{"id":29204,"date":"2021-02-14T20:02:00","date_gmt":"2021-02-14T19:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.act-translations.com\/transcreation-what-exactly-is-it-and-why-is-it-important\/"},"modified":"2021-02-14T20:02:00","modified_gmt":"2021-02-14T19:02:00","slug":"transcreation-what-exactly-is-it-and-why-is-it-important","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.act-translations.com\/en-gb\/transcreation-what-exactly-is-it-and-why-is-it-important\/","title":{"rendered":"Transcreation: What exactly is it and why is it important?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Would you roll out a campaign without checking the impact of the product name, advertising messages, and imagery? Or hire a random native speaker who is not a marketing professional to develop your slogan? Probably not, because inappropriate and poorly researched one-to-one translations can also backfire spectacularly under certain circumstances. Instead, maybe you should opt for a transcreation<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s an example of this involving Pepsi: The company made its familiar blue noticeably lighter for the Southeast Asian market. Clearly, nobody took into account that light blue is often associated with death in Asia. Another example of an unfortunate translation comes from the well-known toothpaste company Colgate. In France, the dental care manufacturer launched a new toothpaste called \u201cCue.\u201d However, there was already a French magazine of the same name that was famous for its R-rated content. It can also be embarrassing if a figure of speech is translated as \u201cI think my pig whistles\u201d instead of the correct \u201cI think I\u2019m going off my rocker.\u201d In the worst case, these kinds of mistakes can be more than just inconvenient and expensive; they may even be life-threatening: For example, an American study<\/a> found that 1,500 of 30,000 medication errors were due to translation errors. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you want to successfully launch your product, brand and campaign abroad, you need to meet all the requirements of a professional marketing presence and show that you really know your stuff. This is not a task for just any translator. In addition to language skills, you need creativity, sound marketing experience and a great deal of tact. Your message should be linguistically accurate, of course, but it also needs to resonate properly with the target audience, generate emotion, and move people to action. A simple translation may not be able to achieve all that. This is where you need transcreation! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This content belongs in the hands of an experienced transcreator<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

The term \u201ctranscreation\u201d is a portmanteau of the words \u201ctranslation\u201d and \u201ccreation.\u201d In other words, using creative translations, adapting messages and texts to the cultural contexts of the target group and incorporating the visual language and brand image. Ideally, readers shouldn\u2019t realize that they are reading a translation \u2013 regardless of which language they are reading in. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So why don\u2019t companies simply develop a separate campaign for each country? With the help of professional transcreation, it is possible to create a coherent overall image and uniform brand presence, instead of setting many different accents. Because in these times of increasing internationalization, it is important for brands to present themselves in a uniform manner worldwide to ensure they leave a lasting impression on their customers. In this way, transcreation generates a consistent \u201ccustomer experience\u201d (CX) worldwide. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition, the cost factor must be taken into account: it\u2019s expensive to develop a separate campaign for each country, and it can be even more expensive to simply have a campaign translated \u2013 because making and then having to correct errors can quickly become expensive in the advertising world. (But more about that later\u2026) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Transcreation is often the \u201chappy medium.\u201d The following types of content can really benefit from transcreation: <\/p>\n\n\n\n