Honestly, this was something we should have done years ago – recognize and reward those stellar campaigns that extend beyond our borders. Whether you are working for a U.S.-based company operating abroad, a company based elsewhere with audiences in the U.S., or a global multinational, the fact is, many of you have the unique challenge of reaching audiences with diverse cultural norms, languages, customers, and business values.

You’ve been doing it for years, so now, share your experiences, best practices, and lessons learned – and earn some kudos for it, too.

Having worked in-house for three multinational companies, and serviced countless more on the agency side, I know there is not a one-size-fits-all approach. Each country – and in many cases, regions within those borders – have their own ways of doing business, working with the media, finding connections with stakeholders, communication channels and technologies, not to mention the cultural norms and languages.

It takes a special finesse to develop a communication strategy, and then tailor it to the region. Doing it right also takes time and patience, incredible organization, and internal communication and collaboration. And then measuring your success with meaningful key performance indicators presents even more challenges.

For this category, we’re looking to reward the drivers of these campaigns. Here are a few scenarios that would make sense for this category:

• Master of the plan – your team is the strategy driver of this multi-national plan, and works with different people/teams/agencies in various regions to implement the campaign
• Master of the work – your team is responsible for the strategy and implementation of the campaign in more than one country
• Master of the regions – your team is responsible for determining the best way to implement a global strategy in our region and at least one area outside the U.S.

They key here is that we’re talking about multiple countries. So if you are a company headquartered elsewhere, but working on a focused PR campaign here in Boston, for example, that isn’t what we’re talking about. Unless you are also taking that focused campaign to the U.K. (as another example).

You also want to be sure to show us WHY these markets were the “right” ones, how you took the local markets into consideration when planning your various approaches, and how you adapted your measurement to be consistent across regions.

This is a big one… not as big as your actual campaigns, of course. But just as there is a lot to consider in a global campaign, you have a lot to cover in your entry for this campaign category. But don’t let it deter you – winning the global campaign would give you a ton of credibility – across borders, even.

Good luck, bonne chance, sterkte, veel geluk, alles gute, buona fortuna, veiksmi, selamat maju jaya, powodzenia, boa sorte, sing hasil, guid luck… well, you get the idea.

-By Amy Shanler