Businesses that operate on a global scale often rely on marketing teams that work across different cultures and time zones.
But getting this right is more than constantly having virtual meetings. It takes cultural intelligence, strong systems and visionary leadership. Research carried out by McKinsey discovered that diversity matters.
Companies in the top quartile for racial and ethnic diversity are 35% more likely to have financial returns, performing above their competitors financially. This lays a foundation for building an effective global marketing team.
It’s easy to just focus on time zones and schedules alone. But the real challenge lies with the people you work with.
Building a global team is beyond skills on paper. Everyone on the team needs to understand what your brand stands for and what you’re trying to achieve.
Is it more visibility, sales, or gaining presence in new markets? When they know this, they should work toward the same thing. Here’s how to build high-impact marketing teams across cultures and continents.
- Hire the right team. While you want people who bring fresh ideas and see the world differently, they must also care about the same goals as your business. When you get this right, your ideas will not only look good on a pitch, but you will create work that connects with people, wherever they may be.
- Respect Cultural Differences. In building a high-impact marketing team across diverse cultures and continents, you will deal with different people from different economic, social and psychological backgrounds. Before joining your team, they have their own perspectives and ways of doing things. One of the ways to efficiently work with these people is to respect the differences in culture. You need to push yourself out of your comfort zone to adapt to different cultures, moving into growth. To create a solid and productive work environment, you need to engage your team in training to improve skills and respect each person’s distinctiveness.
- Over-communicate. Overcommunicating with members of your team is necessary in building a diverse team. Don’t take what individuals say in your company at the surface level. Since you are interacting with different cultures and continents, you must always communicate to ensure that everyone is on the same page. This is because interacting with team members of different ethnicities might cause a misunderstanding.
- Build trust: Building rapport and trust takes time. When done right, you will be creating an environment where your team feels safe to collaborate better.
The truth is, building a strong marketing team goes beyond the feel that it gives business owners; it also has a strategic edge. Companies highly invested in building cross-cultural teams enjoy the benefit of financial returns and innovation. While they build teams with the best functional expertise from around the world, they gain international benefits from the diversity of bringing people together from many cultures, a wide range of working experiences, and different perspectives on strategic and organisational challenges. Moreover, this helps businesses compete and succeed in the global economy today.
Organisations like Spotify, whose slogan is, “Think local, and act Global”, have a team that is a mixture of researchers, data scientists and product experts all over the world. To build the team, they first identified universal behaviours but then dug into local nuances.
The company partnered with local influencers like Ranveer Singh in India, creating regional playlists, billboards, and social media directly tied to culture. They reorganised marketing into autonomous, cross-functional “micro‑teams” serving key markets.
This increased creative output fivefold and allowed weekly execution on regional campaigns like K‑pop and football. This resulted in building a structured team that connected both locally and globally. In an interview with Forbes, former CMO Seth Farbman stated:
“Localisation is much more important within music and Spotify than it would be within most global brands… we continue to maintain strong regional and local marketing teams, but it also allows us to cut across all of it. No matter where you are in the world, there are shared experiences, and they are of interest to everyone.”
That is why today, Spotify’s network of local experts and micro teams empowers faster, shares relevant campaigns, and spots local trends before others do. While this is considered one of the best strategies companies can implement in their organisational structure, it is not without its challenges.
Challenges of Cross-border Marketing Teams
The first challenge is miscommunication. Language and miscommunication a major challenge in building a marketing team across cultures and continents. An instance is, a phrase that may feel right in the U.S. might seem blunt elsewhere, or too vague. This could create confusion and slow down decisions.
The second challenge in building a team across cultures and continents is the difference in time zones. Let’s say your team is spread across Lagos, London, and San Francisco.
There’s minimal overlap in work hours. That means real-time meetings are hard to schedule, and someone always works outside their regular hours or misses the conversation. In this case, urgent issues can take longer to resolve.
Another one is the cultural differences. What’s normal in one place can feel strange or even disrespectful in another. For instance:
In Nigeria, people take leadership seriously. Titles matter, and showing respect is expected.
In Japan, things are even more structured. One person doesn’t make decisions—they’re made as a group.
But in the U.S., teams are usually more casual. People speak up directly, no matter their role.
The difference in culture shapes how people give feedback, how they ask questions, and how they share their concerns.
Then there’s the issue of tone. For some countries, a marketing message might work well, but it will miss the mark in another country. This happens when:
- The team lacks cultural insight from the region they’re targeting.
- Messaging is based on assumptions instead of local input.
- No one from that culture was involved in reviewing the campaign.
An example is the Dove 2017 ad. The ad centred on a Black woman removing her shirt and then turning into a white woman. They wanted to show diversity, but it was seen as racist.
The team likely missed how different audiences would interpret that visual. However, it wasn’t a bad idea. The problem was that the creators failed to understand the cultural context. The results? Public apologies, boycotts, and damaged brand trust.
Final Thoughts
Building a high-impact marketing team across continents doesn’t imply that you must have everything you need from the start. It involves listening, learning, adapting and leading with empathy. The best global team would leverage diversity to build something better and tangible.
To get it right on this journey, structure your team, hire smart people, respect cultural differences, and let every voice be heard. That’s how global teams win in their different spaces.
The Writer
Edidiong Ekong is a recognised marketing and growth leader with a track record of driving business impact at both high-growth startups and global tech companies. He has led go-to-market strategy, scaled customer acquisition, and shaped brand positioning across multiple industries. Known for his strategic thinking and team leadership, Edidiong helps organisations unlock sustainable growth and build lasting market advantage.
