Global Transcreation Blog

Good question. While the two words are not quite a full-blown oxymoron, there is an element of conflict if not contradiction. Can or should Adwords be translated or is there a better way?

Search marketing is big and commands big spend in companies large and small with the demand for search analysts reaching the levels that html programmers achieved in the 90s. While the US market clearly leads the global field in terms of the adoption and sophistication of search marketing techniques, international brands are hungry to generate similar improvements in lead-generation and conversion across all their major markets, particularly the growing or more resilient ones.

While multilingual search engine optimization requires thought, structure and time, paid search does offer the promise of more instant gratification in terms of click-throughs and potential conversions.

“You pays your money and makes your choice.”

Need Adwords for your international lead generation campaigns? Easy. Follow our simple 4-step process to international success:

• Step 1 Grab those ad groups and campaigns that worked in the US
• Step 2 Download them into a spreadsheet from Google Adwords and send them for translation
• Step 3 Load them back into Google Adwords, build local campaigns
• Step 4 Ante-up the PPC bids until the ads are prominent in the “Sponsored links”.

Right? Not really. You just reduced the probability of success by a factor of ten!

If you know anything about Adwords you will be aware that they are made up of a list of trigger keywords, three fixed length lines of copy and two URLs. All of which have a specific role to play. Every component needs to be localized to suit the target local market, including the destination landing page.

Starting to have doubts about my “Simple, easy 4-step process?” If not, you should be. Have a look at the following sentence – lots of words all of them familiar but what does it mean?

Prices houses and cottages, Cottages and houses – Reviews and Prices, Forecasts cottage market

Here it is in its original and hopefully more recognizable form:

Russian:

Цены на дома и коттеджи

Коттеджи и дома – обзоры и цены
Прогнозы коттеджного рынка

English:

Prices houses and cottages
Cottages and houses – Reviews and Prices
Forecasts cottage market

What is interesting here is that the Russian search phrase used was “дом в финляндии” or “House in Finland” and we also tried “Property and Finland” (недвижимость в финляндии) but guess what is the most common search term for Russians looking for a house in Finland?

коттеджи в финляндии (Cottages in Finland)

Yes, ‘Cottages’, not house or property or even dacha, but ‘cottages in Finland’. Notice that whoever created this Adword knew that and made sure that house and cottage where not only in the Ad but also trigger keywords.

From this you can see how important it is to do proper local keyword research as part of your ‘Adword Translation’ process or you are going to both miss out on relevant searches and score a low Google quality rating. Which will either force your bid price higher or drop you down the sponsor list.

The moral of this post? Don’t just translate your Adwords; go to a competent International Search Marketing Agency or, better still, come to Wordbank, where we understand search and marketing and get your Adwords properly localized for the target market. Otherwise it is just more expensive mud on an ever bigger wall.

The GALA conference plenary session on 11 May started with an MT bang and ended with a donkey wallop!  Entitled “The Risks and Rewards of Machine Translation”, the subject matter was always going to delight and irritate in equal measure – strong emotions were stirred.  Dion Wiggins of Asia Online, taking full advantage of his significant stage presence,  launched into an energetic justification of MT as the natural pinnacle of the Darwinian evolution of translation.

Dion suggested, as you might expect, that the MT spinning jenny, rather than putting the skilled weavers of translation out of a job, would create a whole new, expanding industry surrounding the core commodity of MT.

Fear not, brave toilers of words, you will emerge butterfly-like from the cocoon of MT into a bright new world of opportunity!

My thanks to Jiri Stejskal who, on behalf of the ATC, crossed swords with Bob Donaldson to present the other side of the debate.  However,  I was concerned that far too much respect was being given to the latest manifestation of silicon intelligence.  It was time to strike back for Luddites everywhere.

What more resounding clarion call to the people can there be than that of  “Beware, comrades, of the capitalist recidivist bearing gifts.” No less an oracle than SDL’s blog reported my performance such: “His address to the audience as ‘Comrades!’ encouraged us all to sit up and listen“.

Like all great hypotheses mine was simple and was simply put, as you can see from the following images.

1. In case you are in any doubt, machine translation means translated by a machine for humans to read. In most cases machine means a software application with a huge database and lots and lots of rules.

