The International Search Summit 2024 took place last month and we were thrilled to welcome our highest number of attendees ever!
We hope you all had a wonderful experience learning from the very best in the international digital marketing industry and networking with like-minded professionals facing the same daily challenges that come with marketing internationally.
With three tracks to choose from, you may not have been able to watch every single talk you were interested in, so we decided to put together this blog post to collate some of the top takeaways from the International Search Summit 2024.
We have also uploaded all the slides and video recordings from the event to our Self-learning platform – just sign up to the platform (it’s free) and search for International Search Summit Barcelona 2024 to access everything.
1. The value of inclusive marketing
In Purna Virji’s talk “Tips to make your marketing more inclusive”, she spoke powerfully about how words have power. As marketers, we should strive to write content that everyone can understand, use simpler words and sentences, and provide context. It is important to be thorough and remember that every element matters, even something as simple as capitalising words in hashtags to make them easier to read – for example, the difference between #susanalbumparty vs #SusanAlbumParty!
2. The importance of the human touch when localising
In Kerry Campion’s talk “Creating a brand messaging strategy that drives SEO”, she spoke about how important it is to not just rely on machine translations when doing localisation. Without the human touch of an actual native speaker, you can easily miss out on keywords which can have significant search volume.
3. Being aware of cultural references (and when they may not translate)
In Lau Miguez’s talk “How to ideate and distribute cross-cultural campaigns”, she gave a fascinating example of a cultural reference in the Spanish TV show “Money Heist” that would have made sense for the original Spanish audience, but completely gone over the heads of non-Spanish viewers. In one episode, a character sings out a number, which is a reference to the Spanish tradition of children singing out lottery numbers at Christmas. For the Spanish audience, who would have grown up with the singing lottery, this scene would have triggered feelings of nostalgia, whereas for others they would have brushed it off as potentially a “character quirk” rather than understanding it is an actual reference. This was a great example of how certain cultural references simply do not translate and how important it is to keep this in mind when creating cross-cultural campaigns.
4. Understanding colour has different meanings in different cultures
In the panel discussion “Content in multilingual campaigns” with Peter Myers, Damien Robert and Patrycja Wojtkowiak, they talked about how something as simple as colour can have different meanings in different cultures. This means that, when introducing your brand/content into different markets, it is important to realise that the colours you choose can have an impact on your success.
5. Why Google is not worried about TikTok
In the interactive session “Live Q&A: Ask Google anything” with Martin Splitt from Google, he explained why Google is not worried about TikTok. Essentially, it boils down to the fact that a healthy digital strategy will always involve more than one channel/platform. If a brand is only creating content for TikTok, then they are likely missing out on audiences – and putting themselves at risk (e.g. with the potential US TikTok ban). Google’s focus is on an open web, so brands need to remember the importance of information for the masses – unless your customer base happens to live purely in one channel.
6. How AI can help with upper funnel marketing
In Julia Riml and Jan Wischniewsky’s talk “Leveraging AI to elevate upper funnel branding”, they talked about how to leverage AI when targeting the upper funnel to build brand awareness, visibility and grow opportunities in new and existing markets. Generating creatives suited for every language and market can be a time-consuming task, but there are some efficiencies that can be generated by leveraging AI in your workflow, such as creating image variations that are suited for different countries culturally. You can also localise copies for banners using AI and then bulk-create multiple versions and upload them into your tools. This can save valuable time and resources and give you the ability to quickly test new strategies that may lead to increased brand visibility and future sales growth.
7. How to harness the power of CRO to improve your PPC landing pages
In Anna Milburn’s talk “The power of CRO in multilingual PPC campaigns”, she spoke about the importance of conversion rate optimisation (CRO) as a way of increasing the efficiency of your pages by easily and quickly grabbing the user’s attention and delivering exactly what they need. It can be broken down into four key elements: value proposition, incentive, friction and anxiety. They are all linked to the psychology of the user and how value is perceived and communicated, as well as potential objections or worries dispelled through language and visual communication. This presentation also highlighted the importance of considering the visual architecture of your page based on user data, such as heat maps and eye flow, and how eye movement can affect your attention.
8. How user personality can impact the success of your marketing strategies
In Sarah Presch’s talk “Big five personality mapping meets international SEO”, she introduced us to personality testing and how it correlates to international marketing strategies. The five-factor model is a set of five personality trait dimensions, that can be used to analyse the key traits of the audience in a particular country or culture. This can then have a practical impact on your marketing strategy, as it allows you to create bespoke strategies and campaigns to each audience that are directed towards establishing, developing and maintaining successful engagements. Psychographic and behavioural data allows you to segment your audiences (based on different personality types) and then tailor your messaging and personalise your content experience.
Want to access the slides and video recordings from the event?
Good news – all 28 slideshow presentations and all 31 video recordings from the International Search Summit 2024 are available to access on our Self-learning platform!
Just sign up to the platform and search for International Search Summit Barcelona 2024.
Want to attend our future events?
Whether you missed out on the opportunity to attend this event, or you attended and cannot wait for the next conference, check out our event timetable for 2025 below!
- 12 June 2025 – International Social Summit Barcelona
- 12 November 2025 – International SEO workshop Barcelona
- 13 November 2025 – International Search Summit Barcelona
We hope to see you there!
Need support with international digital marketing?
Webcertain, the agency behind the International Search Summit, is an international digital marketing agency that lives and breathes marketing for global brands every single day. If you need support with your international digital marketing efforts, or just want to have a no-obligation conversation about the options available, our expert team are here to help! Get in touch with us today and one of our friendly team members will get back to you.
Elin Box
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