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 literal translations can also backfire spectacularly under certain circumstances. Instead, maybe you should opt for a transcreation.
Here’s 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 “Cue.” However, there was already a French magazine of the same name that was famous for its R-rated content. It can also be embarrassing with idioms when “” is translated as “I think my pig whistles” instead of the correct idiom “I think I’m going off my rocker.” 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 found that 1,500 of 30,000 medication errors were due to translation errors.
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!
This content belongs in the hands of an experienced transcreator
The term “transcreation” is a portmanteau of the words “translation” and “creation.” In other words, using creative translations, adapting messages and texts to the cultural contexts of the target group, incorporating the visual language and brand image. Ideally, readers should not realize that they are reading a translation – regardless of which language they are reading in.
So why don’t companies simply develop a separate campaign for each country? With the help of professional transcreation, it is possible to create a coherent overall image, a 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 “customer experience” (CX) worldwide.
In addition, the cost factor must be taken into account: It is expensive to develop a separate campaign for each country, and it can be even more expensive to simply have a campaign translated – because making and then having to correct errors can quickly become expensive in the advertising world. (But more about that later...)
Transcreation is often the “happy medium.” The following types of content can really benefit from transcreation:
- Advertisements in magazines and other print publications
- Billboards, banners and illuminated advertisements
- Radio, television and video ads
- (Product) websites
- Press releases
- Tweets and other social media content
- Headlines
- Apps
In other words: Anything that is designed to elicit a certain external effect is a candidate for transcreation.
What matters when it comes to transcreation?
Researching country-specific features and contexts is the foundation of successful and coherent transcreation. However, there are other aspects that experienced translators need to pay special attention to:
- Requirements and needs of the respective market where the target language is spoken
- Concerns, information needs and consumer behavior of consumers in the target market
- Style and language specifics, including technical terms and idioms
- Rhyme schemes and other stylistic devices
- Kreativität des Zieltextes. Dazu gehören spannende Überschriften, tolle Zwischenzeilen, pfiffige Einstiege oder mitreißende Teaser.
- Cultural requirements of the respective target market, including regional differences and dialects
- Statement, message, tonality, emotion as well as the desired impact of the original text – whether you’re talking about a slogan or a longer text
- Brand and product image
- Search engine optimization (SEO)
- Target audience and publication medium of the text. Is the text going to be published on the Internet or in a print magazine?
- Coherent interplay of text and image – this is an area that can be a source of inaccuracies with 1-to-1 translations
- Convincing explanations why this or that literal translation would not work
Due to the multitude of aspects and specifications that have to be taken into account, a transcreation usually requires more time and effort than a simple translation. That’s why it’s important to have a translation partner at your side who is very familiar with localization and transcreation, recognizes potential translation hurdles early on, and ensures that the customer does not end up stumbling into an unwanted language trap. Because translation mishaps, while they can be a good source of laughs on the web, can also damage a company’s image, alienate customers and have serious financial repercussions.
The best way to avoid these kinds of faux pas is transcreation! Because it is the only reliable way to successfully propagate slogans, names and much more internationally. Transcreation is the only way to roll out your campaign globally in a thoughtful and forward-thinking way.
Think global, speak local!
