I was born, educated and started my marketing career in the UK, now living and working in the USA making trips back to the UK for work or pleasure I am starting to see the cultural differences in the marketing techniques, strategies and innovation in business.
Innovation brings about growth and change within business, it then comes out in marketing strategies and offerings. In North America innovation seems to be a priority for marketing leads, while in the UK the customer experience is the focus. Both of which are key, however in a world propelled by technological advancements a good blend of disruptive innovation and consumer focused marketing will scale and promote new products and services quicker, while enhancing customer and employee experience.
Speaking of disruption, UK businesses as well as the rest of the world are threatened by US tech giants, such as Amazon, Apple and Google. Which is why marketing needs to understand what’s working, what’s not, what’s essential and collaborate with innovators for new ideas and solutions. This approach will see your businesses maintain its current market share, retain customer loyalty, become a disruptor in new markets and acquire new business.
When it comes to advertising on average the US has always spent a lot more money than the UK (see year on year 2016-2018 advertising expenditure for UK and USA), but then again, its 40 times the size of the UK! We may speak the same language but legally, politically and culturally we are different. An example of these differences is data protection, the UK currently has a more restrictive regulatory environment in this space which has impacted advertising spend – even more so over the last two years as business prepared for the new EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
GDPR replaced the UK Data Protection Act of 1998 in May 2018, UK inbound and even more so outbound marketing strategies were impacted by a new data privacy legislation. If a company relied on sales making calls (cold calling) then this lead revenue became void last year! GDPR aims to give people more control over their data, including knowing where an organization got their data, ability to withdraw consent, and the right not to be contacted without consent.
The question is, will the US get onboard with data privacy and will this be at a state or federal level? With the UK leaving the EU (Brexit) will they still have to abide to this GDPR regulation? One thing I do know, Rose & Wolf will continue to emphasize the importance of data privacy within our marketing practice.
From an advertising content perspective here are some of the traits or preferences I’ve noticed in the UK versus the US campaigns;
The US is; openly patriotic, positive, extremely truthful, use relatable characters, pets are huge (however I suppose they are in most places) and promote potential, see a rough time as turning your future into something better – a prosperous “American Dream”.
The UK; love a touch of humor and/or is it sarcasm with a smile, accentuate through real-world settings, are fond of cars, can’t beat a comparison, and tend to air on the side of caution due to analyzing all options and the goings on around them.
