PR agencies in Taiwan need to take stock of Taiwanese culture

"They sing a different song in Taiwan," says Jonathan Sanchez, regional director for consumer marketing at Edelman Asia-Pacific. "It's a little bit like Japan in the way that it's a unique market. It sometimes annoys you, but it's true."

Sanchez is not alone in his experience of the Taiwanese market and how it is frequently difficult to tailor global PR strategies to the country's environment. What works elsewhere in the world, and even in Asia, often doesn't work in Taiwan.

Sanchez explains: "When I worked on Levitra - which is Bayer's answer to Viagra - we sent out a regional briefing kit of what to do and what not to do. In Taiwan, they pretty much did everything we told them not to do."

Sanchez says Levitra's logo was a flame, which represented vitality, heat and sexuality. There were also lapel badges in the shape of thumbs up, which symbolised manhood.

"These were subtle and small for a reason," he says. "We advised the client not to play too much on this, but the next thing we knew, people were having Lavitra parties in the street with giant thumbs on their hands."

Sanchez admits, though, that he did like the fact the Taiwanese did this. "They said that strategy won't work here, and did it with pride," he says.

Nancy Huang, general manager at SPRG Taiwan has worked in PR in Tawian for 25 years. She says Taiwanese look for three things in branding. Celebrities, everyday stories and online. "Celebrity endorsement is a standard template for advertising campaigns," says Huang.

On the other end of the scale, Huang says, the Taiwanese also look for "nobody stories" in advertising. "Stories that have no one famous and relate to normal life have given very good feedback."

It's no secret that Taiwanese are also crazy about online. Huang says a Procter & Gamble campaign had to be adapted for the Taiwanese market.

"It needed to have more of an online element," she says. "Young mothers look for information on the internet, so that is where Pampers had to be."

Adapting a PR campaign to local tastes in Taiwan is important, but agencies should not lose sight of what sets them apart from their rivals in a small, but highly competitive market.

Martin Roll, business and brand strategist at The Martin Roll Company says despite the good mix of global and local brands in Taiwan there is still "often an overplay on the local element in PR and campaigns. You need to maintain a balancing act, you need to look like a global brand to stand out from the local competition."

But Tom Doctoroff, JWT North Asia area director and Greater China CEO disagrees and says this is more a case of the age-old question of localisation. "Taiwan is not any more or less unique than another country in Asia," he argues. "Of course Taiwanese culture is different from Western culture, it's all about how much you want to adapt the global campaign."

As Doctoroff says, there is no market in the world where you can just "plop" down a creative that's been developed elsewhere. "This is the value of a global network. You have people on the ground that can adapt the campaign to the local environment."

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This article was originally published in the 3 June 2010 issue of Media.