Global Transcreation Blog

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?

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.

Advertising breaks during the US annual Superbowl – American Football – continue to generate huge attention and publicity – often for the wrong reasons.

The wardrobe malfunction

Witness the infamous and shocking (was it really?) Janet Jackson exposed nipple incident at  Super Bowl XXXVIII with Justin Timberlake in 2004!

Accident or deliberate?

This year’s commercial break  has again got the ad. industry buzzing – LinkedIn was awash with comment almost immediately and Adage soon ran the story.
“Does Coke’s Super Bowl Ad Look a Lot Like Old Israeli Dairy Spot?“

To many Israelis this ad and the music look very similar to an ad run in Israel for Yotvata, a dairy in the Israeli desert.  And yes, it was for another cold,  refreshing drink.

Were Coke’s  agency of record – Wieden & Kennedy- just being ‘transcreative’ or have they moved into the murky world of plagiarism?

Coke’s take on it certainly gives pause for thought:

“When we created the Coca-Cola ‘Sleepwalker’ commercial, we and our agency were unaware of this other ad,” said Coke spokeswoman Susan Stribling. “Now that we’ve seen the ad, we think both commercials are equally entertaining. While the two share a few common elements, any similarities are coincidental and unintended.”

Ms. Stribling added that the use of the same song in the ad is an “interesting coincidence” but the selection of the tune for “Sleepwalker” is “consistent with how we’ve chosen music for ads we’ve aired during the Super Bowl for the past three years.”

The discussion thread on LinkedIn International Advertising Association took rather a harsher line and a stronger view than “interesting coincidence”.

Judge for your self:

If the flash does not load go to this YouTube link.

Agreed it is difficult to totally guard against incidents like this, but when it comes to copyright there could always be an aggressive, litigious media-owner’s lawyer who just happens across your ‘work’.

As part of our Conquest service one of the questions that we recommend asking is: ” Is this tag-line similar to anything you have seen before or is the phrase in common usage in your country?”. It just might ring a few alarm bells.

Can’t wait for next year!

Transcreation – what is it?

Well it will neither offer salvation to the planet nor the sinner.  If you are an international marketer,  working on global advertising or brand development or in the localization business you may have come across the term before.

Here are a few random definitions from around the ‘net:

“…a packet of services aimed at those operating in the advertising sector, including translation, localisation and copy editing services.”

“…is a form of translation, closer to copywriting, resulting in a text linguistically and culturally adapted for its intended audience. Transcreated material is supposed to have the same impact on the target audience as the original source text.”

“… a bundle of services designed for clients operating in the advertising sector. It consists of the complete set of translation, localization and copyediting services. Transcreation is a more complex service as it involves the creativity and discipline of professionals whose core activity is content adaptation.”

Clearer now or not?  I do have a definition of my own to offer but first let’s look at an example.  If you click on my first post the “Happy Birthday” one you will see a great VW ad. The strap line (punchline) reads:

“In advertising, you’re allowed to exaggerate. (that explains the caravan)”

To a British audience what it really says, now take a deep breath, is..

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“We, VW, are so cool we can take the p*ss in our ads.  Hey, our  ad agency is real cool too.  Yes, we agree anyone that insists on towing a caravan (US: Trailer) is an annoying Muppet and should be banned from all roads, lanes, motorways and streets between the hours of  6:00 am and midnight and is definitely uncool.  However, not if you are driving a VW ‘cos we, at VW,  are cool and look so cool and manly that our 4×4 can tow a jumbo – how cool is that?”

——————————————————————————————————————

A US translation could be: “In advertising everyone exaggerates. (that explains the trailer)”

But does it go any way towards encapsulating the same message as the UK English – maybe you can tell me?

Talking?

Messaging and advertising, are by definition developed,  in a specific cultural environment, carrying their own latent sub-text,blah, blah blah…

Long story, short: if you want to run this across the main EU countries, time and budget will largely dictate your approach. Accurate but straight translation offers a cheap but workmanlike solution while using the Ad. Agency network multiplied by 13 or 26 languages provides a culturally attuned but lengthy and expensive solution.

Hence combine and cross-fertilise the two to get a creative translation more effective than translation and quicker and more economical than the agency network.

Eureka – Transcreation!

Finally, as promised,  here is how we at Wordbank define it:

Wordbank transcreation services adapt rather than translate your marketing and advertising ensuring that, by staying true to the original and reflecting local culture, you achieve maximum impact in each market