CC-Cultural Sensitivity Offering

CULTURAL SENSITIVITYOFFERINGN o v e m b e r 2 0 2 0

© Creative Culture 2020

INTRODUCTION

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Challenges and objectives

In the current climate, ensuring sensitivity,

appropriateness and inclusivity is more important

than ever. Brands are more and more at risk of

being called out and criticised for posting

problematic content, delivering the wrong messages

or making empty claims.

With this in mind, it is absolutely critical to not only

create an additional layer of awareness among

internal teams but also seek ongoing support and

advice from external experts. In doing so, brands

are able to ensure that the creation and

development of both domestic and international

strategies and campaigns are carried out with the

right level of care whether they are internally or

externally facing.

The approach

The key objective being to educate, engage and

empower, Creative Culture can support brands and

agencies in this endeavour in various ways. The first

critical steps being:

• The co-creation of an inclusivity compass that

internal teams can consult during the strategic

and creative development stages

• A cultural awareness training session to provide

a deeper understanding of the sensitives linked

to various cultural minority groups and best

practices to adopt

• Ongoing sensitivity checks of concepts and assets

developed by central teams

Combining these three key steps will showcase that

agencies and brands have undertaken the right level

of due diligence before creative work goes live.


ObjectiveTo provide insights in order to better understand local cultures and subcultures and develop a strategy in line with their needs and expectations.

Teams

• Cultural experts and strategic planners

• Solid experience with the cultural group of interest and subject matter at hand

Deliverables and added value

• Bespoke questionnaires

• Extensive quality assurance processes

• Visual conclusion decks supported by executive summaries & recommendations across markets

OUR SOLUTIONS

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LOCAL MARKETINTELLIGENCE

Where possible, Creative Culture recommends a combination of four solutions that will contribute to increasing

internal teams’ cultural awareness, helping resolve challenges with external stakeholders, and ensuring that all

communications truly resonate with target audiences. This will ensure long term results and increased local

compliance, as well as increased confidence in the work produced both internally and for all external clients.

CROSS-CULTURALAUDITS & SEMIOTICS

TRANSCREATIONLOCAL

MARKETINTELLIGENCE

CULTURALAWARENESS

TRAINING

ObjectiveTo ensure the right level of due diligence has been undertaken in order to achieve concepts and campaigns that are appropriate and relevant to various communities across markets.

Teams

• Team of semioticians, anthropologists and/or activists

• Solid experience with the cultural group of interest and inclusivity topics


• Sign-off on appropriateness

• Detailed comments & recommendations

• Increased relevance across diverse cultures within the local markets

ObjectiveTo localise materials by using the right level of unbiased language and references to increase engagement and relevance.

Teams

• Team of creative, native copywriters and copy-editors

• Solid experience with marcomms writing and up to date with current market trends

• Knowledge of client’s industry


• Thorough quality assurance process

• 2-3 transcreation options for creative content

• Content that truly resonates with local audiences

• Increased local compliance in all markets

ObjectiveTo empower the teams to confidently engage with local minority groups and promote diversity and inclusion across the board.

Teams

• Cultural coach

• Solid expertise with the minority group of interest


• Training in person or online

• Real-time and topical

• Exchange between the teams and the expert

• Opportunity for questions and queries

• Up-to-date cultural trends and insights

• Expert objective insights


Understanding and taking into account the local

context and the different subcultures within both

your target markets and your organisation is first

step to educating your teams. It will leverage

awareness, trust and compliance from your local

audiences and your internal teams alike. Unearthing

granular local nuances will allow you to successfully

communicate across the board while staying faithful

to your core values.

Creative Culture can help you understand the local

landscape when it comes to diversity and inclusion

whether that be in terms of accessibility, gender,

mental health or ethnicity.

Inclusivity compasses

It is essential to understand that diversity and

inclusion mean very different things around the

world and a one-size-fits-all approach simply won’t

do.

With this in mind, it is absolutely critical to not only

create an additional layer of awareness among

internal teams but also seek ongoing support and

advice from external experts. Thanks to targeted

local market intelligence, clients will be able to

co-create inclusivity compasses that internal teams

can consult during the strategic and creative

development stages.

The approach

Our methodology is customised to each project.

From desk to field research and expert interviews,

our teams can gather key granular insights from

local best practices (various HR and D&I initiatives in

your industry or across the board) to cultural

blunders and important sensitivities to be aware of.

To do so, we set up a team of native, in-market

experts comprising D&I consultants, cultural

strategists, sociologists and anthropologists.

Deliverables and quality assurance

Our team always co-create briefs and professional

questionnaires with clients.

