Because translation won’t do.

Transcreation – industry lingo for adaptation of advertising copy – is so much more than just translation. And has to be, because advertising, in order to work, needs to tell a relevant and memorable story to the target audience. Anything that doesn’t ring true will trigger a negative reaction in the consumer. To live up to such great expectations, transcreation does pass as well written copy in the target language.

This is something that no translation can do. To better understand this fact, imagine translation as an open window to the culture from which the original text comes. It’s quite exciting to read a translated book and willingly plunge into a foreign world and discover the cultural differences one page at a time. Conversely, when you read an ad in a magazine or see a commercial on TV you expect those messages to be for you only and made to fit the realities of your own culture. If you spot a bad translation you even might feel offended and think less of the brand. After all, why should you buy from a company that doesn’t take the trouble to understand your country and advertise properly?

How does transcreation do it?

Transcreation avoids such pitfalls by being focused on cultural transference, rather than linguistic transference. That means taking an ad concept from the source language and recreating it to fit the target language. Good transcreations are in line with the initial creative brief, preserve the tone and nuance of the original copy and are culturally relevant. Really good transcreations have an extra punch of creativity and sometimes can be better than the original.

However, there are several hurdles to overcome. Advertising copy frequently makes use of wordplays, double meanings, linguistic associations and idiomatic expressions in order to appeal to a particular audience. So, if the original message is to have the same effect on foreign audience, equivalent wordplays, double meanings, linguistic associations and idiomatic expressions must be found in the target language. Thus, transcreation appears to be more of an art than a science. An art that requires consummate language skills, deep market knowledge and heaps of creativity.

Where to look for transcreation services.

The typical transcreation specialist is an advertising agency-trained copywriter who is a mother tongue speaker of the target language and is proficient in the source language. There are two important reasons for this. First, adaptation of advertising copy calls for in-depth knowledge of the target foreign consumer. Second, creativity to bridge two different cultures and the professional ability to write fresh and compelling market-oriented copy are a must. All these, together with linguistic competency and great attention to detail are included in the job description of any professional copywriter.