5 signs your marketing campaign needs transcreation, not just translation
Taking your marketing campaign global is an exciting opportunity to grow your business. It’s not without its challenges, though. A direct translation of your content may not always be enough. That’s where transcreation comes in. Investing in marketing campaign transcreation ensures that you convey your brand’s message effectively across cultures.
What’s the difference between translation and transcreation? A translation faithfully conveys the meaning of the source text in another language. Transcreation goes a step further. It involves adapting the messaging, tone and cultural references to resonate with the target audience. The focus is on preserving the campaign’s original intent and impact. Learn more about our transcreation services.
Knowing when to use transcreation vs translation can save you time and money. It can also protect your brand’s reputation. Here are five key signs that your global marketing campaign needs transcreation.
Key takeaways from this article:
| 🔸Transcreation adapts humour, emotions, and cultural references for global audiences. 🔸Cultural missteps in marketing can severely damage brand reputation worldwide. 🔸Preserving your unique brand voice requires more than direct translation. |
Your campaign uses wordplay or humour
Clever wordplay and humour are powerful tools in marketing. Take Warburtons. This Lancashire family firm used puns to become the UK’s most popular baker.
Remember the Pride and Breadjudice campaign? This reimagining of Jane Austen’s historical romantic drama stars comedian Peter Kay. It has references to the 1990 film Ghost and some of Peter Kay’s most memorable catchphrases thrown in for good measure, too. Pun? Check. Humour? So very northern. The campaign also relied heavily on the audience’s familiarity with British culture.
From local to national and international
Now, if the campaign has simply been translated and dubbed in French, it wouldn’t have had the same impact in France. A transcreation specialist would need to rework the wordplay and humour to strike the same chord with French viewers.
The British baker has won various awards for its branding and marketing efforts. Its latest campaigns feature Hollywood A-listers like Samuel L. Jackson and Robert De Niro. Which has us wondering whether Warburtons has its sights on the international market. If so, expert transcreation services for their global marketing campaigns will help them stay on a roll. Pun intended.
Your campaign relies on emotional impact
While humour is a major cultural challenge in marketing, emotions are even harder to translate. Emotions drive consumer behaviour, but what triggers an emotional response varies between cultures. A message that evokes excitement in one market might not resonate – or could even offend – in another.
Personalisation
Coca-Cola got emotional marketing right with its Share a Coke campaign, which first launched back in 2011. The campaign used personalisation to tap into consumers’ emotions. Coca-Cola bottles featured labels with popular first names and nicknames like “Bestie” and “BFF”.
The campaign was rolled out in over 80 countries. Coca-Cola localized the campaign for each market to ensure relatability and cultural relevance. In China, for example, family names appear before given names. Coca-Cola adopted the same approach on its personalised bottle labels in China. Coca-Cola’s transcreation experts also researched popular terms of endearment in each country. This helped the brand strike the right emotional note across different regions.
The Share a Coke campaign won Gold in Creative Effectiveness at the Cannes Lions awards. The campaign’s success contributed to a 2% increase in Coke sales around the world.
Images by Stephen Marc from Pixabay, Katja Ullrich (WMDE), CC BY-SA 3.0 and James Corbet, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Your campaign features cultural references
References to local traditions or historical events may be lost on international audiences. A transcreation specialist will replace these with culturally relevant equivalents. This involves a great deal of sensitivity and local expertise. Get it wrong, and your campaign can backfire spectacularly.
Ditch the stereotypes
Just as Dolce & Gabbana found out with its Eating with Chopsticks video series in 2018. These videos showed Chinese model Zuo Ye struggling to eat Italian food with chopsticks. Audiences in China viewed the campaign as patronising and offensive. It reinforced stereotypes and came across as mocking Chinese culture rather than celebrating it. The fallout was huge. The Italian brand was forced to cancel its fashion show in Shanghai. Several retailers removed D&G from their stores, and many consumers called for a boycott of the brand. The company has struggled to regain consumer trust in China ever since.
Celebrate with authenticity and sensitivity
What could Dolce & Gabbana have done to avoid this blunder? They could have tapped into a transcreation specialist’s cultural intelligence. Their expert advice could have helped the Italian brand portray Chinese and Italian culture authentically and sensitively.
