Do you want to spread your business outside the borders? Surely you want to but how? Each country in the world has its official language. People around the world love their languages and want other people to communicate with them in their native language. So here you need to translate the content to reach the foreign target market. But each target market has its preferences and consumer behavior is also different. Therefore, transcreation process helps you to reach the target market according to their preference and style.

What is Transcreation

The word Transcreation is the combination of two words, translation and creation. It does both things; it translates the content and creates the content for the target market. Moreover, it translates the content from one language to another in a way that it resonates with the cultural and regional preferences. In this way, the original message remains the same and it is delivered to the target audience according to their style.

Generally, people use transcreation for marketing and advertising purposes. According to the MacMillan Dictionary, transcreation is a distinct translation process that is mainly used to describe the adaptation of advertising and marketing copy. Therefore, companies that want to tap into other markets hire the services of professional language services providers.

They have a team of native translators who are not only proficient in linguistics but also have a deep understanding of cultural differences. Therefore, they help to make your content impressive that provokes the same emotions in the target market as it provokes in the native market.

History

Transcreation is a new dimension in the translation industry. Therefore, there are different views about its specific definition. In the 60s and 70s, people used transcreation services to translate creative languages. During the 1980s, gaming industries started to use it so that they could satisfy gamers from different cultures.

They localized every part of the game like names, characters, script, and user interface to resonate with the target market. Later in 1990, the advertising and marketing industries recognized that to differentiate their work from each other and to hit the emotions of the people, translation is not sufficient. Therefore, transcreation was registered in the UK as a trademark in the year 2000.

Where is Transcreation Useful?

The important thing to note about transcreation is that it is more than providing information in the native language. When you want to hit the target market on the emotional level while considering the regional and cultural differences, transcreation is the best option for you.
Transcreation in Advertising and Marketing

Transcreation is immensely used in advertising and marketing. They use transcreation services to create brand awareness and to sell their products globally. Moreover, transcreation is also used in presentations, marketing copy, and in many other marketing pursuits.
Transcreation in Videos and Social Media

Transcreation is immensely used in videos and social media content. Here the question comes, how does it work digitally? For this, the marketer needs to provide a detailed brief so that the transcreator can work on a digital platform and deliver the same triggering content as it is in the original language. Marketing print ads also follow this process.

Transcreation in Literature

No doubt, that literary translation has resulted in transcreation. Do you know what transcreation is in the arts? Let’s find it out by the example of Sanskrit classics. In the mid-20th century, the Indian translator and poet Purushottama Lal said that transcreation came into existence because of the need to edit, reconcile and change the content instead of translation.

The latest example of Transcreation is an adaptation of Spiderman comic books in India. Therefore, in India, he is a dhoti-wearing man Pavitr Prabhakar that represents Spiderman instead of Peter Parker. According to the Indian target market, the spider-man fights Rahshasa instead of Green Goblin. Gotham Entertainment Group has done this transcreation. It is successful in creating an emotional connection with the Indian target market and resulted in more sales of comics.

Transcreation of Televisual Content

Televisual content transcreation is very important to telecast your content in other countries. The best example of this is the Japanese manga series Doraemon. The US audience watches it with interest because of transcreation

Mobile App Transcreation

Mobile apps penetration is at its peak. Therefore, the transcreation of mobile apps is very important to connect with global users. In the mobile app transcreation, the translators work on a detailed brief to make the user interface and content culturally relevant.

Video Game Transcreation

The video game industry is one of the flourishing industries of the world. To make games playable for foreign audiences, game developers go for game transcreation. In this way, games become interesting and relevant to get more popularity in foreign markets.

The Main Differences between Transcreation and Translation

Are you confused between transcreation and translation? Let’s remove this confusion. Translation is the process of changing the message from one language to another. Whereas, transcreation deals with changing the essence of the intended message according to cultural and regional differences. Transcreation can also be defined as a process of intersection between cultures and languages. This is the reason that transcreation goes beyond the literal translation from the source to the target language.

Marketing and advertising deal with more idioms and CTA’s that cannot be translated literally. Therefore, Transcreation is a more creative process than translation. The marketers use catchy words and phrases that can hit the emotions of the consumers and persuade them to buy products and services. That’s why the transcreation agency that you hire gives your transcreation task to copywriters, not translators.

The translation is done on source content whereas transcreation is not done on the source text. Instead, they start with a creative brief. It contains creative ideas, concepts, and CTA’s. The translators work very keenly on the source text whereas transcreators detach themselves from the original text so that they can focus on the intended message. Before going for a transcreation process, you need to clear some questions like What type of content the target market demands. What is the consumer behavior and which cultural background of the consumers make them understand your message?

