Hubble client, NordVPN, is one of the world’s most trusted internet security providers. Headquartered in Lithuania, Nord serves more than 14 million users across the globe. This kind of scale comes with its challenges.

Head of Brand Image, Dalia Tautaviciute, joined Hubble’s Managing Partner, Rebekah Brooks at the What’s Possible Community sessions to discuss how Nord reach consumers across some of the world’s largest economies and what opportunities and obstacles – cultural or otherwise – they have found when marketing across multiple markets.

Many teams become one

Nord recently consolidated some of its 22 international departments (with 200 marketers) working in marketing and sales and gave them a common goal: to communicate, divide sales, and work on brand communication. Dalia is at the helm of their relatively young ‘Brand Image’ department; it’s only five months old.

The Brand Image department is the heartbeat of the research, communication, offline, social media and production teams. Together, they cover several marketing disciplines, from mass media planning, communications, and brand positioning.

“It is a good opportunity to deliver something different as all of the teams will be combined into one section and work together more closely. It’s challenging, but on the other hand, it’s a big opportunity for a brand to stand out and do something different,” Dalia said.

The team tries to do as much of the marketing as possible in-house. However, being invested in so many different markets with unique cultures comes with both opportunities and challenges.

Localising an international brand

Online security means different things to different people across the globe. Localising the brand and reaching a consumer in their language and local style is something Nord takes seriously. Every marketing campaign is tailored to the particularities of 18 countries by the Brand Image team.

Moreover, with markets in Australia, the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Netherlands and Spain, they must be acutely aware of each geography’s marketing appetites.

As a result, they hire country managers and local copywriters in those regions to ensure the message is hitting ‘home’.

“Country managers help us to deliver everything in the right way. They are responsible for the revenue in each market. This is the key element to success; having locals that control everything and help us to push the message,” Dalia explained.

The data problem

The oncoming demise of the cookie and the lack of customer data makes the Brand Image team’s work at Nord even more interesting. They only use the data the customer provides when making a payment, i.e., an email address.

To further circumnavigate the lack of data, the research department investigates how prospective consumers in different countries approach cybersecurity, digital security, antivirus, and VPNs.

The Brand Image team collects their findings of surveyed existing customers, adds the research department’s insights, and then positions their messaging around those learnings.

Dalia says that they’ll strengthen their position in existing markets as they go into the new year. They’ll also do small test-and-learn campaigns in emerging markets to see if they can persuade more consumers to prioritise their online privacy and security with Nord.