2. However, once it has been translated it has to be processed by skilled humans before your average human can both read and make sense of it. These processing humans, typically translators, carry out what is called post-editing, where post-editing is a euphemism for clearing up the mess left by slightly incompetent machines. Repetitive, boring, not fun – a donkey job, in other words

Post Scriptum Asinus - The MT Donkey

3. The result is that content for translation must first be valued before selecting the best or most affordable route for translation. Two forces thus emerge: on one side, the corporate hunger for cost efficiency eagerly diverting the maximum content down the cheapest route while on the other, the natural aversion of skilled workers for boring, repetitive tasks creating a new segmentation of translation resource.

Fact or Fiction?

Despite my antagonistic approach for the benefit of the early morning crowd in Prague, I am not anti-MT.  It is clear that after 50 years in the making, technology has now evolved to a stage where MT is starting to offer serious benefits for high volume, low value content translation.

As Dion will tell you: caveat emptor – it comes at a cost, a high investment.  If anything, Google can take much of the recognition  for increasing awareness of MT and improving its respectability.  But it does also make the case for both the transcreator and faithful translator for high value content, which continues to expand exponentially across the net.

One final thought regarding web content:  “Just because we have the means to post it and translate it does not mean we should or that if we do anyone will ever read it.”

But then that’s another story…

Oy Iceland, we said we wanted our CASH back!

We have had the global meltdown, a plague of free-loading politicians and now the subtle wrath of a Nordic god spraying a fine aerosol of pumice dust and glass fragments at the perfect altitude to inhibit the modern jetliner while remaining invisible to the naked eye. Thus, closing all northern European airways with, it seems a particular fixation on the UK.

With our airports closed, planes parked in the long-stay and runways being used for rollerblading and kite flying, London experienced a sunny and very tranquil weekend. Well for those UK residents not stranded abroad (some 100,000) anyway.

Does humour define a culture? Certainly you need to understand local tastes. For instance we Brits pride ourselves on an acerbic sense of humour with bonus points awarded for style as much as for substance.

My opening sentence was an off-the-cuff remark made, not by some tabloid journalist or Breakfast TV presenter, but by a serious journalist on a highly regarded radio current and affairs programme. Appropriate? Well yes, what is the alternative – mass insurrection? You’ve got to laugh.

In case you are still struggling with the meaning and context the cash in question is the money that the British government spent bailing out the UK customer accounts of bankrupt Icelandic banks and which it is trying to recover from the government of Iceland. While in reality all we seem to be getting in return are several million tonnes of ash!

All of which just reinforces the importance of context for any joke or funny line. Many of my American colleagues unconsciously make reference to ‘Saturday Night Live’an iconic US comedy programme which has lead to characters such as Chevy Chase and Adam Sandler being introduced to the world at large not only in general conversations, but also in webinars and conference presentation. (Thanks guys bring back Bob Hope.)

The Brits will regularly use references from Month Python – “nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition” or “ This parrot is not resting it is dead, deceased…” as often as Shakespeare “I am a man more sinned against than sinning.” – the politician’s favourite!

The Diamond Arm

While for Russians nearly every expression from the 1968 Soviet slapstick comedy ‘The Diamond Arm’ became popular or has passed into everyday use. My favourite – which will strike a chord with many an Anglo-Saxon – is, “Only aristocrats and degenerates drink champagne in the morning…[cheers!]” (Шампанское по утрам пьют только аристократы или дегенераты) .

So what’s my point? First, humour gets you noticed even a bad or weak joke will elicit a groan. Getting noticed is the point of advertising and promotion. Every culture has it jokes, every language its puns. So rather than avoiding humour in global or multicultural communications embrace it, exploit, it enjoy it.

Just remember that what constitutes ‘humour’ is in the funny bone of the audience and a good comedian always plays to his audience! Taking a transcreative approach will ensure that the appropriate local equivalent, character of fun, cliché or proverb is applied.

George Best in his prime

An apt and appropriate postscript to our Russian champagne expression is a quote from famous ‘70’s footballer (soccer player) George Best when asked what had happened to his rapidly diminishing fortune, “Well I spent most of it on wine, woman and gambling and frittered away the rest.”

Email marketing plays a huge role in both CRM and business development strategies.  It is a marketing tool that is being used across geographic boundaries to increasing effect.
The really cool thing is that not only does it work for the big brands but thanks to the nature of the Internet it can also be deployed by SMEs to equal effect to grab a slice of the global market.
Mind you like any tool there is a brand health warning if not used in a culturally sensitive way.  And yes,  there is a role for transcreation to make sure that your global eDM has the maximum impact.

Anyway rather than repeat myself see the interview article and comments on email insider.

