Multicultural Marketing Has Outgrown Translation
What a weekend at the 2026 World Cup final in New York taught me about belonging, brand trust, and reaching people who live across more than one culture.
I flew to New York for the World Cup final weekend, and I spent most of it studying the crowd rather than the match. That's a habit of mine. I've spent fifteen-plus years in marketing, a lot of it on global campaigns that had to work across continents at the same time, so a city with dozens of nations pouring into it is the closest thing to a fun market research. I wanted to see, up close, how brands actually behave when the whole world shows up at once.
For most of my career, "multicultural marketing" has arrived with a checklist attached. Translate the sign. Add the QR code. Cast for representation. Put the release form in two languages, and call it inclusive. That checklist made sense back when we believed people lived inside one cultural box. They don't. They never really did.
People move across identities all day
Watch anyone for a full day, and you will see it. We talk one way at work and another way at the dinner table. We carry the country on our passport and the one our grandmother cooks from. Plenty of people pick the Spanish-language broadcast of a match for the way the goal is called, even when they would follow the English one fine, because it feels more passionate and fun.
This is not a new idea. Anyone who has lived it could have told you a long time ago. Code-switching has been a fact of life in many communities for generations. What's new is that the research world is catching up. The Axis Agency put out a report this month, Code-Switching, arguing that consumers move fluidly across identities and that fixed cultural segments no longer describe how people actually behave. It is a good read. But I did not need a report to believe it. I watched it play out on the ground all weekend.
What belonging looked like on the ground
The brands that connected with people did something more interesting than translate. They built things anyone could walk up to and join. Bank of America had a booth where you made a custom fan bracelet. The LEGO Group let you build a team jersey brick by brick. These are the kind of activities that are fun for most to enjoy.
That is the part that stayed with me. Standing at those tables were a parent and a toddler, an adult there with their aging mother, two people on a date, a group of old friends. Different languages, different backgrounds, different reasons for showing up, some of them barely soccer fans at all. Everyone was a priority. They all got to make something and take a memory home.
That feeling, being folded in instead of treated as an afterthought, is the entire point. It is what earns trust that sticks. And in the categories I work in most, finance and healthcare, where trust is basically the product, it is the difference between a campaign people tolerate and one they remember you for.
The brands that read the room won
I walked nearly every activation across the weekend, and you could sort them into two piles fast. One pile showed up loud and spent big on a logo-heavy photo op. The other pile paid attention to the room and handed people something useful. A fan bracelet you would actually wear. Travel-size toiletries offered to a crowd that had, in fact, forgotten theirs. And… sanitizers!! A podcast sponsorship that put fans a few feet from a player they came to see (Vozinha!!)
Bank of America sponsored the Men in Blazers taping, which meant regular fans got to be in the room when a rising star made a rare appearance. The brand bought proximity to a moment people already loved, and let the moment do the work. Presence before message. That is the magic.
The human moment stood out in a sea of AI
I have to name one more thing, because it colored everything else I saw. All week, the New York subway was wall-to-wall AI ads. “One prompt, job done.” “Every frontier model included.” Ride after ride. I am not against any of it; I use some AI tools in my own practice. But when a city's ad inventory starts to sell the same promise, it stops registering.
Which is exactly why the human stuff hit so hard. The moment I keep coming back to is Vozinha, the forty-year-old goalkeeper for Cape Verde, a country of about half a million people and the third-smallest nation ever to reach a World Cup. He spent nineteen years in leagues most people have never heard of to get there. His following went from fifty thousand to fourteen million in a single day. And the crowd around him came together for a man from a country most of them had never visited, wearing whatever jersey they happened to own, because there was not an official Cape Verde one to buy. You cannot automate that.
What this means for your next campaign
If you are planning anything for a multicultural audience, here is what I would carry into the brief.
Map how people move between their identities, instead of assigning them to one segment and stopping there. The person you are trying to reach is holding several identities at once, and they switch between them depending on who they are with and what the moment asks for.
Design for participation. Representation gets you on the guest list. Participation is what makes someone feel like they belong at the party.
Choose presence over volume. The loudest brand rarely wins the room. The one that gives people a reason to stay usually does.
Treat trust as the compounding asset it is, especially in a regulated category. Every experience that makes someone feel included is a deposit. Every one that makes them feel like an afterthought is a withdrawal.
The best test I know is a simple one. Look at everyone you are trying to reach, and ask whether all of them would feel like they belong in the room you built. If the honest answer is no, that is where the work is.
FAQ
Q: What does "multicultural marketing beyond translation" mean?
A: It means reaching diverse audiences by understanding how they move across identities and building experiences where they feel they belong, rather than only translating a campaign into another language or casting for representation.
Q: What is code-switching in marketing?