You can translate all the documents whether they are in the form of audio and video files or contain written content. An important thing to note here is that you cannot transcreate all the documents. For instance, you cannot transcreate a legal contract that deals with terms and conditions of employment or a contract that deals with the rent of the house. Such kinds of documents don’t require transcreation, they require translation.

Objective of Transcreation

To stand out in the fierce competition in the global market, you need to reach the customers before your competitors. Moreover, you need to touch the hearts and minds of the people in the foreign land as you do in your native country. You cannot do this by simple translation of your content. You need to consider the regional and cultural differences.

It is a difficult task and demands the identification of different cultures, beliefs, and dialects of the target language. If you are unable to look into these factors then you will fail in targeting the global markets. Therefore, to avoid this failure, transcreation is gaining more popularity.

Process of Transcreation

  • Let’s have a look at the process of transcreation:
  • First, you need to review whether the content is feasible for transcreation or not.
  • Check your budget according to the scope and length of the content.
  • To make your marketing strategy effective, check the demands of the customers.
  • The best way is that both the marketer and consumer fill the questionnaire.
  • This process is called the Linguistic Validation Process. It will make your transcreation process systematic.
  • After that, start on the transcreation project. Make sure that transcreators are bilingual and they are native to the source language.
  • This will give quality transcreation results.
  • The transcreation team will creatively evaluate the content. Moreover, they will keep cultural and regional differences in view.
  • After the evaluation, the transcreator will start with the objective of delivering the same result as it is giving in the native market.
  • After the completion of the project, customers ask for proofreading. So if there is an error, it is removed.
  • When the client approves the content then it is made available to go live.

What are the Best Practices for Transcreation?

If you have a document to transcreate then you should follow these steps so that you get effective transcreation results.

Conduct a Marketing Research

When you want to penetrate a foreign market, you need to understand foreign market dynamics and consumer behavior. Moreover, it will make you aware of the fact that how people perceive your products and services in a foreign land. For this reason, conducting market research is important. This will enable you to understand customers’ preferences.

Extraction of Marketing Message

To remain aligned with the company’s marketing message, it is important to verify the message with the marketing research that you have done before. It is a very important part to start with the transcreation process.

Although the transcreators can afford the copywriters, many creative elements in the marketing content need to be kept the same in the trans-created copy. Marketing messages are derived from the source document and are included in the trans creator’s brief.

This brief should contain information regarding context, tone, style, and intent. Moreover, it should also include unique selling points of the product. This will help the transcreator who is undertaking the transcreation project.

Adaptation

Generally, the marketing messages are according to the mission and vision of the company. Moreover, they are in coordination with marketing research findings. Developing the correct marketing message with the right tone and language will help in easing the transcreation process.

Develop a Detailed Brief

Before engaging, a transcreation specialist, do check the quality of your brief. A well-developed brief will help in increasing the speed of the transcreation process. Moreover, it will help to produce high-quality transcreation results.

Hire a Specialist Transcreation Agency

Do hire a transcreation Agency that has proficient and experienced transcreators in your required field. For example, marketing transcreation and game transcreation are different. They require different skills although the dynamics of both transcreations are the same. Therefore, it is very important to check the specialty of the transcreation company before hiring it.

Price Quotes for Transcreation Services

Many translation companies around the world charge for translation services on a per-word basis, but in the case of transcreation, there are usually no per-word charges. To your surprise, the price quotes for transcreation services are usually on an hourly basis. It is so because the transcreation process doesn’t deal with literal translations and focuses on research and creativity.

That is why most of translation companies don’t charge on a per-word basis. For instance, if you want to translate your slogan into the French language, it might take a longer time. Initially, you have to do research, jot down the creative ideas, and narrow and improve them in such a way that keeps the intended message. Due to the time required and the creative nature of the job, transcreation is more expensive than translation.

Wrapping Up

Do you want to prepare multilingual campaigns to expand your business in foreign countries? Remember that the marketing message that is for the native market can not work for foreign markets. Here you need to hire the services of a professional translation company to recreate the message for effective results in the target market.

CCJK is a professional language service provider to assist you in transcreation. At CCJK, we have a team of native professionals that can evaluate and assess your marketing content with the help of skilled professionals. They provide you with impeccable transcreation services at a fast turnaround time and economical rates. Contact us for more details.