We’re running a campaign across Russia and the US with four different partners—two on each side—and things have gotten messy. The US team is saying the Russian creative isn’t converting. The Russian team is frustrated because the US feedback keeps changing. Nobody’s really on the same page about what success even looks like, and the campaign is suffering because of it.
I think the real problem is that we never actually aligned everyone on strategy before we started. We just launched and hoped everyone would figure it out. That was dumb, but here we are.
Now I’m trying to figure out: how do you actually rebuild trust and alignment when partners are already frustrated? Do we scrap everything and start over? Do we do a reset conversation where everyone’s on the same call? And how do you make sure that next time, partnerships stay aligned even when situations get complicated?
Has anyone here managed to salvage a multi-market partnership that was on the brink? What did you actually do to get everyone back on track?
Oh, this is tricky territory, but salvageable. I’ve been through this a few times, and here’s what I’ve learned: alignment dies when people stop communicating. So first step is literally getting everyone in a room—video, in-person, whatever—and having a real conversation about what went wrong and what everyone needs going forward.
Make it a listening session, not a blame session. Let the US team explain their perspective. Let the Russian team explain theirs. Usually, once people feel heard, they’re way more willing to collaborate on a fix.
After that conversation, I’d suggest creating a shared document—like a partnership agreement or campaign charter—that spells out decision-making, communication cadence, success metrics, everything. Sounds stupid, but having it written down prevents future misalignment. Everyone knows the rules.
One more thing: assign a single point person on each side who’s responsible for communication. Not the whole team, one person. That person becomes the bridge between markets. Trust me, this eliminates so much noise.
From a data perspective, I’d want to see metrics from both markets side by side. What’s the US campaign actually delivering? What’s the Russian side delivering? Are they different because the markets are different, or because the strategies are actually misaligned?
Once you see the data clearly, you can have a real conversation. Like: “The US is seeing 3% CTR and the Russia is seeing 6%. That tells us something about audience or messaging we need to explore.” That’s a concrete starting point instead of just general frustration.
Also, I’d recommend doing a joint analysis with both teams present. Not the US team analyzing their data, then the Russia team analyzing theirs. Actually sit down together and walk through the numbers. You’d be shocked how many misunderstandings get cleared up when people see the same data explained the same way.
Let me ask you this: do the US and Russia teams even have shared success metrics, or are they each measuring something different? Because if they’re optimizing for different things, they’ll naturally work against each other.
What I’d do immediately is align on three core metrics that matter equally to both teams. Then, both teams work toward those metrics while each team also has their own region-specific goals. That creates shared ownership while respecting market differences.
Second, I’d look at the decision-making process. Who gets to make calls when something changes? How fast can decisions be made? How many layers of approval exist? Sometimes partnerships fail not because people disagree on strategy, but because they can’t move fast enough to react to what the market’s actually doing.
One last thing: after you recover this campaign, build a partnership playbook for next time. Document what worked, what didn’t, decision-making processes, communication cadence. Future campaigns will be way smoother if people can reference what actually worked last time.