Global Social AORs: What This Looks Like in 2025 and Beyond
For decades, brands have retained agencies on a global scale. But in social, the idea of a Global Social AOR is relatively nascent. There’s two reasons for this:
Few brands have tackled creating a truly global social strategy
Few social agencies have the footprint to work on a global scale.
As brands’ marketing budgets are increasingly shifting dollars from traditional channels into social, more global brands are looking for a Global Social AOR.
Movers+Shakers recently announced we are stepping in with Adobe as their Global Social AOR. We’re thrilled to help them unlock the world’s creativity, and improve marketing with advanced AI. 🎉
As we trailblaze this new lane, here are three success principles we’re recommending to our clients:
01: Global Consistency; Local Flavor
We all want to “move at the speed of culture.” What does that look like when culture is so different in Seoul vs Marseilles?
The playbooks M+S builds establish a baseline for how the brand shows up on social, and what should be consistent, always, everywhere. Also, we outline which creative guidelines can flex, and what fraction of the content should be driven by local cultural conversations.
Notably - we recommend the “brand book” be much more flexible on social than we’d recommend for TV or print. The tone of social conversations varies a lot across geographies, more so than on traditional marketing channels.
02: Local Market Trend Spotting
More than ever, success on social comes from reading the tea leaves of culture, and riding the waves that can propel your brand forward.
Even the smartest strategists in NYC can’t truly understand what people are fangirling about this week in Bangalore. So it’s essential to have local experts in your key markets. But you don’t need fully-duplicated teams. Make sure you’re leveraging the social listening and strategic thinking in your global hub, by building communication rhythms with the local markets.
03: Integrated Performance Tracking & Learning
With hundreds (or thousands!) of posts across countries, and across organic/paid/influencer - it’s essential to have a smart data system to track and to learn. We’re investing in building these out, both in house and connected to clients’ systems. As platforms and APIs evolve, these systems need to keep pace.
Investment levels in social are growing rapidly, and so do CMOs’ (and CFOs’!) expectations on measurement and showing business impact.
Looking Forward
As the world continues to be more and more connected, brands will increasingly want a Global Social AOR to ensure the best balance between global consistency and local flavor. If you have questions about the best ways to structure your global social work, let’s chat.
