Words are not just words
Transcreation
> noun a concept used to describe the process of adapting a message from one language to another, while maintaining its intent, style, tone, and context.
Four differences between
transcreation and translation
Unlike translation, which focuses on replacing the words in one language with corresponding words in a new language, transcreation involves reimagining your content so that it better resonates with a different culture or wider international audience.
The transcreation services team at marketing deluxe is made up of multidisciplinary experts, including translators, copywriters, editors, proofreaders and industry experts. Together, we capture the essence and emotion of your message and recreate it in another language. We’re aiming for emotional equivalence to communicate the essence of you.
We work closely with the other departments at marketing deluxe to convey your message, even where there is no direct translation or cultural hook, and to ensure it does the job it needs to. Even the most beautifully written text is no good if it doesn’t help to sell your product! As a team, we are able to ping-pong ideas and define what lies at the heart of your product.
We roll up our sleeves and get stuck into strategic planning before a single word has been written. We love a brainstorming session: Need a new name for your restaurant with cross-border, cultural and market appeal? We’re your go-to guys! Branding is key: nobody wants to end up like the US company whose product’s brand name translated into Spanish as ‘Jackass Oil’ – oops!
An obvious example would be nudity or semi-nudity, both male and female. In some places, this can really push sales, while in others it’s a total turn-off. Similarly, visual fashions differ, so we need to be aware of trends across countries to achieve optimum solutions. The transcreation team advises on the potential acceptance and resonance of the imagery we use.
A day in the life of a transcreation
Once we’ve established positioning, branding and a house style, we get on with the daily graft of producing your copy, press releases, brochures, web pages, newsletters, blogs …
So what happens?
Let’s take a blog as an example: A blog, written in German and based on the client’s brief, needs to be turned into English (or French, Polish, Dutch, Italian …) copy.
Obviously, it has to be a good read, but it also needs to work really hard to produce results for the client. In this, hypothetical, case, the blog is ostensibly an article about the benefits of freshly pressed juice – but its deeper purpose is to market the client’s brilliant, brand-new seven-day health break.
So what happens?
Let’s take a blog as an example: A blog, written in German and based on the client’s brief, needs to be turned into English (or French, Polish, Dutch, Italian …) copy.
Obviously, it has to be a good read, but it also needs to work really hard to produce results for the client. In this, hypothetical, case, the blog is ostensibly an article about the benefits of freshly pressed juice – but its deeper purpose is to market the client’s brilliant, brand-new seven-day health break.
All our translators use state-of-the-art methods, which, together with glossaries and house-style sheets, allow us to maintain consistency and quality across the board. The resulting translation is checked for accuracy by another translator, then edited for style, and may be entirely rewritten to better achieve its purpose: a raised profile for the seven-day health break.
This is a hugely important task: a comma in the wrong place could destroy your message! The native speakers then discuss the strategy with the graphics and online team to ensure that the final product truly reproduces the emotion you want to convey in both words and images. Before we can publish, however, we go through it once more, checking for errors (again) and making sure that the chosen imagery works with the text.
We can do this thanks to the team’s wide range of subject specialisms, high levels of experience, understanding of different international markets, and the profound product knowledge we acquire by being fully integrated in marketing deluxe’s strategic vision.
Karen Waloschek
Karen Waloschek