Extensive quality assurance processes are put into

place to ensure we deliver objective and targeted

insights across markets. Our teams are experienced

in managing both single-market and multi-market

requests to centralise efforts and increase

consistency and reach.

Learnings and recommendations are always

presented in visual decks, which are supported by

executive summaries. If we are working on a

multi-market request, the Creative Culture project

management team will consolidate research

findings to present comparative findings and

consistent recommendations across markets.

For further information on our Local Market

Intelligence offering, please read our service deck

here or contact your Creative Culture Account

Manager.

LOCAL MARKET INTELLIGENCE

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https://creativecultureint.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/CC-Local-Market-Intelligence-Offering.pdf


Cross-cultural audits and semiotics provide the right

level of due diligence your teams required to

produce messages that are inclusive and on-point.

This is the second step to empowerment and

cultural relevance.

Unfortunately, cultural blunders still occur on a

regular basis among large blue-chip companies and

small brands alike. With the rise of digital and social

channels, these errors can travel the world in a split

second. The resulting financial and reputational

damage to a brand can be very difficult to recover

from.

So how can brands proactively ensure cultural

authenticity and avoid detrimental faux pas in a

landscape that is more diverse and fragmented than

ever before? How do they keep up with the

ever-evolving nature of culture? And how can they

tackle any potential flaws before it’s too late?

How

Cross-cultural audits offer a way to review creative

or strategic output of any form, with teams of local

experts. From product innovations to concepts,

product or brand names, creative assets or even

strategy on a bigger scale, our teams can identify

any potential red flags within your global content to

ensure that the materials are locally appropriate.

They can also suggest targeted cultural touches that

will make the message even more powerful with

various audiences.

When

Undertaken early enough in the creative stage,

cross-cultural audits ensure consistency across

markets as well as optimised local engagement.

Following roll-out, and when combined with

semiotic analysis, they can also be used as a reliable

way to identify which elements have resonated

particularly well in order to find the recipe to a

successful campaign for future initiatives.

The teams: experts or activists

In order to provide granular cultural insights and

feedback, we cherry-pick the best in-market experts

according to the client’s request. On all of our

projects, we always work with 2+ experts per

market, in order to ensure the feedback is 100%

objective and representative.

Depending on the nature of the audit (e.g. social

codes, language and/or visuals), we select the most

appropriate combination of local experts

(anthropologists, semioticians, cultural consultants)

and/or activists. These experts will provide up-to-

date and locally informed feedback regarding the

cultures of interest and concrete recommendations

so that concepts and assets can be tweaked before

roll-out or re-used for future initiatives.


For each project, we co-design a questionnaire with

the client, which enables for a truly bespoke

approach and ensures that all key requirements are

tackled. In turn, our team of cross-cultural Account

and Project Managers identify the typical areas of

contention and raise additional invaluable insight

opportunities for the project.

Numerous quality assurance steps are undertaken

in the process, including the design of a customised

brief for our local experts, back-and-forth on the

insights gathered at every stage, and consolidating

insights across markets for cross-enrichment.

Executive summaries, ratings and recommendations

are provided both per market and across markets.

For more information on cross-cultural audits and

semiotics, please read our deck here or contact your

Account Manager.

CROSS-CULTURAL AUDITS AND SEMIOTICS

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https://creativecultureint.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/CC-Cross-cultural-Audit-Offering.pdf


The third step to cultural inclusion is engagement.

By definition, human expression comes to life

through two vectors: language and actions. When it

comes to diversity and inclusions, one cannot live

without the other.

The nature of language and how it is built can be

revealing of intention at many levels.

Through copywriting and transcreation, Creative

Culture helps ensure that the relevant steps are put

into place to reach full inclusive writing in sight of

the various cultural requirements at the end of the

spectrum.

Why transcreation

The first step to inclusive communications is to

produce copy in a range of languages in order to

target all groups with the same level of care and

accuracy.

Transcreation goes one step further than

translation. Where translation literally translates

words from one language to another, transcreation

ensures the message successfully resonates with

readers in the target market whilst maintaining the

style, tone, impact and intent of the original.

Transcreation is a wonderful combination of

linguistic and cultural expertise.

Inclusive transcreation

Over the past few years, alongside some of our

clients, we have been on a mission to push the

boundaries of language and grammar to make our

writing more inclusive, especially when it comes to

inherently gendered languages such as French,

Spanish and Italian. More information can be

provided by your Account Manager upon request.

The approach

Our teams of native transcreators and copywriters

are wordsmiths who carefully craft their messages.

Their aim is to design inclusive copy by taking into

consideration local linguistic and cultural

requirements as well as the levels of maturity their

country are facing when it comes to D&I – ensuring

appropriate terminology is always used and at times

pushing boundaries.


