How transcreation could help your company to reach new markets?

Transcreation as a service is included in most of language service providers’ portfolios, however, there is still a lot of misunderstanding of what does the concept of transcreation actually mean and what competences this type of service includes. In other words, when and why would you need transcreation as a service in multilingual communication?

Have you ever been reading a landing page written in a cold, stilted tone of voice while it should sound friendly and invitational? ?Or have you been watching a promotional video where the subtitles totally miss the point of a slogan that should go hand in hand with the visuals? How many times did you choose not even opening the marketing email with the subject line addressing you like a teenager while you are in your thirties?

These are not examples of bad translations. These are examples of lack of transcreation. The problem is that neither the clients nor translation agencies or freelance translators sometimes do not separate translation and transcreation as different services. So, let’s make things clear. And that could be hardly done without referring to the expert in this field, Nina Sattler-Hovdar (see the link to her blog in the comment below).

What kind of service is transcreation?

Transcreation = translation + copy creation. Plus, adaptation of different degree in between (the Transcreation Continuum concept).

What is the goal of such communication service?

To produce premium quality texts that can IMPACT your target audiences.

What kind of source texts should be transcreated (instead of just translated)?

The ones which are intended to ATTRACT and (or) PERSUADE the reader. Basically, all marketing and sales material, as well as website content, press releases, blogposts, corporate communications etc.

How does the transcreation process look like?

The starting point is brief with the client to crystallize their communication goals and how they can be achieved in target-language. Based on that the content can be strictly translated, adapted, rewritten, or (re)created delivering an adequate, holistic target-language solution.

Can’t you just translate my copy?

Sometimes clients are not willing to pay for the transcreation services. They invested time and money in creating their content and think that translating this well-crafted copy would be enough. What they do not consider is that the copy originally intended for one culture is now being transposed to another and needs no less craftmanship to make this copy flawless, persuasive, culturally charged in target language. It needs to SELL in multilingual world. So, the answer is yes, we can translate your copy, but it won’t get as much attention as it gained upon creation.