Advertising, creative and brand agencies rarely need ‘translation’, so we won’t talk about this.

But if you have a better understanding of how to create really effective global campaigns, with carefully localised copy, then asking for the right service will get you the results you and your client need, faster.

Here’s how to do it in four easy steps.

Step 1

Think transcreation. Or possibly even foreign language copywriting.

If you’ve used a professional copywriter to create your English content, then you need an equally skilled professional to make it achieve the same results in another language.

Transcreators are invariably a clever fusion of linguist and copywriter, able to understand the subtleties and nuances of your original copy. They’ve often worked in the same profession as you, so they have an immediate appreciation of what you need to achieve.

Step 2

No matter how good your chosen linguist is, they are not mind-readers.

Here’s a short checklist that’ll help you get a better result faster:

• Provide relevant reference materials; links to a website in the required languages, or previously translated assets, or:
• Links to competitor’s websites in the relevant languages
• A description of the intended audience – demographic and socio-economic positioning
• Media channels being used to deliver the message
• A Style and Tone of Voice guide if you have one (if you don’t we can create one for you)
• The terminology you or your client uses when describing their organisation, service or product
• Brand guidelines

Some of these (all of them if possible) will help us provide localised campaigns that your audience can relate to.

Step 3

Sometimes brilliant copywriting doesn’t work in a different language, for a different culture.

That amusing reference that you understand may fall on stony ground in a different language.

Those clever nuances that make your copy buzz in one language, can be very difficult to convey in another language, and indeed they may need careful adaptation by a local copywriter if they are to stand a chance of igniting that spark of interest.

So think about what your creative copy needs to achieve.

Good transcreators can make tricky copy work against all the odds, but expect to be partner in a process that’s not so dissimilar to the one that created your copy originally.

But now your team will be able to work with a global community of professionals who love language and are really keen to get you the results you need.

Step 4

It may not be totally right first time.

We have to work hard to get up to speed in understanding what you want to achieve, how you or your client speaks to its audience, what values do we need to convey….and more.

How do we get around this challenge?

We have a process!

It works.

It starts with you sharing information, and us asking you the right questions.

Part of that process may be suggesting differing approaches to your particular challenge.

That might involve back-translations so you can understand how we have approached the adaptation of your copy.

That might be accompanied with a written rationale.

So, allow time to get it right.