The Creative Culture team follows strict quality

assurance processes, from the detailed briefing and

assessment of the content to cultural adaptation

and final delivery.

The copy we produce is accompanied by detailed

rationale to justify creative, stylistic and cultural

choices. These elements enrich the creative process

and explain the line of thought, which in turn

stimulates more constructive feedback rounds and

increased compliance from the local markets. We

can also organise calls between our linguist teams

and the local market reviewers to tackle any issues

in their native language and improve long-term

relationships.

For more information on transcreation, please read

our deck here or contact your Account Manager.

TRANSCREATION

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https://creativecultureint.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/CC-Transcreation-Offering.pdf


Cultural awareness training is the point where

educate, engage and empower meet.

Training and coaching sessions allow for a deep dive

into the topics at hand, giving your teams the

opportunity to participate, ask questions and also

test their existing knowledge through an interactive

workshop.

From internal processes to inclusive language,

strategy and messaging, and with a focus on

internal stakeholder surveys and recommendations

moving forward, trainings can cover a wide array of

topics to build solid foundations with your teams.

The approach

As with all of our services, trainings are fully

customised to a client’s brief and requirements.

Dependent on the scope and style of your work,

Creative Culture can assess your teams’ needs and

identify the key areas of focus to hand select

coaches that have extensive experience both in D&I

and in the specific subject matters at hand.

From experience and in order to best meet your

requirements, we recommend the following steps:

• Consultation with your team including interviews

to assess preferred format and content

• Presentation of background context followed by

a review of practical examples and interactive

discussion around best practices

• Answers to any further doubts and discussion of

concrete examples related to sensitive issues in a

safe space without judgement

Key aspects of cultural awareness training

• Concrete implementation of cultural

recommendations

• Understanding of consumer subcultures

• Reviewing key cultural sensitivities for target

groups

• Top tips (do’s and don’ts)

• Scenarios and practical examples

• Q&A

Whether working in person with local teams or

individuals or connecting departments from

different headquarters across the globe through

online webinar sessions, we can help get your

teams up to speed in the areas you need us the

most, with the ability to record all sessions for

future reference.

To know more about our Cultural Awareness

Workshops and Training, read our service deck here

or contact your Creative Culture Account Manager.

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CULTURAL AWARENESS TRAINING

https://creativecultureint.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/CC-Cultural-Awareness-Workshop-Offering.pdf


Vijay

Vijay is a cultural consultant, media anthropologist

and semiotician who specialises in sensitivity and

inclusivity topics in India. He has vast experience in

various sectors, including consumer health (oral

care, sexual health, body care, hand care, etc.).

Through his former experience as a freelance

journalist and academic research into stereotyping

Mumbai comedy, he has also developed a keen eye

for the many different nuances in subcultures that

exist in India.

Clients include: Not disclosed for confidentiality

reasons

Savala

Savala is a US lawyer and copywriter who is

passionate about race, gender and size diversity.

Her work has been published in renowned national

publications such as Forbes and she is a regular

speaker and panellist on social justice debates

surrounding topics such as implicit bias and

structural racism. In the legal space, she is a strong

advocate for raising awareness around the

importance of social justice.

Clients include: Not disclosed for confidentiality

reasons

Ana

Ana is a Brazilian social anthropologist and activist

with a passion for diversity and inclusion. Since she

joined as a civil servant at the Brazilian Federal

Government in 2001, she has been engaged in

gender, migration and racial/colour hierarchy issues

in practice to contribute to the development of the

Brazilian public sector and public policies. As the

former head of Public Policies for Women, she was

also in charge of achieving gender mainstreaming in

intersectoral public policies.

Clients include: FGV, EPPGG (Federal Government

in Brazil)

Oris

Oris is a UK-based D&I consultant and coach with a

wealth of over 10 years of experience providing

solutions to meet complex business needs for

organisations within the private, public and third

sectors. These include leading talent engagement

projects for global brands and academic institutions

to engage and develop talents from BAME groups.

He is also an Advisory Board Member for the

University of East London Centre for Student

success.

Clients include: Civil Service, De Montfort

University, KPMG, Middlesex University

OUR EXPERTS

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M E E T S O M E O F O U R E X P E R T S

Creative Culture curates tailored teams in order to ensure that each project is successful: every profile put

forward will bring a new and unique perspective, contributing valuable granular insights that can support

local strategy. Meet a few on the team:


Cultural awareness as leverage to improve communications effectiveness

Context

A major global financial institution needed to

increase local buy-in and improve the relevance of

its B2B campaigns at a global level. At the time, the

global marcomms team was 90% British and not

always equipped with the cultural knowledge and

insight to design relevant communications for local

markets.