Your visuals carry strong cultural meaning
Marketing isn’t just about choosing the right words to make an impact. Visual elements can have vastly different meanings across cultures. Ignoring these differences can lead to confusion or even offence.
H&M underestimated the importance of visuals in 2018. A product page on its UK website featured a Black child wearing a hoodie that read “Coolest Monkey in the Jungle”. The visuals displayed a shocking lack of cultural awareness with its racist overtones. It sparked widespread outrage and prompted many celebrities to cut ties with the brand.
Just as words can carry unintended meanings, visuals can also send the wrong message. Involving cultural communication experts in your marketing campaigns is always worth the investment. They can help protect your brand’s reputation and ensure that your visual messaging aligns with the target culture.
Your brand voice is unique
If your brand has a distinctive tone of voice, you need to make sure that this voice remains consistent across languages. Direct translation can strip away personality, making your brand sound generic.
Take Harley-Davidson. The brand is rooted in American biker culture and has a tough, rebellious tone of voice. They use transcreation to adapt slogans and marketing messages and tailor their advertising to each market. Harley-Davidson manages to convey its rebellious, independent spirit consistently across nearly 100 countries.
Your brand. Gone bland?
When your brand voice is particularly distinctive, it’s important to take cultural differences into account. In collectivist Japan, Harley-Davidson’s marketing has a more aspirational angle. Meanwhile, in Latin America, their messaging leans into energy and adventure.
Transcreation experts will work alongside your local teams to convey your brand’s appeal in each target language. By investing in transcreation, you maintain your brand’s identity while making it accessible to global audiences.
Conclusion
These five signs can help you identify the need for transcreation early on in planning your global marketing campaigns. Understanding when to use transcreation vs translation will save you time and money. It will also allow you to connect meaningfully with audiences worldwide.
In Summary
- Transcreation preserves marketing impact across cultures
- Certain campaign elements require more than direct translation
- Early identification of transcreation needs saves time and resources
Find out more about how transcreation helps achieve global marketing success.
Get Expert Transcreation Support
Ready to ensure your marketing campaigns make the right impact globally? Contact our transcreation experts today for expert support with your global marketing campaigns. Our specialists will help preserve your message’s power in any market.
More transcreation questions? Here are the questions people often ask after reading this post:
Transcreation typically costs more than standard translation because it involves creative adaptation rather than word-for-word conversion. Pricing often reflects the specialist skills required – cultural expertise, copywriting ability, and marketing knowledge. However, this investment protects your brand from costly cultural missteps and ensures your message truly resonates with each target audience.
Transcreation generally takes longer than standard translation because it requires creative development and cultural research. Timelines vary depending on campaign complexity, number of target markets, and approval processes. Allow extra time for back-and-forth collaboration with your transcreation team to refine messaging and ensure it achieves the desired emotional impact.
Look for transcreation specialists who combine linguistic fluency with marketing expertise and deep cultural knowledge of your target market. Ideally, they should be native speakers living in the target region, understand current trends and references, and have experience adapting creative campaigns. A strong portfolio demonstrating successful global marketing projects remains essential.
Definitely. Social media content often relies heavily on humour, trending references, and cultural nuances – making it ideal for transcreation. What works on one platform in one country may fall flat elsewhere. Transcreation ensures your social posts maintain their engagement potential across different markets while staying authentic to your brand voice.
Provide comprehensive background about your brand, including tone of voice guidelines, target audience profiles, and campaign objectives. Share the original creative concept and explain why specific elements were chosen. Include examples of past campaigns and highlight cultural sensitivities. The more context you provide, the better your transcreated content will perform.
About the author
Sinead Poskitt graduated with a First Class Honours degree in French, Spanish and Linguistics from the University of York in 2013. She joined Planet Languages shortly after and is now a senior member of the project management team. She coordinates a variety of high-profile transcreation projects for luxury brands. Outside of work she enjoys distance running and cycling and completed the 2019 London Marathon to raise funds for the Wessex Cancer Trust.
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