Summary

During Crunchyroll’s early global expansion, the marketing team was tasked with delivering localized advertising across seven languages for Europe, South America, and Russia. The challenge? We had no localization team, no budget for outside vendors, and no roadmap for how to manage this scope of work.

Instead of slowing momentum, we partnered with regional social media managers to act as embedded localization experts, integrating their insights into our creative and operational framework. This resourceful approach allowed us to maintain timely delivery and authentic cultural voice in every market during a critical phase of growth.

The Challenge

As Crunchyroll’s audience grew rapidly across international markets, the Creative Services team faced a bottleneck: how to produce high-quality, localized assets in multiple languages without dedicated resources.

The task:

Deliver advertising assets — including social posts, video creative, static ads, and outdoor — for multiple regions in seven languages with no dedicated localization staff or budget.

Strategy

Rather than wait for new resources, we leaned into partnership and creativity. Working with the Audience Development (social media) team, we tapped regional social managers to serve as translation and cultural advisors. To make this sustainable, we embedded localization directly into our project management systems and approval workflows.

The goals were threefold:

• Accuracy – Ensure creative messaging resonated authentically in each language and culture.
  
  
• Efficiency – Build repeatable processes for multilingual approvals and delivery.
  
  
• Empowerment – Give regional experts ownership, strengthening their connection to the global brand.
  
  

Execution

• Process Integration: Built localization checkpoints into Wrike workflows, enabling seamless project tracking, reviews, and approvals across time zones.
  
  
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partnered regional social managers with creative and project management teams to ensure strategy alignment.
  
  
• Licensor Alignment: Maintained approval flows with licensors while accounting for regional nuance, creating trust in our non-traditional model.
  
  
• Team Empowerment: Positioned regional leads as critical partners, reinforcing a culture of shared problem-solving and accountability.
  
  

Results

• Operational Resilience: Delivered timely, multilingual assets that supported campaigns across international markets for several years.
  
  
• Business Continuity: Maintained Crunchyroll’s momentum during a high-growth period, ensuring international audiences felt authentically engaged.
  
  
• Cultural Empowerment: Elevated regional social managers into strategic partners, fostering buy-in and pride in the company’s global expansion.
  
  

Learnings

• Constraints breed innovation – With no budget or staff, we built a grassroots system that worked.
  
  
• Empowerment is scalable – Regional leads stepped up as brand ambassadors when given ownership.
  
  
• Resourcefulness matters as much as expertise – We didn’t have “best practices,” but we had commitment, collaboration, and urgency to deliver.
  
  

Hashtag Index

#Localization #ResourcefulLeadership #GlobalScaling #TeamEmpowerment

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