Hélène Bergeot is an international expansion CMO who has scaled 15+ brands profitably across 30+ countries including Squishmallows, Pokémon, Hello Kitty, and Fortnite. Here’s what she’s learned about building global revenue engines.
Why A Successful US Campaign Fails Internationally (And What to Do Instead)
Most US companies planning international expansion make a costly assumption: what worked domestically will work globally. Just translate the copy, adjust the currency, maybe swap out some cultural references, and launch.
Hélène Bergeot has watched this approach destroy otherwise promising international launches over and over. In this video she shares what to do instead.
The Valentine’s Day Problem Example
Hélène’s example: You built a Valentine’s Day campaign in the US that crushed it. Massive engagement, incredible ROI. Naturally, you decide to run it internationally.
“The significance of Valentine’s Day is not the same everywhere,” Hélène explains. “It’s very different, the connotation. And funny fact—Valentine’s Day might not even be on the same day as the US.”
The breakthrough insight? “It’s more about identifying WHY it was successful and not exactly what. Why did it work? What was the perfect storm that you created? Then look at the local ingredients that are going to help you go in the same direction.”
What Billion-Dollar Licensors Require (That Mid-Sized Companies Often Miss)
Hélène has negotiated licensing partnerships with Disney, Warner Brothers, and the Pokémon Company and others. Now, she sees patterns and helps mid-sized companies avoid them. In general, mid-sized companies think licensing is about style guides and approvals, but that’s just the baseline.
Why Agile Companies Struggle With Licensed Brands
“Everything needs to be approved. Not only the graphics but also the activation by itself. And it means time,” Hélène says. “Especially mid-sized companies who are often very agile—that’s really their competitive advantage. This is not likely to happen when you work on a licensed brand.”
The reality: You’re not in the driver’s seat anymore. That retailer meeting where you brainstormed a brilliant activation for next month? With a licensed brand, that timeline becomes 3-6 months.
“Never underestimate what it takes to work with a licensor,” Hélène warns. “The prize is great, but there are commitments on the end of the licensee.”
The companies that scale licensed brands profitably across international markets? They plan for this from day one. Hélène knows how to navigate licensor requirements while still driving growth—but it requires completely rethinking how you operate.
How to Measure Brand Awareness
CEOs obsess over brand awareness. Agencies sell impression counts and reach metrics. But impressions across international markets tell you almost nothing about whether your expansion will be profitable.
Why Impressions Are Vanity Metrics for International Expansion
“You can have millions of impressions that are not doing anything for you,” Hélène says bluntly. “It’s way more powerful to actually go through social listening because it’s going to tell you so much about how your brand is perceived.”
The insight that changes everything: “Sometimes it’s not even the marketing effort. Sometimes it’s about the fact that you don’t have a direct connection between your product and the consumers because they don’t know where to find it.”
Social listening tells you if your awareness problem is actually a distribution problem. It shows you how consumers receive your brand in each market—which matters infinitely more than how many times they saw an ad.
This is the difference between brand awareness that looks good in reports and actual awareness that indicates revenue potential in a territory.
How Free Roblox Codes Generated Millions of Brand Impressions (No Purchase Required)
At Jazwares, Hélène created an omnichannel strategy that turned Roblox codes into millions of consumer engagements. The counterintuitive part? The codes were completely free.
The Twist That Made It Work
“We worked with the licensor and key retailers to have an actual free code,” Hélène explains. “Anybody having access to that code could redeem that specific virtual item.”
No purchase required sounds like it would kill toy sales. Here’s the twist: “The name of the retailer was actually the code. So to redeem that virtual item you had to type the retailer name.”
The result? “When you have millions of people getting excited about that virtual item, millions of people are typing that retailer name. They start creating the connection between Roblox, the retailer, and the line that you are selling.”
“It wasn’t a shortcut, it was actually the opposite. But it created a halo impact that was fantastic.”
Retail Partnership Strategy Unpacked
Hélène built Wizards Play Network with 5,000+ independent retail partners globally. The network sustained profitable growth for years while most community programs flame out in months.
How? She listened.
The Window Sticker Story
The program required window stickers to build branding and excitement. Simple requirement for consistent brand experience globally, right?
“There are countries where most stores don’t have windows,” Hélène says. “People were telling us ‘we don’t have a window.’ We listened to their suggestion about saying ‘then how do you promote the brands?’ And that’s how we did it.”
The principle that scaled to 5,000+ partners: “Focus on the goal and leave the execution a little bit more loose because at the end of the day it’s what you’re trying to accomplish that matters.”
“It’s not always easy because it means you need to really challenge what you are thinking,” Hélène admits. “But this is so powerful because this is how you create actual partnerships. Everybody is really engaged.”
Most companies say they want partnerships. Hélène builds them by focusing obsessively on outcomes and staying flexible on execution—especially critical when scaling across countries with vastly different retail landscapes.
Hélène Bergeot, an International Expansion CMO Who Builds Global Revenue Engines
Hélène Bergeot is a fractional international expansion CMO specializing in global market entry and international licensing. She transforms domestic brands into profitable international businesses by deploying proven frameworks for market entry, global licensing, and scalable distribution.
She develops go-to-market strategies for new territories, builds local marketing teams, and creates licensing programs that drive predictable revenue across regions. The result: faster market entry, stronger distributor partnerships, and international growth that scales profitably.
With 30+ years as a global marketing leader, Hélène partners with CEOs who know their product or service can win internationally and want to scale profitably.
Ready to scale globally with an experienced international expansion CMO? Book an exploratory call.
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