A: Code-switching describes how people shift between cultural identities, languages, and communities depending on context. For marketers, it means one person can belong to several audiences at once, so campaigns should reflect that fluidity instead of assigning people to a single fixed segment.
Q: Why is belonging more important than representation?
A: Representation puts a group in the picture. Belonging gives them something to participate in and a reason to stay. At the 2026 World Cup, the brands that let anyone step in and take part built more trust than the ones that only showed up loud.
Q: How did brands market at the 2026 World Cup in New York?
A: The most effective activations were participatory and human: Bank of America's custom fan bracelets, LEGO team-jersey builds, and a Bank of America-sponsored Men in Blazers taping that put fans close to the players. The loud, high-spend activations were far more forgettable.
Key takeaways
Multicultural marketing has moved past translation. Audiences move fluidly across identities, and fixed cultural segments no longer describe how people behave.
Belonging beats representation. The brands that won at the 2026 World Cup built experiences anyone could step into, regardless of background or fandom.
Presence beats volume. Useful, human touches outperformed loud spend.
Trust compounds, especially in regulated categories like finance and healthcare, where trust is the product.
The test for any campaign: would everyone you are trying to reach feel like they belong in the room you built?
About the author
Karen Li, MBA, is the founder of Weflouri, a fractional social media practice for brands in regulated industries. Over fifteen-plus years, she has led corporate social and global multicultural campaign work for mature enterprises, and she advises founders through the Pasadena WBC and the SBDC. She writes about social strategy, brand trust, and marketing to audiences who live across more than one culture. More at weflouri.com.
6 Underrated Books That Shaped How I Think About Business & Marketing
In this noisy world, I love making time for long-form content. These are some of the ones I keep recommending to clients and friends, building something that matters.
Why is this list different?
Most business reading lists look the same. The same frameworks. The same case studies. The same advice dressed up in a new cover.
This list doesn’t.
These six books earned a place in me, or some would say, scratched a special part of my brain. lol. The way I read a room. The way I build trust. The way I learn about how human communication changes with social media.
I recommend these constantly. To clients navigating reorgs. To marketers overwhelmed by platform noise. To founders who feel like they’re performing rather than leading.
Here’s why each one is worth your time.
1. Algospeak
How language shapes power online
If you’ve ever wondered why certain words get suppressed, shadowbanned, or quietly filtered, this book explains the mechanics behind it. Algospeak is the study of how people adapt their language to survive algorithmic moderation, and it’s one of the most important things a marketer or brand strategist can understand right now.
We live in an environment where the platform itself is a gatekeeper of meaning. Understanding how language is weaponized, coded, and rewired in real time is absolutely necessary.
The brands that do well don’t just speak to their audience. They understand the invisible dynamics governing how that speech is received.
Recommended for: social strategists, content leads, brand owners, and anyone building community online.
2. What I Talk About When I Talk About Running
Consistency > motivation
Haruki Murakami’s memoir about long-distance running reads like a quiet manifesto on creative discipline. On the surface, it’s about running. What it’s really about is how you show up every day when no one is watching, and nothing feels inspired.
In marketing, we obsess over strategy. We under-invest in stamina. This book is the argument for stamina.
Motivation is a feeling. Consistency is a decision. The difference is what separates brands that last from ones that burst. I always tell my clients, done is always better than perfect.
Recommended for: entrepreneurs, marketing/creative directors, anyone who’s hit a wall and needed a reason to keep going.
3. Don’t Believe Everything You Think
Mental clarity under pressure
This one hits differently in a high-stakes work environment. Joseph Nguyen’s book is essentially about the relationship among thought, suffering, and decision-making. This book aligns well with business applications because most of our worst strategic choices stem from reactive thinking rather than clear analysis. Most of the time, overthinking leading into a spiral.
For anyone leading through a rebrand, a reorg, or a difficult client relationship, this book reframes what it means to respond rather than react.
Clarity isn’t a luxury. It’s a competitive advantage. And it starts with understanding which thoughts are worth following.
Recommended for: leaders under pressure, strategists, anyone making high-stakes decisions in noisy environments.
4. You Didn’t Hear This From Me
Soft power & cultural fluency
This book is about the unspoken rules of professional environments. The social intelligence that never makes it into onboarding decks but determines who gets heard, who gets promoted, and who gets quietly sidelined. The hot gosssssss is real.
For marketers and strategists working across industries, cultures, or stakeholder groups, cultural fluency isn’t optional.
What you know matters. How you move matters more. Soft power gives us the strength to make people feel seen, which is the foundation of every brand strategy worth building.
Recommended for: brand strategists, client-facing leaders, multicultural marketers, and anyone navigating complex organizational dynamics.
5. When Women Lead
Leadership without mimicry
Julia Boorstin’s research-backed look at female founders and executives is one of the most practically useful leadership books I’ve read. It doesn’t ask women to lead differently; it documents how we already do, and why it works.
