July 13, 2026
Most international wheatpaste campaign failures are preventable. Not by genius planning or expensive tools — by a systematic pre-production checklist that catches the gaps before they become field problems. The items that sink campaigns aren’t exotic or unpredictable. They’re the same issues that show up repeatedly: artwork in the wrong format, operators who weren’t properly briefed, print materials that didn’t arrive in time, documentation systems that weren’t set up before execution started.
We’ve run international wheatpaste campaigns for over a decade, across markets in North America, Europe, Latin America, and Asia. The pre-production checklist we use isn’t secret knowledge — it’s pattern recognition from firsthand experience watching what goes wrong and working backward to prevent it. This guide is that checklist, with enough context on each item that you understand why it matters, not just what it is.
Work through all 12 items before you authorize print production. This is the line in the sand. Once print runs, you can’t walk back artwork errors or fix a brief that operators haven’t properly read. Before print, almost everything is fixable. After print, your options narrow fast.
This is the first item because it’s the most commonly missed and the most expensive to fix late. International markets use ISO A-series paper sizes, not US standard dimensions. A file prepared for a 24×36 US poster needs to be recomposed (not just scaled) for A1 European production. A Tabloid-format file needs A3 adaptation.
What to confirm:
Sign off: “Market-specific print-ready files confirmed — [date]”
Every market needs operators — not promises of operators. “We have someone who can handle London” is not the same as “we have a confirmed operator in London who has received and acknowledged the brief.” The difference shows up on execution day.
What to confirm:
Our American Guerrilla Marketing field operators go through a brief review process that requires explicit sign-off before any execution begins. The goal is that every operator goes into the field with zero unresolved questions about what they’re supposed to do. It sounds like a low bar, but it’s remarkable how often campaigns skip this step and pay for it.
Print production for an international wheatpaste campaign happens in multiple locations — either a central print-and-ship operation or local vendors in each market. Either way, production status needs to be tracked and confirmed before the execution window approaches.
What to confirm:
If you’re printing centrally and shipping internationally, customs clearance is a real variable. Posters shipping from the US to the UK are subject to customs inspection. Materials shipping to some markets in Latin America can be held at customs for days. This isn’t paranoia — it’s a documented pattern on international campaigns that centralize print production.
What to confirm:
Permissioned placement means the property owner or manager has authorized the placement. “Permissioned” doesn’t mean someone once placed a poster there without complaint. It means there’s a documented or standing relationship that permits your campaign’s posters.
What to confirm:
We walked a planned placement zone in Hackney before a campaign and found two of the key walls had been sold to a development project. Three weeks earlier, those placements were in the plan. Without the advance site check, we’d have found out on execution day. The advance check cost 2 hours. The alternative would have cost the campaign.
A brief written for one market and sent unchanged to operators in another market isn’t really a brief — it’s a starting point that operators will interpret in their own context. Interpretation is what you don’t want.
What to confirm:
GPS-tagged documentation is a requirement, not an option. But the documentation system needs to be established and tested before execution starts — not set up the morning of.
What to confirm:
| Documentation Item | Required | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| GPS-tagged photos | Yes — every placement | Minimum 2 shots: close-up and environmental |
| Timestamp | Yes | Device timestamp acceptable if GPS is embedded |
| Location address or landmark | Yes | Street address or major landmark reference |
| Neighborhood zone tag | Yes | Allows sorting by campaign zone in report |
| Night shots | Optional | Required only if campaign targets evening audiences |
Wheatpaste doesn’t perform well in heavy rain during application. Paste applied on wet surfaces during active rain won’t cure properly and will peel quickly. This is basic — but it’s regularly ignored in the rush of campaign execution week.
What to confirm:
London and Amsterdam campaigns need more weather attention than Los Angeles campaigns. This is just reality. Build it into the plan.
If your campaign has a specific launch moment — a product release date, a broadcast event, an announcement — make sure the execution timing in each market is actually aligned to that moment. “Launch on Tuesday” means different things in New York, London, and Tokyo.
