Are you a company that uses large amounts of translated content? Are you a global business with high-visibility marketing and branding? PR? Sensitive corporate communications?
Then you may have heard grumblings from your in-country marketing divisions about the quality of their messaging. Yes, the translations are accurate and on-time, but they are “off”, they sound wooden and robotic. Your people want messaging that sounds “natural” like it had been written in the target language. And why, they ask, do we have to spend so much of our valuable time correcting and re-writing what was already paid for?
This is where transcreation comes in.
Traditional translators are bound by the constraints of technology. Connectivity between sentences and even consistent terminology may be severely affected. Thus, translations can sound unnatural and even clunky, particularly when dealing with edgy or subtle public messaging. For instance, how would a direct translation capture the double meaning of a ‘refreshing drink’ and a ‘renewal’ in Coca-Cola’s mission statement, “To Refresh the world in mind, body, and spirit”?
Transcreation involves a custom approach. In addition to being translators, transcreators are trained editors, copywriters, or have degrees in marketing. Transcreation represents more work for the linguist, who may craft multiple messages. But the final translation choice is what the in-country user decides best fits its marketing strategy. And transcreation teams work on-site! The process is quite like developing creative content in the first place.
How can PTIGlobal help me?
PTIGlobal currently fields native transcreation teams working successfully with customers’ marketing divisions in Japan and Germany. We have assembled such teams in 23 different locales around the world. We locate and qualify key individuals who:
- Are aligned with the customer’s marketing strategy
- Can meet with marketers and review issues face-to-face
- Work outside computer tools
- Implement quality using a feedback loop with translation suppliers
Additional teams are expected to be set up this year in China, Latin America, Korea, France, and the Netherlands–all with Fortune 100 companies where critical public messaging is an issue.
PTIGlobal will leverage its proven experience to set up and manage a transcreation program for you. The result? Better understood high-level communications, more efficient marketing programs, and marketing messages that truly capture and reflect your strategy.
For more information and a full guide on transcreation, please contact us at getstarted@ptiglobal.com. We have the expertise to evaluate your environment and recommend efficient solutions.