For anyone who has ever been told their leadership style was “too” something, too direct, too empathetic, too collaborative, too soft, this book reframes those qualities as strategic assets, not liabilities.
The best leaders built on what they already knew and took up spaces they deserve.
Recommended for: women in leadership, executives, and anyone building or scaling a team.
6. How To Do The Work
Dr. Nicole LePera’s book is categorized as self-help, but for business owners and leaders, it reads as a guide to sustainable performance. It’s about breaking cycles, taking ownership without self-punishment, and doing the internal work that makes external output possible.
Burnout, imposter syndrome, and people-pleasing aren’t personal failures; they’re patterns. This book names them and gives you tools to interrupt them.
You cannot build a business that runs with integrity if you’re not doing the same work internally. It gave me clarity when I first started my business. This one is the foundation under everything else on this list.
Recommended for: founders, anyone in a high-responsibility role, people rebuilding after burnout.
My thoughts
What connects these six books isn’t genre or subject matter. It’s how they stayed with me long after reading them.
They make you slower to react, harder to manipulate, more intentional in your communication, and clearer about what kind of leader, strategist, or builder you actually want to be.
Want a strategy as intentional as this?
If you’re a brand or business leader who’s tired of surface-level social media advice and ready for a strategy that actually fits your complexity, let’s talk.
Weflouri is a boutique social media agency built for regulated brands, growth-stage businesses, and leaders who need clarity, not more noise. I’ve supported Fortune 100 brands, startups, and everything in between.
Ready to build a social strategy as intentional as your reading list? I help regulated brands and business builders grow with clarity, compliance, and culture in mind. Explore how we can work together.
Written by Karen Li, Founder of Weflouri
Strategist. Writer. Social media executive. Helping brands find direction without the noise.
How I grew a finance brand's social media from 3k to 60k in one month
In the ever-evolving realm of social media, achieving rapid growth for a finance brand’s online community is no small feat. Yet, I'm excited to share a remarkable success story of catapulting a social media following from 3K to a staggering 60K in just one month, all while keeping the budget in check.
This post shares the playbook that led to this spectacular surge in audience size.
The Foundation - SWOT Analysis
To kickstart this journey, I began with a robust SWOT analysis. This laid a strong foundation and helped us comprehend our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, allowing us to tailor our approach to perfection.
Navigating Boundaries in the World of Trends
Not every trend aligns with regulated brands. I explored the importance of setting boundaries and choosing trends harmonizing with the brand's identity, ensuring resonance with the target audience.
The Audience-Centric Approach
Understanding the audience was pivotal. We delved deep into deciphering what resonated with our social media followers and how we could consistently provide value, thus creating a thriving community.
The Art of Mastering Paid Social
I assessed our strategy for paid social, where a meticulous audit and optimization approach played a crucial role in transforming our paid social campaigns.
UGC - Strengthening Community Bonds
Learn how we harnessed the magic of User-Generated Content (UGC) and its impact on strengthening our community bonds.
There's no one-size-fits-all strategy in the ever-evolving landscape of social media marketing. This success story is a testament to the power of understanding your audience deeply and implementing a strategic mindset.
Let’s connect to explore customized strategies for your brand’s unique goal.
3 Unspoken Instagram Rules That are Just Myths
You get how it is - trying random hacks found by scrolling, and the results are wild.
Here are the three “rules” to avoid and the reason behind each of them.
Myth #1: Not replying to comments or ghosting makes your brand desirable.
🌟 It makes you neglectful, not cool. This is different than taking social media breaks or needing more capacity to reply to all.
Consider seeking community management services to help your brand connect digitally with your target audience and join online conversations relating to the brand.
Myth #2: Focus on followers because more followers mean more clients.
🌟 It’s not always true. While a strong following can build credibility, the followers may not be in your target market, resulting in talking to non-prospects. Tailor your message in front of the right people is preferred.
No business is one size fits all. Sometimes, other KPIs can move the needle far more than getting too caught up with follower counts.
Myth #3: Post every day to grow your account.
🌟 Find a balanced posting schedule that works for your business. Otherwise, exhaustion will grow before revenue.
Consistently showing up and connecting with your audience can increase brand awareness, but it shouldn’t detract from other priorities for your business.
Consider outsourcing a social media expert to help you create relevant content and manage social media channels. Running a brand is difficult; you shouldn't have to guess and hope while promoting your business on social media. For social media management, content creation, advertisement, or consulting support, see how we can work together. 🤗
In case you’re wondering, Weflouri is a top-rated boutique social media agency with a proven track record of helping regulated brands across the financial, healthcare, government, and consumer products industries drive social visibility and achieve business goals through social media.
Interested? Let’s get down to business and get in touch.