From brochures to ad campaigns to websites, marketing materials pose a unique challenge to companies promoting products and services in new language markets. How do you ensure that your translated campaign maintains the impact of the original? And, how do you name products, translate idioms and maintain consistency across language markets without having to launch new marketing campaigns (with new creative, photography and design costs) for each market?

1. Marketing Translation: Bridging the Language
Gap
This article was originally published on the Acclaro newsletter.
5 Steps and Principles for Translating Marketing Campaigns
From brochures to ad campaigns to websites, marketing materials pose a unique
challenge to companies promoting products and services in new language markets.
How do you ensure that your translated campaign maintains the impact of the
original? And, how do you name products, translate idioms and maintain consistency
across language markets without having to launch new marketing campaigns (with
new creative, photography and design costs) for each market?
Enter marketing “transcreation” — the process of linguistic and cultural translation
that makes marketing make sense whatever the target language (or languages). Here
is a step-by-step guide to making sure your product sells just as well in Buenos Aires
as it does in Beijing or Boston.
5 Transcreation Steps to Success
1. Begin assessing your campaign and content. Evaluate the goals of the
campaign and, if the campaign is already at play in a market, take a close look
at the concepts, graphics and headlines to assess their cultural relevance and
appropriateness in the target market. Selecting concepts, copy and graphic
elements that work across cultures is key to the campaign’s success.
2. Hire a qualified localization team. Working with a team that has a rich
understanding of the source and target languages — all their nuances not
withstanding — is a critical second step. As your team works with the target
language experts they’ll explore linguistic and cultural questions and begin the
transcreation process.
Example 1:
Consider the following text from the website of a renowned New York jeweler
describing ways to wear charms:
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2. WAYS TO WEAR CHARMS
All Tied Up
A jazzed up pony tail is sure to turn heads. (Visual of a young woman with a
pony tail and a charm tied to her hair.)
In The Loop
A charm snapped onto your belt tells people you’re going places. (Visual of a
woman’s waist with jeans and charms tied to her belt loops.)
Translating expressions such as “tied up” or “in the loop” not only play on the
jewelry being advertised but also work with the campaign’s photography, which
creates a sizable challenge for the translation team. How do you create a
translation of “in the loop” that conveys the meaning of being “in the know”
and that refers to the charm in the loop of a pair of jeans? And, in addition, if
your transcreation team is unable to work with the copy, the image of a young,
active woman that accompanies the text would have to be swapped out,
creating additional photography challenges and costs.
3. Create a transcreation brief. This document summarizes fundamental
information about the company, product and campaign to ensure that all teams
understand the nuances of the language and business needs. It specifies the
target audience (age, lifestyle, behavior, etc.) and the thought process that has
gone into producing the original text. It also includes explanations on how to
approach certain elements, such as branded terms that stay in English or have
particular translations, taglines, images etc.
4. Translation begins. A linguist translates the text to create a draft, working
sentence by sentence to explore possible meanings of the source. This is an
accurate translation, but it closely follows the original text and will probably
sound like a translation. However, its purpose is to deliver the meaning from
the original copy, not to impress the reader.
5. Translation completes. The text then goes to another linguist who only
works on the target (translated) copy. Following the transcreation brief and
some of the principles described below, the linguist edits the copy until it truly
sounds as if it had been written for the target market, but within the
parameters and objectives of the campaign. This may include suggestions for
alternative images or concepts if the original campaign did not already pass
through a global review.
5 Transcreation Principles to Guide the Process
1. Transcreation takes time. Producing culturally relevant marketing campaigns
in new languages can be time consuming for even the most talented translation
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3. and localization teams. Exploring and collecting ideas, writing numerous
versions of the same sentence and performing due diligence to avoid
embarrassing outcomes requires time. Global marketers would do well to
consult with their transcreation team upfront to ensure adequate time is built
into the schedule.
Example 2:
Take the following Acclaro headline and assume that we are adapting ‘We get
it’ to a Spanish audience.