The much anticipated Common Sense Advisory survey ‘Reaching New Markets through Transcreation’ finally hit the digital streets yesterday. I have seen the use of the ‘transcreation’ word both lauded and trashed to equal measure. But what nobody can deny is – especially once you have read the report – that there is a huge amount of transcreation being done everyday however it is labelled.

Why is it being done? Now here this, oh ye Procurements executives – because when it comes to marketing and communications often ‘Translation just isn’t enough!’

Says who?

Well a plethora of marketing executives, country stakeholders, local channel partners, creative agencies as well as language service providers (but what do they know?)

As the report underlines, global marketing is complex, there are a lot of moving parts, it is not easy but the market opportunity is there if we have the desire and motivation to exploit it.

To be fair it is only in the last decade that the tools have been available and sufficient corporate muscle has been readily applied to the enterprise translation challenge never mind such subtleties as transcreation. Senior management and procurement need to be educated, lobbied and nagged into adding transcreation to the corporate marketing armoury. Plus more multi-variant  testing should be applied to help identify the most effective adaptations (very easy with modern WCMS like Ektron) and the results of transcreation should be properly measured so that practical R.O.I can be established.

No - this is only a clue!

There is a simple and effective diagnostic tool for identifying a need for transcreation on page 50 of the report.

If you are in anyways associated with international marketing and want to develop your career this report is for you, follow the signs – go buy, beg, borrow or otherwise procure it now – you will not be disappointed.

I recently participated in an extensive Transcreation survey being run by Common Sense Advisory of Lowell, Mass. in the US and I am reliably informed that their report is due out end of this month (March).
While I am honoured to have been included that’s not the news. What is interesting is that Transcreation is becoming a serious topic (but hopefully not without its humorous side) outside of the world of  international advertising.  Major international companies,  Ad. Agencies and a variety of Language Service Providers have all been consulted – so we can expect a broad church of views
I will be very interested to see what CSA conclude and you can guarantee that some debate will ensue.

Particularly as I note a large number of other translation vendors that suddenly have something to say about ‘transcreation’ on their websites. It’s fine jumping on the bandwagon but the question is can you hold the tune?

Transcreation - a Trojan Horse for centralization?

Is transcreation just a Trojan horse used by Global VPs of Marketing to wrest global campaign production responsibility away from the countries where they will be executed?

I guess the answer depends on how paranoid you are or how dictatorial your VP of Marketing is. My own view is that in the present competitive, budget constrained environment, both transcreation and centralization have individual merit when considering the best approach to global marketing campaign production and execution.

First and foremost transcreation requires an intimate knowledge of a local market and constant exposure to the local media. Many Belgians, Canadians and Swiss speak ‘French’, although any Parisian would happily debate this over a Ricard (Pastis) or two. However, the TV, Newspapers and culture in Brussels, Quebec, Lyons and Lausanne vary considerably.

QED: any creative translators participating in the transcreation process should reside in their native country.

Anyone for Pastis?

There has been a significant trend towards centralization of production of global marketing campaigns. Cost, time-to-market and control of messaging are all reasons regularly cited by clients I meet. My experience tells me that the management culture and organizational structure of the individual large international corporation does play a large part in this decision too.

It is not surprising that where a company has a strong directive, command and control approach to management and the brand the more likely it is to be heavily centralized. I am sure several brands spring immediately to mind?

What can be centralized? Well pretty much everything. What should be centralized? That will depend on several factors of which budget, time-to-market and availability of local resources are but three.

I regularly see the following aspects of global campaigns centralized:

• Creative and copywriting
• Production and resizing
• Media planning and purchase
• Supply chain management
• Transcreation management (but not the transcreation activity)
• SEO
• CRM

As a rough rule of thumb: if you operate in a few countries and have a few products then you can deliver quite happily without going down the centralization route. Most marketing activities can be done for each country, by each country, based on central guidelines. The opposite is obviously true where you operate in 20 plus countries and have several products and continuous campaigns.

The tricky part is moving from one approach to the other!  As for centralized transcreation activity – which is championed by the few – I would, like the cliché, avoid it like the plague. But then again I have never been a big fan of the committee approach to transcreation.

Over 2 days last week some 9,392 digital marketers jammed themselves into Technology For Marketing & Advertising (TFM&A) in London’s West End. In line with modern event style exhibitors and presentation theaters shared the extensive exhibition space. This approach works well and generates a constant stream of traffic around the exhibitions. Plus it is fair to say that few people are prepared to slog around an event that is simply a vendor-fest – they are expect much more.

