a way of learning to be the next genius at the soon to be created Apple. These temporary segments will be presented as attractive to kids by collaborating with Jimmy Neutron to take Apple from surgical to a tropical experience!
Here’s the video of this amazing solution:
Guest Lecture: Encounter with a Silicon Valley Executive and Film-maker
Our Global Communication class had a rare privilege of attending a guest lecture by Dr. Lauren Speeth – a Silicon Valley executive, media producer, creator of wonderful movies and music, internationally published award-winning author, philanthropist, holder of three doctorate degrees, internationally honored professor. Her films, productions, publications, and speeches have made a transformational change in many countries of the world.
Words can hardly describe all of her accomplishments! The links below provide some additional information about Dr. Speeth’s accomplishemnts, her production studio and her books that were translated into many languages:
Dr. Lauren Speeth’s new book inspires joy through purpose and wisdom from Jimmy Carter
Lauren Speeth – Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality
Elfenworks Productions LLC | Beyond Film & Music
Amazon.com: Lauren Speeth: books, biography, latest update
Our Global Communication had a chance to introduce themselves, highlight their interests, ask insightful questions and enage in productive conversations.
This was a very meaningful encounter for our students, providing them with insights and inspiration for their successful careers in Global Communications. Below is a video commemorating this event kindly created as a gift for our university by Elfenworks Productions studio.