Ideally two linguists would meet and explore translation options. They would
first brainstorm on the meaning of ‘We get it’ and create a few synonym
phrases, such as ‘We understand’, ‘That’s our business’ and ‘That’s what we
do.’ Then they would write down the many possible translations into Spanish
Spanish:
Entendido (Got it, understood)
Entendemos (We understand)
Entendimos (We understood)
Sí, lo entendemos (Yes, we understand)
Nosotros sabemos (We know)
Lo sabemos (We know it)
Nos encargamos (We’ll take care of it)
Nos encargamos nosotros (We’ll take care of it)
Como no (Of course)
Claro (Of course, it is clear)
Por supuesto (Of course)
Obvio (Of course)
Lo tenemos (We have it)
Es lo nuestro (It’s our stuff)
The linguists would then work on another project for a few hours to clear their
heads. Once they settle on the best options, they would think of each
possibility with the campaign visuals and remaining text in mind. Finally, they
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4. would pick the option that carries the most meaning and has the desired
impact on the target audience.
2. Harmonize images and text. Exceptional visuals paired with powerful copy
create a marketing impression that has the potential to motivate action.
Translations need to reflect the tone and mood of the campaign images, which
can be a tall order when humor and figures of speech are involved.
Example 3:
Consider translating the sentence ‘Can your application bridge the language
gap?’ with the image below.
Not all languages have the verb ‘bridge.’ In fact, some languages have to use
synonyms such as ‘unite’ or ‘connect.’ Other languages will use ‘bridge’ as a
noun to ensure the photograph remains relevant and tie in the meaning in
other ways. If a linguist didn’t see the visual that goes with the sentence, she
might be tempted to change or eliminate the ‘bridge’ altogether because her
language doesn’t have a ‘bridge’ verb. For example, you could translate this
sentence as ‘Can your application eliminate the language gap?’. Or, you could
present barriers instead of gaps. For example: ‘Can your application bring
down the language barrier?’, in which case a new visual would be required.
3. Think like a customer. When working on this type of material, a linguist
needs to think like a customer. All marketing rules that applied when the copy
was written apply to the translation. The final copy has to appeal to customers
in the region of the target language.
4. Select the best option possible. In some cases, not all meanings contained
in a sentence can be carried over in the target language. Sometimes, wordplay
does not work in a different language, and a translator has to choose whether
to stick to the meaning at the expense of style or lose some of the meaning to
develop the concept that best adapts to the structure and use of the target
language.
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5. Example 4: Taking the example of our New York Jeweler again and the
sentence:
In The Loop
A charm snapped onto your belt tells people you’re going places. (Visual
of a woman’s waist with jeans and charms tied to her belt loops.)
In Italian, a linguist could maintain the word ‘loop’ and try to build a double
meaning. He could use ‘Per la gioia dei passanti’ as a translation of ‘In the
loop’, which literally means ‘Passers-by will be pleased’. Or he could say ‘Con
stupore dei passanti’ (‘Passers-by will be amazed’). Here, ‘passante’ also
means belt loop. An Italian linguist might decide to use the meaning of ‘In the
loop’ and discard the double meaning of the belt loop by using ‘Se sai il fatto
tuo…’, which means that someone is tough and self confident. In any case, a
decision has to be made about which meaning to carry over. It is very rare that
two languages have the same double meanings.
5. Helping translators succeed. Instinct may tell you that using good
marketing translators is the key success factor. While this is important, even
the best translator will not succeed without the right information, a
collaborative team and adequate time to explore options and fully complete the
task. And, similar to developing your English (or source) copy, linguists will
employ an iterative process and your collaboration with them will aid this
process. The more information a translator receives up front, the less rewrites
you’ll need later.
When selling a product in new language markets, businesses should not
underestimate the importance of people’s sensitivity to their language and culture. In
reality, each of us are refined linguists when it comes to quickly deciding if we like
what we hear, and whether we are persuaded by the transcreated marketing message
to take action. Having a global creative process that includes translation from concept
development through local execution is the most effective way to create localized
campaigns.
About Acclaro: Acclaro is an international translation and localization company that
helps the world’s leading brands succeed across cultures. We translate websites,
marketing campaigns, documents and software to give clients an authentic voice in
key language markets.
North America: 1-866-468-5106 Worldwide: +1-914-468-0222
www.acclaro.com sales@acclaro.com
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