Felix Baumgartner
More than 8 million people watched Baumgartner’s descent to Earth. This is just the latest of Red Bull’s famous campaigns.

Viral marketing offers many advantages to companies who have a clear objective and simple product, by using online methods to target expats.

Many expats around the world are known as ‘netizens,’ or citizens of the Internet, an ever growing community of regular Internet users.

Two of the most notable recent examples of viral marketing are that of Red Bull and the Stratosphere stunt, involving millions of dollars, NASA and a live video feed; and the Christmas advertising campaign from John Lewis, who are well known amongst expats, due to their ability to deliver their products to over 30 countries worldwide. Continue reading

Graphic ranking online media channels
A ranked list of the website types consumers use to research products. (US data; Bynd.com)

How do you generate more sales? The big buzz is always social media but that is just the tip of the iceberg. Especially for expatriate products, more purchase interest seems to come from online channels other than Facebook and Twitter.

Expat purchases are normally ‘high involvement’ products such as health insurance coverage, personal finance, or real estate. Interestingly, a study by Joann DeLanoy explains that for high-involvement products, people use web search before using Twitter or Facebook. Continue reading

globe over target
Expat marketers should know how to target their campaigns to the right audience and design their banners to maximize CTR.

Targeting an advertising campaign at expatriates can be difficult. What marketing mix should you use? Do you target expats before or after they have moved abroad? Where do you place your ads?

These are the questions on many advertisers minds when faced with an expat campaign.

“Narrow down your advertising channels and choose media that is already targeting expats for the best results, advises Carlos Duez, business development manager at Just Landed. “Your marketing mix needs to use different channels. The Internet is the cheapest option and you can measure results. This is particularly important if you are on a limited budget.” Continue reading

Expat media
Expats are eager to “hear” stories of life abroad firsthand, says David Gregerson, President of newly-launched Overseas Radio Network.

Expat media is ringing in 2012 by boldly going where it’s never been before: the radio.

David Gregerson, CEO of Overseas Radio, says expats are tired of reading information all the time, and would actually prefer hearing it firsthand. So far he’s seen plenty of interest–more than 400 professionals have applied to host programs.