Cross-cultural growth marketing
Grow your brand across Europe and East Asia
International digital marketing and growth, cross-cultural insights, and an expert network for companies expanding across Europe and East Asia.
50+ clients · 30+ industries · 15+ markets
Free 30-minute market insights, no sales pitch.
Patric Sawada·Founder, 2015·Amsterdam, NL
Trusted by teams expanding across Europe and East Asia
We have run growth marketing and market-entry work for companies in a wide range of industries, in both directions of the corridor.
Across Europe and East Asia, from founders to enterprise teams.
Retail, automotive, energy, life sciences, logistics, and more.
Every engagement is led by Patric Sawada, backed by a vetted expert network.
“Patric [Sawada] enables us to exceed the goals of our LinkedIn Ad campaigns. […] extensive knowledge of tooling and data-driven work.”
“A nice guy who integrated smoothly in the team, being pro-active and delivering much more than expected. Patric [Sawada] is data-driven […], not doing stuff for nothing, and a strong advisor. […] we made a lot of improvements during this 4 months.”
“Patric [Sawada]'s creative way of thinking is really inspiring and […] results with Linkedin (one of the hardest marketing channels to use out there) are absolutely staggering!”
How we work
Three steps, one goal: growth that holds up in a new market.
Connect
We map the market and bring in the right local experts, so you start with people who already know how it works on the ground.
Adapt
We adapt your product, message, and channels to how people actually decide and buy in each market, not a translated version of your home campaign.
Grow
We run and optimise the campaigns, then keep tuning until the numbers move. We execute, we don't just advise.
What we do
Full-service cross-cultural growth marketing, from your first market-entry plan to live campaigns in each market.
International Digital Marketing
Full-service international marketing execution, SEO, paid media, social, and performance campaigns across Europe and East Asia.
Read MoreCross-Cultural Insights
Cultural adaptation, localisation, and training that help your team and campaigns connect authentically in unfamiliar markets.
Read MoreGrowth Marketing
Market entry strategy, growth experimentation, and fractional leadership to turn international expansion into measurable results.
Read MoreTraining & Coaching
Growth, marketing, and cross-cultural training plus executive coaching and market entry webinars for teams working across Europe and East Asia.
Browse Programmes
Ways to work with us
Pick the shape that fits where you are. Not sure? Book a call and we will tell you straight.
Sprint
Scoped per engagement
quoted before any work starts
A scoped engagement to solve one growth problem.
Discuss this engagement →Workshop
From €1,900
per 3-hour session
Cross-cultural training for teams working across the corridor.
Discuss this engagement →Fractional CMO
From €3,800
per month, one day a week
Senior marketing leadership, embedded part-time.
Discuss this engagement →Advisor
Scoped per client
per month, light retainer
A light retainer for steady, senior input.
Discuss this engagement →Cross-Cultural Insights
Latest thinking on EU ↔ East Asia growth marketing, cross-cultural strategy, and international expansion.
A Tendency, Not a Truth: How Cultural Tropes Work, and How Outsiders Get Them Wrong
Two cultural sayings that look nothing alike, the Dutch 'we are Calvinist' and the Japanese 'the customer is god', run the same machine. Here is how a cultural trope forms, why naming it drives cultures apart rather than together, and how to use one as an informed prior without hardening it into a stereotype.
Read More
The Customer Is God: The Real Phrase Japan Itself Misremembers
Okyakusama wa kamisama desu is a real, everyday Japanese phrase, but Japan itself misremembers where it came from: a 1961 stage line about honouring an audience, not ancient retail scripture. Here is the honest provenance, why the service bar is genuinely high, and how a European company meets it without essentialising it.
Read More
After Hours in Japan: Settai, Nomikai, and Where the Real Conversation Happens
Settai (接待) is host-paid business entertainment; nomikai and nominication are after-work drinking as relationship-building. How honne surfaces after hours, the table protocol European teams get wrong, and why the old picture is dated.
Read MoreQuestions we get a lot
Our Story
Our name is inspired by the legendary Silk Road, a symbol of connectivity, cultural exchange and commerce.
Silkdrive aims to channel the spirit of the original Silk Road, transforming it into a digital force that drives sustainable growth, across Europe and East-Asia.
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