A decade ago, the process of making a campaign for a number of countries usually involved developing a creative concept in one country and adapting it in the others. The master film, images, and text were developed centrally, and the rest of the work — translation, resizing, and minor changes according to regions — was carried out locally. It was a highly effective approach, but it was evident that people from other markets did not necessarily respond the same way to the same references, places, faces, humour and visuals.
Nowadays, companies are adopting a new approach to this task. Rather than treating the process of international production as separate productions or as one big campaign adapted to each territory, companies are creating networks of producers, teams, post-production facilities and local experts who can operate across a number of countries.
From Centralised Campaigns to Connected Production
The London-Singapore-Dubai-New York campaign cannot be considered as four separate businesses. The key point is that now consistency does not require the development of all assets in one place.
Using the connected production approach, a brand will have its own brand team which determines the creative vision, visual style, and main message, and then its local partners will produce a version of the concept which will be appropriate for the local market. For brands coordinating work across several territories, cross-market production support through World Production Service can bring local knowledge, production resources, and regional teams into a wider international workflow.
This may include the use of genuine locations, local casting, modification of scripts, and other technical matters like permits and access. In other words, it is not only localisation, but local production in a global system. The question is not “How to make the identical content suitable in every market?” but “How to express the same concept in different markets?”
Local Relevance Is Becoming a Creative Requirement
Consumers are exposed to international brands every day, but they still experience advertising through a local lens. A location that looks aspirational in one country may feel unfamiliar in another. A phrase that sounds confident in English may become awkward when translated literally. Even wardrobe, food, architecture, and background activity can affect whether a campaign feels believable.
This is one reason global production networks are valuable. Local producers bring more than logistical support. They understand how a city looks on camera, which areas suit a particular story, and what cultural details need attention.
That knowledge can influence creative decisions early rather than arriving as a correction after production. For brands, this reduces the risk of producing polished content that reaches a market technically but fails to connect with it emotionally. Local relevance is no longer just a finishing touch. In many categories, it is part of the creative quality of the campaign itself.
One Campaign Now Needs Many More Assets
The rise of social platforms has changed the economics of international production. A single campaign may now require vertical video, short-form edits, product photography, behind-the-scenes footage, interviews, regional cut-downs, stills, and multiple aspect ratios. Those demands multiply across markets.
Traditional structures can become expensive and slow when every asset requires a separate brief, supplier, and approval process. Network-based production offers another approach by coordinating resources across territories while maintaining shared standards. A shoot in one market can be designed to generate a larger content library, while regional teams capture market-specific material. Post-production can then create different versions without losing the central campaign identity.
Production is becoming less about delivering one finished film and more about building a flexible system of assets for multiple channels and locations.
Speed Is Reshaping the Production Calendar
Marketing teams are expected to react to cultural moments, product updates, customer behaviour and trends much faster than they once did. That creates pressure on production.
Flying a large central crew around the world for every regional requirement is rarely the quickest option. Trusted local networks can allow companies to activate crews, photographers, directors and studios closer to where content is needed.
Large global campaigns may still benefit from a centralised shoot. The difference is that brands now have more models available. A hero campaign might be filmed in one country, while product demonstrations, interviews or social content are produced elsewhere. Combining these approaches gives marketing teams greater flexibility when deadlines change, or opportunities appear.
Technology Is Making Distributed Production Easier
International production networks will struggle without collaborative technologies. Review technology platforms hosted in the cloud, remote live streams, shared asset repositories, and digital approval systems make it possible for people in different parts of the world to collaborate on the same project.
The creative director sitting in London can watch a shooting process occurring in another country, with editors and other stakeholders contributing to the discussion from different time zones, minimizing decisions based on physical presence.
Remote collaboration doesn’t render irrelevant the importance of having an on-the-ground team in place. Quite the opposite, it increases its significance since decision makers won’t be present physically. Collaborative technologies should complement local skills and shouldn’t try to substitute them.
Consistency Has Become a Systems Problem
Working with several teams brings a clear difficulty – how does one ensure quality and brand consistency when the content is developed in several locations?
Visual parameters, production templates, casting considerations, tone of voice guidelines, and the approval process can provide enough room for each of the teams to make the right decisions without breaking brand consistency.
A team should identify which parts of their project will remain constant and which ones will be flexible. For example, the way a logo looks is non-negotiable, but the location, secondary characters, or even dialogue can be changed. The visual concept of a campaign can be the same worldwide, with changes in the products or cultural nuances in different countries. It becomes easier to create a consistent distribution when these rules are clear for all partners.
Production Networks Can Improve Efficiency
International production tends to be budget-intensive, but there are ways in which distributed networks can allow brands to be more resourceful. Travel, logistics, accommodation, and equipment transport can become quite expensive when running a multi-market campaign.
Using local crew talent can cut down on some costs and allow for people who know the market well. Local expertise can also eliminate potential errors. Knowing what permits are needed, how much time each one takes, and what kind of equipment is available can optimize the schedule and budget planning before even starting the shoot.
The aim is not necessarily to get the most affordable choice. The idea is to eliminate unnecessary waste of resources and problems that can come up in the process.
The Producer’s Role Is Becoming More Strategic
As production becomes more distributed, producers are increasingly responsible for connecting people, information, and standards across markets.
Their work now goes beyond arranging crews and schedules. In international projects, line production through World Production Service can form part of that coordination by connecting the practical requirements of a shoot with the wider production plan and local operating environment. They may need to understand the campaign’s broader content strategy, anticipate what different markets will require, and design a workflow that keeps local teams aligned with the central creative direction.
The ideal international producer needs to understand when standardization is appropriate and when there is more flexibility for local people. Thus, production is getting closer to the strategic side of business in terms of the decision-making regarding production location and process.
Such decisions may influence budgets, responsiveness of the campaign, and communication of a brand with diverse audiences.
Global Brands Are Learning to Think Locally at Scale
The most important change may be conceptual. Global content is no longer necessarily content created once and distributed everywhere. Increasingly, it is content built around a shared creative idea and expressed through a network of markets, people and production environments.
That reflects the way audiences have changed. Consumers may follow international trends and creators, yet they still expect brands to understand the places and communities they are speaking to.
For businesses, the challenge is finding the balance. Too much central control can produce content that feels distant from local audiences, while too much independence can weaken brand consistency. Global production networks offer a middle ground. They allow companies to retain a clear identity while drawing on local knowledge, talent and infrastructure.
As brands produce more content for more platforms and regions, the ability to coordinate production across markets will become increasingly important. The companies that manage it well will not simply create greater volumes of content. They will create work that feels recognisable everywhere without feeling identical everywhere.
In a crowded global media environment, that difference can determine whether a campaign is merely distributed internationally or genuinely connects across markets.
