Is it possible to market to the world with out uttering a single word?

I found a very effective advert created by Amnesty International that looks like it was developed for French television yet when I watched it I understood its simple but effective message.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gw_a4iutD1Q[/youtube]

This advert is very well put together. I love the anxiety build up you get with the slow audible footsteps you get when the soldier is walking to his firing spot and the way the advert shows you the soldier taking aim but putting the camera viewpoint as if you were looking at the soldier and you were about to be shot. The message that you could help stop attrocities like this was also very clear with the use of the signed papers stopping the bullet.

Now that’s all very good for those who are advertising on TV but can you pull of something like this using online platforms? Well, you might not be able to create something to that quality but you can easily pull of some great international advertising without uttering a single word if you can capture your message and package it into online games, videos and even banners. OK…so whats the big deal, I do this normally right? Well yes and no. I normally build my campaigns using the target countries language in order to sell the product. For example if it is a car manufacturer that I am advertising using a banner campaign then I would be mentioning certain key selling points such as the power of the car and gorgeous leather interior etc and also including some kind of call to action such as “click here”.

What do I need to know

1. Who are my target audience? - I need to know who i am targeting and what they are interested in.
2. Who are my client? - I have to respect my clients brand image and work with it. They have possibly spent a lot of time and money building their brand so that it connects with their customers so it is far more efficient for me to use this prebuilt chanel.
3. What platform am I going to use to advertise? - This will make a huge difference to my tactics when creating a campaign. For example, If i am using a social video website like youtube then I can rely on different types of humour (Or attractive women) to get my message across and just include the URL of the website that I am advertising or maybe just mention the name of the advertised brand.

One of the best online versions of this language free marketing that I have see recently was done by some very clever people over at Virgin Mobile. They have a series of banners which I would love to display here for free for all to see but it is actually very hard to find a download for it for me to host here (I think they are missing a golden opportunity here for free advertising). The banner I am talking about shows a man lying flat on his back with a towel around his waste. The banner highlights several areas on the mans body which you can click on each of which results in a video of that part of the body being waxed resulting in some funny reactions (even a veteran web-user like me was clicking away on it chuckling to myself which shows how effectively virgin mobile have generated a natural call to action by making it rewarding for viewers to click on the banner.)

I hope that this article and video have been entertaining and useful in helping you to generate new ideas and methods of implementing your marketing campaigns. Of course this is not useful for everyone as humour etc in campaigns is going to be very brand dependant.