What Are My International Tech PR Options?

Ready to boost your brand visibility and reputation internationally?

An international tech PR campaign could quickly turn into your biggest headache of the year if you don’t think really carefully about your strategic approach.

One of the biggest decisions you’ll need to make is whether to control the campaign from the centre or adopt a decentralised approach.

For example, you could create themes, storylines, messaging, and content from a single location—your HQ—and then share that information globally (hopefully translating or, better yet, localising as you go). This is a centralised approach, commonly used by large global IT brands, and it helps maintain a level of control over both the campaign and the budget. The main benefit here is top-down control.

Alternatively, you could take a decentralised, local approach, where you focus on understanding the buyers in each country—how they work, what they consume, and what they like to hear, read, say, and do. With local support, you could then craft tailored tech PR campaigns to engage each audience. While this approach sounds more time-consuming and costly, PR and marketing works best when we focus on targeting individual personas. In this case, the Return on Investment is likely to be faster.

International Tech PR Insights

Louay Al Samarrai, co-founder of our member agency in the Middle East, Active DMC, sees the local approach as the better option: “As marketers, we all understand that one of the first stages of entering any market is to listen; listen to what’s going on locally. Then,  from a Public Relations perspective – your content creation and media relations activities – you can start putting out stuff that relates to those people and engages them.”

Jocelyn Hunter, founder of BENCH PR in Australia and New Zealand feels the same: “Localisation is crucial. Each country requires a tailored approach to begin with.” (Watch Coffee With Jocelyn Hunter)

Miguel Matías-Barreiro, founder and associate director of Noizze Media, our tech PR member agency for Spain and Portugal, reflects on the challenges and risks of a taking a centralised, top-down approach:

“A significant announcement for your company may not resonate with journalists or the local audience. This often poses challenges when working with international companies, as they may insist that a story – part of a broader tech PR campaign – is mandatory, i.e., ‘we must distribute it to the media.’ In those circumstances, we often advise that while it might be essential for you, it may not be as relevant to the Spanish or Portuguese media. We can, of course, distribute the announcement anyway, but it is almost certainly not going to deliver media results.” (Watch Coffee With Noizze Media)

Choosing between a centralised or decentralised approach for an international tech PR campaign is crucial for its success. While a centralised strategy offers control over messaging and budgets, it may not always resonate with local audiences or media. On the other hand, decentralising your efforts to cater to the unique needs and preferences of each market can be more time-consuming, but it often results in a more meaningful and effective campaign.  Ultimately, tailoring your approach to each market not only improves media relations, but also ensures better Return on Investment.

Thoughts welcome! If you need to talk through the options, please do get in touch and signup to our newsletter.