Reflecting the prevailing trends the presentations were, in the main, focused on SEO, Social Media, CRM and email marketing. Inevitably there were a few presentations that should have been labeled – “Government Heath warning- Blatant Sales Pitch”.

However, for anyone keen to keep up to date with best practices in UK-centred digital marketing I can recommend Dr Dave Chaffey’s blog . His well paced presentation was standing room only.

It will come as no surprise that the emphasis of the Wordbank stand was on ‘Transcreation’. Happily I can report that I was asked by several visitors, “Exactly what is transcreation?” (Result no.1) . More importantly, many more tentatively pronounced a need for transcreation (Result No. 2) and wanted to know if it was the solution that they were looking for.

You may be surprised to hear that my response was “not necessarily”. While vast sums may be expended on creating that punchy, award winning tag line or slogan the value placed on online content tends to decrease exponentially with the volume required or being produced.

At the top of the scale are banner or online display ads, followed by page and section titles with technical facts and stats often ending up at the bottom. Personally, I would place keywords high up the value scale due to their ability to attract, or not, web traffic via Search. However, on the basis of much of the global web content out there, I am sure this is not yet a majority held view.

In order to help decide where and when to apply transcreation I have created this simple diagram.

Wordbank Transcreation Model

This provides a rough guide based on content type. In practice any decision will be based upon your own view of the value or criticality of the content, in terms of meeting the communications objectives, and of course the generosity of the budget that you have been blessed with.

Ultimately, if you have the time and the money or the motivation then in-country copywriters should give the most important content the attention it deserves and be able to pander to the particular needs of your local marketers, resellers or agents. As ever caveat emptor.

Famous last words, on my last post: “Oh yes and just to complete matters the year of Tiger also began on February 14, 2010!”

I knew it was such a strong coincidence that someone,  somewhere would seize the day.

In this instance it was  BBDO,  Shanghai that came up with up an immaculate synthesis of two cultures for Gillette.

You can read the the whole article on Adage Global News.

Timing is everything:  Chinese New Year and St. Valentine’s day only comes around once every 50 years.  So by the time we have another  opportunity like this we will probably all be fluent in Mandarin.

We are safely past what seems to have become a global love-fest every year on February 14.  However, not everybody is so keen to celebrate a day  named after a Christian saint said to have been martyred by the Romans in the 3rd Century.

Indeed, the Saudi Religous Police and State media take a dim view of anyone even displaying anything red never mind hearts.  Associated Press recently reported that,  “Those who don’t comply will be punished,” according to the  official statement, without going into detail of the precise measures that would befall the offenders.

This Valentine’s Day prohibition reflects Saudi’s strict Wahhabi school of Islam.  Not surprisingly, the birthplace of Islam also bans several Muslim holidays except the two most important ones because it considers them “religious innovations” that Islam doesn’t sanction.

For marketers and advertisers the point here is that hearts and red are not anathma during the rest of the year, only on the day itself.  So with a bit of sensitivity these symbols can be used in ‘romantic ways’ in Saudi bearing in mind that romance takes place behind closed doors with married couples.

Other Muslim countries have very different views towards  St. Valentine’s day and romance in general and even within the Gulf itself.  Reinforcing the need to localize campaigns style, imagery and messaging.

Under Soviet authority religious holidays were either suppressed or replaced.  Prior to 1989 Russian and their fellow soviets celebrated International Women’s Day which is a heady cocktail of St.Valentines day and Mother’s day and held on March 8 each year.  When, woe betide any son,  brother,  uncle,  nephew,  father that does not turn up laden with roses, chocolates and perfume for all his female relatives.

Celebration of this holiday is stronger then ever today in Russia but that has not prevented the adoption of  the familiar romantic rituals of St. Valentines day in the larger cities.  Today this holiday is observed in some 56 countries from Albania to Zambia. (Full list is here).

What you may not know is that the first IWD was observed on 28 February 1909 in the United States following a declaration by the Socialist Party of America.  Three words  that you rarely see together in the same sentence.

Thus confirming that one of the key items in any global marketer  toolkit is a calendar of world holidays.  An item equally important to the logistics of any campaign as so the creative development and messaging.

Oh yes and just complete matters the year of Tiger also began on February 14, 2010!

p.s. Wordbank and I will be at Technology for Marketing and Advertising Exhibtion London  from 23-24 February. Stand E46!