Insights Into Native Experience Marketing with Mark Saba
Mark Saba
CEO, LEXIGO
Why Ethnic and Foreign Marketing Gets It Wrong from the Start
Mark Saba, CEO of LEXIGO, traces the origin of his book back to university, where international marketing classes referred to reaching non-English-speaking audiences as ethnic, foreign, or multicultural marketing. The problem: you are entering a campaign already thinking of your market as foreign. That does not align with the foundational principle of marketing, which is to think of the audience first and work backwards. Why not start from the person's native experience, their native language and their native culture?
For about 15 years, Mark carried that idea. When COVID hit, he found time to write. The result is Native Experience Marketing, a framework for authentically reaching, including, and engaging audiences in their native languages and cultures. The book is structured around the NATIVE acronym, which also serves as LEXIGO's values.
The Biggest Mistake: Treating Diverse Communities as One Market
Mark's strongest message: do not use umbrella terms. In Australia, the term CALD (culturally and linguistically diverse) is commonly used to describe non-English-speaking communities. But when an organisation decides to target CALD audiences, they often see it as one group. In reality, it is many groups with completely different struggles, views, perceptions, and sentiments. Putting 10 communities in one room and asking them to speak for CALD as a whole makes no sense.
The book's key takeaway: focus on the communities you want to work with individually, use the framework, and engage with them meaningfully. Build campaigns for community, by community.
The NATIVE Framework: Think, Design, Go
The book is structured in three phases (Think, Design, Go) and six stages mapped to the NATIVE acronym. For experienced marketers, the framework is a checklist to make sure nothing has been skipped. For the inexperienced, it explains why each step matters and why certain stakeholders need to be on board. The key takeaways include developing cultural competence, forming dynamic teams, co-designing the program with internal stakeholders, co-creating with identified communities, mastering grassroots distribution, transitioning from individual experiences to community-wide acceptance, and ensuring every voice is authentically represented.
AI Will Never Replace Humans When Behavioural Change Is the Goal
Mark is clear about where AI fits and where it does not. For chatbots, low-quality high-volume content, and consumer reviews, AI translation works perfectly with a disclaimer. But when you are seeking behavioural change, you need people on the ground. It is not just about sending content in someone's language. It is about what comes after: the life cycle of the campaign, what action you want them to take. AI does not go anywhere near that.
He applies the same principle to LEXIGO's own technology: the vision from day one in 2011 was humans and technology, not humans versus technology. AI empowers translators to work faster and more accurately. It does not replace the professionals who understand nuance, culture, lived experience, and the native experiences of the people they are translating for.
Beyond Translation: The Native Experience Podcast is produced by LEXIGO, Australia's trusted translation and multicultural communication agency.
Beyond Translation: The Native Experience Podcast explores multicultural communication, translation, and culturally diverse engagement in Australia and beyond. Each episode features experts sharing real stories and practical insights on topics from multicultural campaign strategy to CALD community engagement and localisation best practices. Produced by LEXIGO, Australia's trusted translation and multicultural communication agency with triple ISO certification and NAATI certified translators across 171 languages.
Mark: What is the application? What does the client need the translation for? And depending on that, you can go pure machine translation or AI translation or pure AI content creation in the languages that you need. That is suitable in some scenarios. In other scenarios, which is where the majority of our work sits, is having professionals, humans on the work, who understand the nuance, the culture, the lived experience, and the native experiences of the people they are translating for.
Brian: Today I have the opportunity to chat once again with Mark Saba, CEO of LEXIGO. He wrote a book called Native Experience Marketing. This book is all about how to authentically reach, include, and engage your audiences in their native languages and cultures. Mark, welcome back to The Native Experience.
Mark: Thanks, Brian. Thanks for having me.
Brian: What are you nerding out on right now?
Mark: Right now it is actually our own product LEXIGO. We released Scribe about a year ago, almost two years. But we have started to add live captioning into Scribe. I have been playing around with that for almost the last month, testing it for different use cases. It is picking up about 100 languages at the moment. The main idea is to provide captions and accessibility for live lectures or conferences and allow people who speak different languages to read live captions.
