“The Nomad” is a fortnightly published series where I talk to expat PR and Comms professionals, then delve into the insights which inform and help other people to live or to do business in an intercultural world. If you or someone you know would be happy to share their perspective, please get in touch! I’d love to hear from you.
As part of my series about how we can learn from intercultural insights to embed them into PR and Comms practices and help create positive social impact, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Rhea Mathew, Social Media Manager at award-winning international agency Battenhall. With international work experience spanning across the UAE, India and the US, Rhea knows one thing or two about the importance of intercultural insights.
She’s also currently a committee member of PRCA MENA’s NextGen group. Believing in having a responsibility to make the world a positive place, one sentence at a time, Rhea’s a force in driving change and creating a social impact.
Calling herself an elder millennial because she can’t understand what her younger siblings do on social media but Rhea’s social media expertise and insights shone through. She addressed the mental health problem in the social media space and how we all have a responsibility to keep social media a positive space, either the unreal beauty standard especially for women and young girls, or the “perfect life” on Instagram. “That’s a personal mantra of mine,” she said. “That’s a mission, not just working in social media, for us to continue because it is negatively impacting people and you can see it happening in real life.”
How are you doing? What have you been up to at the moment?
Thank you for having me. I’m doing okay – I’m in a very good place at the moment, and pretty excited about where things are gonna go from here. The last two years have just been absolutely crazy for all of us and the one thing that I am feeling is just a sense of gratitude – Not only have I been able to get a new job in the middle of a pandemic, but just kind of taking overall health in perspective as well.
How did you get into PR comms and more specifically, social media?
How I got into PR, comms, and social media is very unconventional. My education was in business – I was doing business for all those school years. My business professor told me in a one-on-one that I’m good with people and I’m good with sort of putting things together, so why don’t I think about getting into PR when I go to university. She said, business is great, but at the same time, you might be good at PR, so without her, I wouldn’t have even ever thought of that career trajectory to move into communications. I come from a family and a culture where science is everything: People are engineers or doctors, which is a very traditional form of working. But at the same time, I thought if I’m good with people, and my professor sees it, then maybe it’s worth doing. I got my start in PR by going to university and doing a communications degree. What was beneficial for me is that in a three-year undergraduate degree, I got the chance to do two internships every time I came home for the summer – an editorial internship in journalism as well as a PR internship, and I got to sit on both ends of the spectrum. As well as in university, I got the chance to work on campus with people so I could broaden my communication skills, which led me to do my Masters in communication studies, looking at why we say the things we say and how everybody thinks about how to communicate. That’s when I got my start in crisis communications, which I really enjoyed because it was very in the moment on how to deal with a crisis.
How have the intercultural insights helped you throughout your career working in a multicultural team across the region and the globe?
I was born in India, in Mumbai which is one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the world. Growing up there meant I was exposed to different cultures, different types of people, different ways of working, and different ways of talking. When I was eight, I moved from Mumbai to Dubai, again, a very cosmopolitan city, a melting pot of cultures. I was completely exposed to people who didn’t look like me or didn’t talk like me, whether it was the local Arab population or it was the expatriate British population. So I was automatically put in a culture where everything is new. It teaches you to be adaptable. I moved to back to India for university then moved to the US, for my Master’s degree and worked in the US with people from different cultures. I’ve been put in situations where there are people who come from a culture that I don’t know or don’t understand. You tend to learn and to be adaptable from that. I’ve taken all of that and always applied it to my daily work. Now working for an international organisation like Battenhall, which has offices around the globe, people around the globe, client work around the globe, I have to constantly learn to be adaptable. It’s not an excuse anymore. I think regardless of where you are, even if you’re in a certain country, you must learn to be intercultural, you must learn to be adaptable because you’re not just working with people from your own community.
Can you share any lessons learnt when working in a multi-cultural team?
Number one, obviously be adaptable. Number two is being open to learning. But at the end of the day, my mantra always is our world is getting smaller, especially with remote working. From Dubai to Vietnam to LA, it’s just a matter of a Zoom call. It’s important to be open to learning about their cultures, how things are spoken and what you should be mindful of. That’s a constant learning game. Learning how your culture could positively or negatively impact somebody else’s. That’s something you constantly learn when you’re in the industry, and even in your friend circle, your family as well.
You mentioned the fact that the world is getting smaller, now and in the future. Where do you see the intercultural insights or competence lie in the future?
