Transcreation requires courage

Transcreation is the somehow strange hybrid discipline born from the worlds of translation and marketing. What sets transcreation apart from translation is that it demands courage—because without it, you end up with wishy-washy marketing copy that fails to meet expectations.

And as it’s about transcration you can read this article also transcreated to (or, basically, from) German – ou tu peu visite mon site Français(e):

The image illustrates this point: Imagine you have a campaign from the US (represented by a hamburger) and you want to make it appealing to the French and Italians.

Would you simply create a monstrous dish combining a burger, a baguette, and spaghetti?

Of course not.

Most people would find that not very appealing, which is why adapting to local preferences is essential.

The concept of “fast food,” when trans-created to France, could indeed be a burger, but perhaps also a “Jambon-Beurre,” the classic lunchtime baguette, which is in fact called “sandwich” in France. For Italy, it might be Arancini. Before hunger takes over (my stomach is already growling), let’s return our focus to copy.

I’ve been doing transcreation for many years as a freelance copywriter—mostly for international brands that need adaptations of their advertising for the German, Austrian, and Swiss-German markets.

Content

• What is Transcreation?
• Transcreation vs. Translation: Example
• Transcreation and Translation: differences
• Transcreation Needs Versions and Back Translations
• Some transcreation disciplines:
• Contact a transcreation freelancer

What is Transcreation?

Transcreation is a compound word combining “translation” and “creation” in the advertising sense. In essence, transcreation means “creatively translating advertising in a way that perfectly resonates with the target audience in another language.”

The majority of transcreation involves language, but images and videos are also transcreated.

Unlike trans-lation, trans-creation doesn’t transfer content in the most exact way possible but localizes it for the target audience. This requires marketing and advertising knowledge, especially experience with local advertising language.

Transcreation is sometimes necessary even for markets that share the same language. A German campaign might need (slight) adaptation work to run in Austria or Switzerland. Domestic localization is also a consideration: Suppose you were adapting a German campaign from Berlin for Cologne and kept the word “Späti” for a 7-11-type-Minimart. Don’t do it. In Cologne, they say “Büdchen” or “Kiosk.” If you can only use one asset, “Kiosk” would be well understood in all regions. Exception: If you want to communicate “Berlin-ness,” then stick with “Späti.” You see, sometimes the opposite of what seems obvious applies.

Transcreation vs. Translation: Example

Let’s look at a nice professional transcreation example for a headline from the website of the payment service provider Wero. This example isn’t here by chance, btw. If automatic (AI) translation tools had been used for the job, the results would have been lacklustre, as you can see here (I didn’t use ChatGPT, you can try it on your own).

English, Master	German, Transcreation	DeepL, Translation	Anthropic Claude 3 Opus (prompted for „Du“)
Move money in real time. For real.	In Echtzeit Geld senden und empfangen. Echt jetzt.	Bewegen Sie Geld in Echtzeit. In echt.	Beweg dein Geld in Echtzeit. Wirklich in echt.
Backtranslation	In real time, send and receive money. Now real/For real.	Move money in real time, sir. In real.	Move you money in real time. For real, for sure.

Here are the noticeable points:

• In English, there’s the phrase “move money.” In German, there isn’t—at least not in normal usage for target groups from teenagers upwards.
• The translation tools don’t care: They simply translate without understanding the product or target group. That’s why they write: “Bewege Geld in Echtzeit. In echt.” (Move money in real time. For real.)
• That’s not really well understood.
• The issue of using formal or informal “thou / you” also arises, the classic Duzen/Siezen problem in Germany (and France as well). In German, it’s tougher, as you have to clearly decide if you use the informal (Du) form. In French, a softer workaround is possible, where you use the formal form (vous) together with the first name.
• DeepL, by the way, is a bit underwhelming out of the box. Claude 3 Opus has better language skills. Your mileage may vary.
  (In case you’re interested: This article was written in German and translated to English with Claude 3 Opus, but as I knew I wanted an English version, my German master copy wasn’t full of Germanophone extravaganza, and the translation result was of course manually finetuned. Pro tip: If you plan different language versions, make sure the master copy is well transcreatable. Avoid puns and niche cultural references.)
• So, what did the expert, a copywriter, do?
  • He paraphrased the product. With Wero, you can send and receive money, and you can certainly write that—if, as here, there’s enough space for more text.
  • He picked up on the pop culture reference “for real.” “Fo‘ real” is colloquial, and you need to find an equivalent in German. You could have left “For real,” in German, but then the interplay of “Real time / for real” -> “In Echtzeit / for real” no longer works.
    Solution: The colloquial phrase “Echt jetzt.” (Really now.) It sounds a bit cheeky, but why not? The master copy has a similar vibe to it.
• And what do we learn from this?
  • Translations can be correct and incomprehensible at the same time.If you want your messages to reach your target groups, you need professional copywriters.
  • Good transcreation requires courage, including on the client side.

Transcreation and Translation: differences

	Translation	Transcreation
Content	Exact reproduction of the original text	Transferring communication into another language / culture
Form	Sentence structures often remain intact at the expense of readability.	Sentence structures can be broken up for the sake of fluent language.
Vocabulary	Often requires technical vocabulary	Often requires the brand’s vocabulary
Tools	Working with CAT tools	Using CAT tools is often difficult

Transcreation Needs Versions and Back Translations

In the world of high-level marketing, clients want to understand how advertising messages have been transcreated. If you’re spending a few million euros on TV commercials, you want to know what it says in German, for instance.

The solution: Back translations. A back translation is a retranslation of the transcreated copy into the master language. This backtranslation can intentionally be “bad”: I do it in a way that best conveys the content of the German language version so that non-German speakers can understand the text precisely.

This brings us to the next topic: What if the marketing department doesn’t like the result? Then you need to deliver more upfront, such as two or three proposals (including back translation). As a copywriter, you can then develop a range of suggestions—ideally including a rationale for the creative approach.

Some transcreation disciplines:

• TV commercials / video content: This involves transcreating dialogues, voice-overs, and text overlays. The challenges are enormous.
  • Dialogues are an art in themselves because the translation must first convey the appropriate advertising messages and second, the text must match the lip movements, i.e., be lip-synced. I check if it works with test voice recordings. If it fits, the dialogue direction will also work.
    AI outlook: With AI, you can lip-sync videos to texts. That’s nice, but the text still can be too long. If the video can only be 10 seconds long, you have to stick to it.
  • Voice-overs, especially messages at the end of the spot, must above all be short. In English TV spots, there’s often little time. Then you need linguistic finesse to formulate messages really succinctly.
• Ads, banners: It’s usually, in my work, about transcreating from English into German. English is often very space-saving, and the layouts provide correspondingly little space for more text. So, in German, you sometimes have to think outside the box. And if you create master copy: Think of the poor copywriter souls in Spain, as Spanish eats up characters like nothing.
• Social media: If you only have 90 characters of space, you only have 90 characters of space. Sure, I can give the AI translation bot a maximum character count, but it doesn’t always prioritize the right things. That means that you have to use human brain power.
• Content: If you need landing pages, blog articles, press releases, etc. for other markets, you have to take a close look at the markets. Competitive and keyword research are a must; sometimes legal/regulatory issues also come into play.

Contact a transcreation freelancer

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