Brian: How has the vision of humans and technology played out over 13 years?
Mark: When I started LEXIGO in 2011, that was always the vision. Humans and technology, not humans versus technology. In the beginning it started with smart algorithms. We have always had that approach of having the technology empower our translators to translate faster and more accurately. Over time, now we talk about AI and include it in the processes and in the building of our technology. It is an ever-evolving platform. Since having that foundation from the beginning, it has been a lot easier to integrate these types of things.
Brian: Has technology ever held you back?
Mark: Not really. The main thing we always consider is what is the application? What does the client need the translation for? You can go pure machine translation or AI content creation and that is suitable in some scenarios. In other scenarios, which is where the majority of our work sits, is having professionals, humans on the work who understand the nuance, the culture, the lived experience, and the native experiences of the people they are translating for.
Brian: Tell us about the book. Where did this idea come from?
Mark: If we go back to the beginning, I was at uni and studied marketing. We had a separate class that would touch on international marketing. They would always refer to it as multicultural, ethnic, or foreign marketing. I thought, this does not align with what we are being taught in marketing, which is always to think of the audience first and work backwards. You are referring to it as ethnic and foreign. From the beginning, you are already on the back foot. You are entering a campaign already thinking of your market as foreign. That did not make sense. Why were we not thinking of it from the person's native experience?
Mark: For about 15 years, I always had this idea. COVID hit and I found a bit of time. I had a whole Google Docs folder for all the ideas over the years. I thought I need to put this together. We engaged a company in the States who helped me start and write the book. Midway through, they went bankrupt. I lost my investment and had to pick up the pieces and finish and self-publish under the LEXIGO imprint. It took longer than expected. If anyone tells you you can finish a book in a year, lower your expectations and add another three to five years.
Brian: What is the book's structure?
Mark: The book's setup is the NATIVE acronym. It is also our values at LEXIGO. The NATIVE framework provides a framework for both experienced and inexperienced marketers. For experienced marketers, it is a guide to check points and make sure nothing has been skipped. For the inexperienced, it is about understanding why we consider these things and why it is important to get certain stakeholders on board. The big message is if you are going to build a native campaign, the best way is to build it for community by community. You are working with these communities to create the messages, to understand the sentiment.
Brian: What do you want readers to take away?
Mark: The biggest thing is not looking at this as an umbrella or using umbrella terms. In Australia, we use the term CALD, culturally and linguistically diverse. When an organisation decides to target CALD audiences, they see it as one group. But it is so many groups. You need to first identify which communities you want to target. Then from there, decide which languages and the best way to communicate with each one. The biggest mistake is approaching them as one market. You might have 10 communities in one room and say we would like you to speak for CALD. But these 10 communities all have different struggles, different views, different perceptions. It does not make any sense to put them all together.
Mark: The key takeaways would be to develop cultural competence. Form dynamic teams with the right stakeholders on board. Co-design the program internally. Co-create with identified communities. Master grassroots distribution. Transition from individual experiences to community-wide acceptance. Ensure every voice is heard and every culture is authentically represented. It is three phases: think, design, and go. Six stages: N-A-T-I-V-E.
Brian: How should the industry grow moving forward?
Mark: I do not think AI will take over, but it will be a different way of doing things. For chatbots and low-quality high-volume content like consumer reviews, AI is perfect. As long as you give the disclaimer. But when you want to get into this type of engagement and really understanding your audiences, AI will never come near it. When you are seeking behavioural change, you need people on the ground. It is not just about sending out the content in their language. It is about what comes after. What is the life cycle of that campaign? What do you want them to take action on?
Mark: The biggest thing is going back to marketing basics. Think of the audience first and then work backwards. Figure out who your audience is and engage with them. Co-create these campaigns with your audiences.
Brian: Mark, thank you. I appreciate this. I hope the book continues to make a difference.
Mark: Thanks a lot. Thanks, Brian.
Brian: Mark Saba, CEO of LEXIGO. Remember, always strive for authenticity and embrace the power of native experiences.