Where I want to see things go is for companies to think global, which they are now doing already. An example that I love using is McDonald’s – because I love McDonald’s. McDonald’s is different in every country. They’re doing that because they know people come from different cultures. For example, a thing like a beef burger, which is so common, cannot be served in Mumbai. It’s about changing your strategy. A company cannot be sharing too many things in diversity and inclusion in some Middle Eastern countries because those topics are not really talked about here. Being constantly aware of what’s going on in the world is really important, especially on social media, which is so fast-paced, and that’s also in other industries.
What are the ticks and what gives you the “icks” when it comes to a social media campaign? In other words, what would make a good social media campaign?
The thing that I love about a social media campaign is when it’s relatable. When I open Instagram, I love to see a social media campaign like the one from Adidas showcasing an Arab woman wearing a hijab running on the track. That shows me that Adidas has thought about the local population that they want to appeal to. Number two, it showcases the beauty of the region, which is important. So if a social media campaign doesn’t do that, it’s a fail because who you’re trying to talk to is not the one you are ultimately reaching. For me, a social media campaign has to speak to me. The things that I love are about being relatable and being able to connect to the local person, the local population, and that’s not very easy to do. Things that I don’t like the most are when messages and campaigns don’t work locally.
What would make a good social media campaign? I think what’s important to remember is that social media is very quick, very fast. Something really good can get a lot of likes in a second and vice versa something that is bad can fail in less than a second.
What are your top three social media campaigns that have caught your attention?
McDonald’s did this campaign where they released their spicy burger and they asked people to rate how spicy it is. [The campaign HERE]. That was interesting because it puts the tool in the hands of the consumer, and it raised a debate on social media, which can work well. McDonald’s is always on top of it. There’s also Spotify. Spotify recently – this was only in India- released a series of social media ads and ad campaigns not just to attract the local population in India, but also to showcase what India is about, which was really beautiful. [The campaign HERE]. My dad saw it yesterday and said: “Oh my God, have you watched this?” He sat and watched all of the campaign. If you want to attract people, try reaching his generation. That’s an instant win. There was one I don’t think was recent, but one that touched my heart was Dove, a skincare cosmetics brand. They did something – and I think this was in India as well – where they wanted to show retouched campaigns. People retouch their photos to make them look unreal and Dove wanted to show the difference between staying original and retouching and the differences. That was very personal, very relatable because I have a sister too, and it’s an important topic for all of us.
Last month, Ogilvy UK said it would stop working with influencers who edit their faces or bodies in brand campaigns, and obviously, there were mixed reviews to the move. What are your thoughts on this, especially when it comes to influencers and social media?
I think that move was a good move. I don’t know if other people agree. The reason I say that is because digital distortion can negatively affect somebody. It has affected me personally, and it has affected my sister, my younger sister and her friends as well, where they’re all trying to be authentic in a very inauthentic world. The stereotype sometimes is you have to look a certain way or act a certain way in order to fit in. And I think that’s so wrong. It sets a very negative impression or negative precedent among the younger kids. So I think it was a very good move. It’s important to talk about the people who are being authentic and being original, and we should work with them to be able to set a role model. There’s a particular influencer that I really like, Danae Mercer who uses social media to remind her followers and women everywhere that they are special, and she uses her platform to show how people distort their bodies, body sizes, body images using tools. Her posts show how it’s important to embrace authenticity. Working with people like her and other influencers like her, Chessie King and many others sets a positive tone as an industry going forward.
What are your predictions for social media in 2022?
I think it’s going to become more global. A good example of this is the Russia-Ukraine war. I saw a recent article that said that social media could be the tool or the key to possibly ending the war, or bringing these war crimes to the stage because people are recording all of these things online on the ground in Russia and Ukraine.. I do think that social media is a very powerful tool, if used the right way, and that it’s going to continue that way, not just in 2022. The second prediction is we’re going to see more companies come out and be authentic, whether it’s about authenticity or mental health on social media, which is very important. It’s about showcasing what the brand is really about, and standing up for what matters. Things can change everyday. I’m seeing this now. I suspect that authenticity is not going to be just a side topic, it’s going to be a real thing that people are going to put into their campaigns and their ads going forward.
So I always end a The Nomad interview with this question. What is the local cuisine you will always introduce to the world?
I thought about this. I have to say local, Middle Eastern cuisine. I have lived in this amazing country for 20 years. I have met people from all kinds of Middle Eastern countries. To be very honest, every culture is different. Every cuisine is different in these Middle Eastern countries. It’s so beautiful and so delicious and there’s a cultural story with each dish. When you go and eat at somebody’s house, every mother will tell you a very different story about different ways of cooking as well and it’s so beautiful.