Challenge

As communication campaigns were created

centrally, global teams were not always taking into

account the influence of culture in local markets. A

crucial step was missing in the conceptualisation

stage: culturally proofing the campaigns. As a result,

local markets were creating their own more

relevant comms. In this case, the challenge was to

increase cultural awareness amongst global teams

and trigger critical thinking regarding multicultural

communication strategies. By developing these

transferable skills, they could be integrated into

daily processes, resulting in increased content

relevance and impact across borders.

Solution

Creative Culture was asked to address these

challenges. The solution was to design and manage

bespoke cultural awareness workshops for the

global marcomms team.

We created 3 kinds of workshops:

• General workshops: to raise the cultural

awareness of employees and their need to

adapt strategies and communications to each

culture

• Country-specific workshops: to gain a better

understanding of a specific culture and define

the best communication strategies to use when

addressing this target audience

• Topic-specific workshops: to analyse the

cultural implications of a specific topic (for

example: work ethics, perceptions of the

banking system and role of the bank) and agree

on best practices to implement in the

professional environment

Utilising tried and tested methodologies, the team

of moderators and cultural experts created an

immersive atmosphere for the participants.

Results

Each employee developed greater awareness of

culture and its influences in their daily roles, as well

as a better understanding of the need to

incorporate cultural awareness into working

processes, communications and strategies. This

experience and the development of transferable

skills eventually led to the increased relevance of

the content generated and its impact

internationally.

Using bespoke cultural awareness workshops

improved communications’ effectiveness and

efficiency on a global scale.

International bank uses interactive cultural workshops to train marketing teams

UK


Context

French video game company Ubisoft is a global

leader in its field. Headquartered in Paris, France, it

comprises over 18,000 employees across 28

countries, with a very multicultural and

international outlook. As part of their Diversity and

Inclusion initiatives, Ubisoft organised the Diversity

and Inclusion Week in November 2019 and wanted

to focus two of their conference sessions on cross-

cultural inclusion.

Challenge

As part of the D&I week, Ubisoft called upon

Creative Culture to help raise awareness of the

benefits of working with culturally-diverse teams,

how to better attract new international talent

moving forward and how to tackle possible

challenges that come with multicultural teams.

Solution

The conference was a great opportunity to get

involved with the teams, and the client wanted us

to offer a format that could work within this

framework. For this event, we invited Dutch

cross-cultural management expert, Fons

Trompenaars, known all over the world for the

development of the Trompenaars’s model of

national culture differences.

Results

Fons’ vast experience in intercultural management

and effortless storytelling skills allowed his audience

to embark on the path of cross-cultural

understanding in two sessions of less than two

hours each.

The feedback received was extremely positive and

provided immediate actionable insights and tips.

“Diversity and inclusion was at the forefront of our

corporate strategy in 2019. For the cross-cultural

chapter of this initiative, it was only natural that we

would turn to the best experts on the market to help

us support it internally: Creative Culture and Mr

Fons Trompenaars. Advised by Creative Culture

throughout the process, we opted for a customised

conference format where Fons shared his experience

and expertise with a lot of finesse and humour. The

output was excellent, memorable and impacting.

Participants felt the takeaways were very clear and

easy to adopt on a daily basis. Following the event,

the satisfaction survey showed a 9.9/10 rating!”

Anaïs Lopez Real, Learning and Development

Manager, Ubisoft

Cultural awareness workshops are effective

ammunition to help support a more inclusive

corporate culture.

How cross-cultural workshops increase team collaboration and performance

Ubisoft sets the tone for their diversity and inclusion week

France and international

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Context

Decathlon is a French international sporting goods

retailer with outlets in 54 countries. Headquartered

in Lille, France, the company does a lot of business

with their Indian teams, including employees and

external suppliers. However, the HQ teams often

struggle to communicate effectively with their local

Indian counterparts due to cultural differences,

causing confusion, mistakes and inefficiencies.

Decathlon decided that something needed to be

done to improve communication in a practical and

effective way.

Challenge

In June 2018, Decathlon asked Creative Culture to

design and manage a workshop to address the lack

of communication and understanding between

French and Indian teams.

The task was to design a workshop that could work

for a range of employee profiles, ranging from

engineers to sales managers and designers.

Solution

Creative Culture designed and delivered a day-long

cultural awareness workshop on India for 12 key

employees at the French HQ. Attendees completed

a survey prior to the workshop, so that the training

could specifically target their needs in

understanding their Indian colleagues and suppliers.

