The “Truth About Street” study, unprecedented at the local level, represents an in depth exploration of the richness and diversity of local culture and its impact on people’s lives, attitudes and behaviors. McCann Worldgroup called on its employees around the world to leave their offices for one day and join a large global survey that examines consumer behavior in shopping and people’s relationship to cultural values. The new Truth About Street study included about 20,000 employees in more than one hundred countries, including the agencies operating within I&F McCann Grupa in southeastern and northern Europe. All employees participated in asking questions and starting small talk that revealed additional information and insights about local culture, attitudes towards brands, traditional and online shopping and other consumer sentiments.
“This is a very exciting project! Not only because it will give us a completely unique view of life in our city, but also its place on the map of the world when people are concerned, their habits and attitudes, but also the urban culture,” said Željka Mićić, research and development manager in the agency McCann Belgrade, project coordinator in Serbia.
“European Jerusalem, the Olympic city, good food, beautiful women – these are the comments shared by the people in Sarajevo with our team. In addition to emotional statements, we expect that the results will reveal the most frequent stereotypes about our city, culture and people,” added Adela Ićindić, Account Manager at McCann Sarajevo and coordinator of the project in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
“The opportunity to talk and find out the opinions and attitudes of our citizens ‘firsthand’ is invaluable for us. We look forward to good insights in discovering the truth from the streets of Skopje, and we are eagerly awaiting the next initiative that shows the size and collaboration within the network, but also the enormous strength of people,” said Irina Maja, Growth Director at McCann Skopje.
“It was very interesting to go out on the streets and listen to how our environment and everyday life is seen by very different profiles of people, from a young policeman to our retirees. We had great fun in the process, and we look forward to see insights from other markets,” said Martina Jelić, Account Planning Director at McCann Zagreb.
Luka Lindner, president of McCann Worldgroup, concluded: “This is the first time that we have engaged our entire global employee base to develop detailed insights into local culture. In doing so, our employees have seen firsthand certain changes in culture and society that affect our clients, and have gained a deeper understanding of the application of this knowledge in order to support and develop clients’ brands and business.”
This study is an upgrade of McCann’s initial search for the truth about global brands, which revealed changes in human and cultural dynamics, demanding new approaches to marketing called “deep globality”.
Results of the Truth About Street study will be included in the next issue of the Truth About Global Brands study, which was first conducted in 2014 by McCann Truth Central – McCann Worldgroup’s global expert research center – which analyzed in detail the changing dynamics that affect global brand marketing.