What to confirm:
Post-campaign, you need proof of posting documentation in a format that’s useful — not just a pile of photos in different folders sent from different operators in different formats over different time periods.
What to confirm:
Every market has a different legal context for wheatpaste campaigns. The permissioning requirements that make a campaign compliant in New York are different from those in Berlin or Mexico City. Using certified, licensed operators is the first line of protection — but the brand team should also have confidence that the campaign is operating in the right legal framework in each market.
What to confirm:
Every market has one or two things that are most likely to go wrong. In London, it’s weather and wall availability. In Mexico City, it’s last-minute site access issues. In Tokyo, it’s documentation approval timing. A contingency plan doesn’t need to be elaborate — it just needs to exist.
What to confirm:
| Weeks Before Execution | Checklist Milestone |
|---|---|
| 8 weeks | Markets confirmed, operator outreach begins |
| 6 weeks | Operators confirmed, brief drafted |
| 5 weeks | Brief localized and delivered, site access initiated |
| 4 weeks | Artwork finalized, print-ready files delivered to vendors |
| 3 weeks | Print proofs approved, production confirmed on schedule |
| 2 weeks | Materials shipped/confirmed in transit, site access confirmed |
| 1 week | All 12 checklist items confirmed, documentation system tested |
| Execution day | Materials confirmed received, operators confirmed ready, weather check done |
This timeline isn’t the only way to structure an international wheatpaste campaign. Some campaigns compress timelines out of necessity and still execute well. But the ones that execute well on compressed timelines are run by people who know from firsthand experience exactly where the risks are and how to mitigate them fast. If you’re running your first international campaign, the 8-week timeline is the right call.
Our nationwide portfolio of completed campaigns across domestic and international markets means we’ve run this checklist more times than we can count. We guarantee a complete pre-production checklist review as part of every international campaign engagement. Contact us to talk through your specific situation and we’ll walk you through exactly what needs to happen before your campaign goes to print.
American Guerrilla Marketing coordinates wheatpaste campaigns across the US and international markets from a single New York contact.
Artwork size conversion. Most brands forget that US paper sizes don’t match ISO A-series dimensions used in the UK, Europe, and Latin America. Files prepared for US printing need to be recomposed, not just scaled, for international markets. This is the single most common source of print production delays on international campaigns.
Start the checklist 8 weeks before your planned execution date. Some items — operator vetting, permit research, site access negotiations — need 6+ weeks of lead time. Starting at 8 weeks gives you buffer for delays without blowing the launch window.
Not universal permits, but you do need documented permission for every placement surface. Permissioned means the property owner has authorized the placement. In some markets this is formal; in others it’s a long-standing relationship between operators and property owners. Unpermissioned placements create legal exposure and get removed quickly. Our certified, licensed operators only work on permissioned surfaces.
Operators should confirm: site access is confirmed for at least 80% of planned placement locations, print materials have arrived and been inspected, the brief has been reviewed and any questions answered, the documentation system (GPS-tagged photos) is set up and tested, and emergency contacts are confirmed.
Yes. Most items on an international wheatpaste checklist are good practice for domestic campaigns too. The main items specific to international campaigns are artwork size conversion, operator vetting in unfamiliar markets, shipping and customs, and time zone coordination. Everything else — brief quality, documentation standards, site vetting — applies regardless of geography.
American Guerrilla Marketing coordinates wheatpaste campaigns across the US and international markets from a single New York contact.
Millie Phillips
Campaign Architect — American Guerrilla Marketing
Email: [email protected]
Office: (646) 776-2770
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American Guerrilla Marketing — Los Angeles
Street-level campaigns in Los Angeles and nationwide. Wheatpasting, LED trucks, street teams, and more.
(646) 776-2770
July 13, 2026
July 13, 2026
July 13, 2026
July 13, 2026
July 13, 2026
