Working internationally with BBN

BBN is an organization owned and operated by its partner agencies around the world.  We deliver marketing success across borders, working collaboratively. Together we number over a thousand B2B specialists in 29 countries, with about 300 clients in 23 different B2B sectors.

A big part of BBN’s success is that we meet regularly. We share proven processes that we have developed together and get to know each other’s agencies intimately. That’s what I’m doing right now—getting intimately acquainted with BBN Spain (The Marketing Hub) through the BBN Exchange Programme. The aims of the programme are to share knowledge between agencies, identify and build synergies, and give people the opportunity to learn new skills and build lasting relationships.

BBN Spain is a social media powerhouse. They are a great bunch of people with strong expertise in leveraging social, notably LinkedIn, as a core part of a seamless lead-generation process. So it should come as no surprise that one of my objectives on this stay is to improve my ability to build and manage goal–oriented and measurable social media (mainly LinkedIn) campaigns that support an overall marketing campaign.

Another of my other objectives—a purely personal one—is to get to know Spain, Spaniards and Madrid, which is proving to be delightful. It’s a big city that offers a lot of experiences that you can’t find in Turku or Helsinki. It oozes history, the buildings are beautiful, the food is delectable and wow—what a lovely atmosphere!

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This is the metro stop close to my apartment. It is perfectly located, as it is halfway between our office and the city center. 

Like many marketers, I am self-taught in the area of social media. I have learned a lot just by doing and of course, I read a lot on the subject. But I wanted to experience first-hand how other BBN agencies used the same tools, to gain new insights, and to learn tactics that would help me to create better campaigns. Top-of-Funnel social media content is something that most of our clients need to do a better job on and there is no one that has greater expertise than Madrid’s The Marketing Hub.

I am now three weeks into my stay in Madrid and halfway through my exchange. I have already gained a lot of new insights and tactics, especially with LinkedIn, where I’m quickly adding to my knowledge of Top-of-Funnel activities to drive traffic. I’m also adding to what I know regarding client briefing and campaign planning processes, reporting and optimization. Though what I have learned is still theoretical, in the coming weeks I will get to put my knowledge into practice.

Working in Spain has been an excellent opportunity and a very interesting journey. I don’t speak Spanish, so language-wise it has also been ‘interesting’ and sometimes humorous. It has actually been pretty easy to get by in a country where I don’t speak the language—I have even learned a bit of Spanish to get by. In really tricky situations, I always have the opportunity to use Google translate.

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Madrid is surrounded by beautiful mountains. I got to experience the beautiful mountain views with colleagues from the office. 

Being here makes me think that everybody should try working or living abroad; it really gives you tremendous insight into different cultures and how the world works. I have learned that Spaniards are very hardworking, dispelling any preconceptions about ‘siesta’ and the ‘mañana’ mentality. But they also have a relaxed attitude and have done a good job figuring out work/life balance. They really enjoy life from day to day instead of working like crazy and saving up their enjoyment for their holidays, as many Finns tend to do.

I’m working on BBN Finland and BBN Spain projects at the same time, which has created a few scheduling challenges. Finns start their workdays early and are also one hour ahead of Spain. Spaniards come to work when Finns take their lunch break, so we effectively have 3 ½ hours of work time together before the Spaniards eat lunch. When they get back, Finns have already left the office. (Sigh.) Nothing is impossible, but it’s something to get used to. After a few weeks of training, I am almost a pro! Now to perfect my LinkedIn campaign planning and execution…

To find out more about partnering with BBN and the many opportunities the BBN Exchange Programme can provide Please contact us

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