What is transcreation and should you be using it?
March 16, 2016
Posted by: Simon Hodgkins, Chief Marketing Officer, Vistatec
Transcreation is a service that you may have heard of if you’re familiar with the localization and language industry. However, some organizations may not be familiar with the benefits of transcreation for their content, so what is transcreation and should you be using it?
Transcreation can help a company to localize its products or services and materials while at the same time ensuring that the essence of the message is retained. It differs from pure translation. The key to transcreation is ensuring that that message feels local and that all of the marketing and branding requirements are intact. This is important for all your creative content from print media, audio, video, web sites, blogs, collaterals to instore signage.
Transcreation offers the opportunity to ensure that your content fully resonates with your local audiences in their culture, country and language. It focuses on the messaging and purpose of the content. It can ensure that the message can be fully understood by the targeted audience in order to successfully deliver the desired outcomes.
There are many circumstances where a straightforward translation may not deliver the message for your intended customers; this is where transcreation can play a big difference. A combination of translation and creation can help here.
Content transcreation combines expertise in marketing and branding with local knowledge, language skills and the art of writing. Often companies that offer transcreation services can get it wrong if they do not have the relevant skills and experience to deliver such an important service. Getting transcreation right is of paramount importance. Every year in the US alone hundreds of millions of dollars are spent on transcreation. There are many, many markets that require transcreation, and we see a growing number of companies in many countries around the world using transcreation to ensure that their messaging lands correctly with the intended audience.
Transcreation is no longer a ’nice to use‘ in addition to your language requirements. It is becoming a central service that is used by companies when it comes to ensuring that their efforts to reach their buyers and customers are successful. Companies are working with established players such as Vistatec to guarantee that their transcreation efforts are successful and that they can access a highly skilled group of transcreation specialists.
When thinking about your content and branding it is important to remember that if the message is not understood or interpreted correctly it can have adverse effects. Making sure that your messaging is correctly understood in-country and resonates with the targeted buyers, readers and audiences in their languages critically important. Many customers and companies are seeing their requirements in the area of transcreation expanded greatly. No longer is it okay to simply translate your content, transcreation really needs to have a seat at the table when it comes to the importance of your companies‘ documentation, messaging and marketing campaigns. Right through from web content to social media.
If your organization is looking to provide a truly a consistent experience for its global customers working with a dedicated team of professionals who are located in the region, who are linguistic specialists and understand the creative and marketing aspects, is a major advantage. Engaging with people who are trained in the art of transcreation will make a huge difference to the successful outcomes for your messaging.
If you’re already localizing your content transcreation can help you to improve on that localization investment by securing the message, style and purpose of the content in multiple cultures. Here, at Vistatec we have worked hard to build an extensive pool of transcreation specialists located around the world, who provide that all important local insight and cultural understanding to help you with your content and messaging goals.
Delivering on your brand messaging and campaigns in a global context requires specialist expertise to reach your intended audiences with customized messaging. Transcreation is all about emotional responses to a message and/or brand. The transcreator’s mission is to evoke the same feelings in the target market as the original source and to create local messaging that is persuasive and motivational.