With an expert French anthropologist acting as a

moderator for the day, the workshop successfully

provided interactive activities, group discussions,

role play scenarios, key learnings on online tools

and further research direction.

A debriefing session was later organised between

Decathlon and Creative Culture to provide feedback

from the workshop participants along with learnings

to be implemented in the next workshops.

Results

Through the comprehensive and practical

workshop, each attendee gained a deeper

understanding of Indian culture and of the best

communication strategies to use when addressing

their Indian counterparts. The client was so happy

with the workshop that they later asked Creative

Culture to organise other employee workshops,

including new target cultures of Bangladesh and

Pakistan.

Bespoke, carefully crafted cultural awareness

workshops can truly enhance cross-cultural

communications between internal teams.

Decathlon seeks to improve engagement with Indian suppliers and stakeholders

India

How cross-cultural workshopscan increase team performance

Context

In order to support a client pitch, a London-based

agency needed to understand the concept of

“FOMO” (fear of missing out) in one of their focus

markets – South Korea, and particularly amongst

the 18-25 year-old target audience.

FOMO is a form of social anxiety in which an

individual is concerned about missing an

opportunity or an event, often caused and

heightened by posts seen on social media.

Challenge

The agency client wanted Creative Culture to gather

insights on three different aspects of this

phenomenon in relation to the target market:

• Assess if South Koreans are familiar with or

recognise the phrase itself in English

• What FOMO means to South Koreans, how

relevant it is for the market and who suffers from it

• Establish if there is a similar equivalent or

adaptation in Korean

Solution

First, Creative Culture worked alongside the agency

to develop a questionnaire that would cover the key

areas of interest. Then, a team of two in-market

experts were selected and deployed, undertaking

online research to extract key actionable insights

and conclusions for the agency. They provided

concise answers and visuals to make it easy for the

agency team to get a grasp of the local perception

of “FOMO” in South Korea and incorporate it into

their proposal.

Results

The insights that Creative Culture produced were

critical to the creative agency’s clear understanding

of the perception of “FOMO” in the market of

interest, later informing more creative proposals.

Since then, we have worked on numerous other

insight projects with this agency, who finds Creative

Culture’s international network of experts to be of

invaluable input.

Agency delighted at Creative Culture’s incisive

insight into local attitudes and psychology of

consumers.

Cultural insight to support Korean pitch

Agency explores local market meaning of ‘fear of missing out’

South Korea

Context

A world-renowned cognac brand was looking to

redefine and fine tune the strategy of a key product.

While historically cognac appeals to a wide range of

audiences, the brand was looking to better

understand how their existing branding resonates

with Chinese consumers as well as two of their

major target segments within the USA: Hispanic and

African American communities.

Challenges

Looking deeper into cultural perceptions within the

Chinese market and those of different cultures

existing within the USA, the brand wanted to ensure

that all new visual codes, queues and messaging

would appeal to all demographics of their consumer

base.

With two very distinct regions at hand, our teams

would support the brand and Impact Mémoire, their

cognitive marketing agency to identify where there

are common grounds to ensure the newly

developed packaging (bottle, label and pack) would

appeal to the various target audiences locally.

Solution the

Creative Culture worked hand in hand with Impact

Mémoire to provide granular cultural insights that

would complement their cognitive analysis. We

intervened in two key areas by providing cross-

cultural audits and a semiotic analysis of the brand’s

packaging and design alongside those of some key

competitors.

In order to do so, we worked with a dedicated team

of cultural consultants and semioticians from each

of the target segments. With experience in the

spirits and cognac industry, their analysis covered

elements such as bottle shape, colours, copy, labels

and other supporting materials. Once the feedback

from both expert profiles was received, they were

collated, cross-checked and finalised to deliver a

simple yet clear guidance to the client in terms of

the opportunities and challenges presented in the

new design.

Results

Evolving from cross-cultural audits into semiotics, as

well as delving deeper into the existing cultures

within a market region, our relationship with Impact

Mémoire has been longstanding and growing ever

since. The launch of the product and visual identity

were well informed for a maximal local impact.

By combining the relevant expertise from cognitive

sciences, culture and semiotics, brands arm

themselves with the right ammunition to target

multiple markets.

When cross-cultural audits and semiotics can super-power cognitive marketing

World-renowned cognac brand launches new range across cultures and subcultures

China, USA


[email protected]

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Creative Culture is a cross-cultural consultancy. We draw upon the expertise of over 2,500 in-market specialists in over 120 countries to unearth cultural differences and insights, and turn them into opportunity. We understand and apply cultural differences, drive relevance, optimise delivery and enhance local engagement with your customers and within your organisation.

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CC-Cultural Sensitivity Offering