When planning a translation project, you may hear your professional translation company or translators use the term “transcreation.” Transcreation is a part of the translation process, but just because you have translated content it doesn’t mean it was transcreated.
It may sound specialized, but the two terms have an important distinction that goes a long way when executing successful, high-quality translation services.
What is Transcreation?
Transcreation is a specialized form of translation that goes beyond a literal translation to a creative re-writing of the source text (a mashup of the words “translation” and “creation”).
Rather than substituting a word-for-word translation in the target language, transcreation involves adapting and recreating content from the original to the target language. This process preserves the original message’s intent, emotion, and impact while ensuring the translated piece resonates with a new audience.
Transcreation is sometimes called cultural adaptation, internationalization, creative translation, cross-market copywriting, and international copy adaptation.
Transcreation in the Translation Process
Why do you need transcreation instead of translation? Transcreated content is better to boost consumer engagement with your brand, which can lead to an increase in sales. Cultural adaptation and sensitivity are key for global brands seeking to attract new business.
How do you know if you need transcreation services? This process is only used in some types of translation projects.
- Medical and legal content don’t need to be recreated; they require accuracy and fidelity in translating the message into every language.
- Transcreation is often used for marketing translation, including advertising, branding, and other types of creative copy.
- The transcreation process is the best option for campaigns where the content’s cultural relevance and emotional appeal are vital for success.
Understanding your transcreated campaign’s goals is vital before you start your translation and transcreation process into multiple languages and regions. This helps you get a clear picture of the elements needed for a successful campaign, and you can plan your marketing campaign around potential pitfalls, such as text expansion and contraction, usage of appropriate colors, use of examples and formats, and units as measurements.
It would be best if you also work with professional translators who have a deep understanding of your source and target culture, native fluency in your target language, and subject matter expertise in your field of business.
Types of Translation that need Transcreation
Transcreation is not necessary for certain types of translations. You need translation and perhaps localization if you have a birth certificate, certified financial statement, or the Spanish translation of an HR Employee Manual.
Transcreation is most valuable for translating marketing content where emotional appeal is key. This includes songs, commercials, slogans, taglines, ads, billboards, print mailers, and emails. Transcreation ensures accuracy in translation and emotional appeal because it’s tailored for a local market, considering cultural norms, language, and brand expectations. Transcreation campaigns have better engagement and are more effective for diverse markets.
Advertising and marketing translations
Slogans and taglines are meant to be memorable and catchy but also highly culturally specific. A direct translation of your slogan may not resonate with your new audience – take a look at KFC’s “Eat Your Fingers” campaign in China (a direct translation of “finger-lickin’ good” gone wrong.) Transcreation gives you a creative translation with the same message expressed in a culturally relevant way for international markets.
Product Packaging
Packages often contain tailored copy for the customer. Transcreating this copy ensures that labels and descriptions effectively communicate the benefits and instructions of using your product for your target market. Also, take into consideration images and colors for the new audience.
Brand Localization
When launching in a new market, you must do a cultural analysis of your brand. Does your logo contain a color or number with strong negative connotations? Are you using any phrases that could be misunderstood or are not clear? Transcreation helps you adapt your brand name, logo, and messaging to a new audience (if necessary) while maintaining a cohesive brand identity.
In Canada, for example, many logos are translated into Canadian French when the logo has words to get closer to the French Canadian consumer.
The store The Bay in English (https://www.thebay.com/) is translated into La Baie (https://www.labaie.com/)
Website Translation Services
For websites with a global audience, transcreation helps ensure that your translated website copy, blog posts, and multimedia are culturally appropriate and engaging for users in every language version of your site.
Video Translation Services
Video is the most popular form of media on the internet, and a video with multi-lingual appeal can have a massive reach, touching up to tens of millions of people with a single post. Transcreation services for dubbing or subtitling videos increase their reach and appeal, making them accessible and inclusive content.
Multilingual Social Media
Social media channels are a key driver of awareness and connection for brands across the world. Transcreating your social media strategy helps you maintain a consistently engaging presence with your target market worldwide on every marketing campaign channel by adapting and customizing the content translated.
Tourism Campaigns
Transcreation is necessary for tourism materials such as brochures, billboards, and hotel marketing to attract diverse audiences. International tourists from two regions may seek your destination for different reasons, making research and transcreation services crucial for any successful international tourism campaign. Request information about transcreation when doing travel translation services.
Entertainment Translation
From concert halls to streaming services, transcreation services are key for capturing the attention of diverse audiences. Whether it’s a new script for a dubbed version of a show or a promotion for a new opera in a major city, transcreation services help ads retain their intended emotional appeal while capturing the attention of new audiences.
Nonprofit and Advocacy Groups
Transcreation helps nonprofit organizations across the world convey their messages in a tailored way to foster support and donations for their cause.
Key Characteristics of Transcreation Services
Cultural Sensitivity
Professional translators doing transcreations consider the cultural nuances of the intended audience, such as linguistic idioms, traditions, customs, societal norms, and general values, to ensure that the new message aligns with the target audience’s cultural expectations of your brands. To maximize effectiveness, content is adapted to suit regional preferences (such as humor and specific cultural sensitivities).
Creativity
Transcreation requires creativity from a translator because the content needs to be reimagined; that’s why it’s often called creative translation.
Transcreation re-creates copy and design using creative techniques to evoke the same emotional response from the target audience as the original audience. Doing so is no small task; transcreation is complex and time-consuming. A transcreator works with and acts as an extension of your marketing team.
Maintain Brand Identity
Part of the challenge of transcreation is to be creative with the messaging and design while maintaining a cohesive global brand identity. How can you create cross-cultural brand relevancy and global recognizability while tailoring your messaging to each specific audience? What, if any, parts of your brand have to stay the same, and which parts can be modified? How do you maintain a consistent brand voice while addressing diverse audiences with diverse expectations? Creating a brand style guide, including what needs to be done for each language and the rules regarding tone, structure, and usage examples, goes a long way to maintaining the brand’s consistency and relevance in the translated and transcreated copy.
Emotional Resonance
Transcreation is necessary for a copy that has an emotional appeal; therefore, the success of any transcreated campaign rests in its emotional resonance for the target audience. This may mean your professional translator must significantly alter your advertisement’s content or design in one language to achieve the desired emotional response and engagement.
Sending the Same Message
With transcreation, you can increase customer engagement by running culturally specific ad campaigns that target specific audiences – as long as the transcreation is done well. What resonates with audiences in one language may not be appropriate for another. Understanding the expectations of your target market is key to a successful transcreation.
If you’re ready to start a transcreation campaign, you need the help of an expert language service provider. Look no further than JR Language Translation Services, a transcreation expert in the language service industry.
We’ve helped businesses worldwide transcreate their marketing campaigns to reach new audiences, increase engagement, and attract new users and customers. Our multilingual, multidisciplinary team works as an extension of yours, helping you get more done without increasing your workload, with affordable prices and fast turnaround times. Contact us for a free transcreation quote today – we’d love to assist you with your creative multilingual content.
