You are welcome to share your thoughts on this article written by Steve Puttock, Managing Director at Schawk, Inc., London

The global marketplace is providing businesses with fantastic opportunities but also, inevitably, moving into new markets can cause headaches! One area for particular concern is around the creation of international advertising and marketing campaigns. For the sake of efficiency, it makes sense to create a master campaign that can then be adapted and deployed across local markets. However, this is not a straightforward process by any means.
The key to getting this right is to think in terms of ‘transcreation’ rather than translation. This means looking far beyond changing the words of your campaign into different languages. Instead, you need to reinvent, or ‘transcreate’, the campaign’s key messages to take into account the nuances of the language and culture of each country/region you are in. This is essential if you want to ensure your message connects with your target audience—whilst still keeping the integrity of the master campaign.

With many years of successful transcreation for major international brands under our belts at Schawk, below are our seven top tips for thinking globally but acting locally:

1. Work with a centralised transcreation specialist that matches your global footprint while also having a local network of intelligence and implementers in each country you operate in. By working with one supplier you can ensure that the look and feel of brand collateral remains consistent as ad campaigns are adapted, while the local knowledge ensures that you get insight into what does, and doesn’t, need to be changed.

2. Use copywriters, not translators. Translators will get the language right word for word, but you need a multilingual copywriter to understand how to get the message across in the right way.

3. Include local validation in your transcreation process to ensure that the campaign does work and that there are no nasty surprises lurking. Ask Coors whose slogan “Turn it loose” was apparently translated as “Suffer from diarrhoea” when put into Spanish! Also, try ‘back translating’ rather than proofreading when checking campaigns—this helps assess message rather than the words themselves.

4. Get the detail right. For instance, make sure that any imagery in the background of TV ads features the correct language and that your product packaging is the appropriate version for the country it’s appearing in.

5. Make sure that you understand the different legal requirements in each country—data protection, laws relating to prize draws and promotions through to industry regulations on what is deemed fair and proper vary hugely from region to region and can be a minefield.

6. Think about whether you need to adapt the executional styling of your campaign to make it appropriate for use in each country: e.g. is food being shown served in a way that would be recognisable locally; what kind of clothes do people wear in the region; what is the ethnic mix; how much ‘flesh’ is it acceptable to show?

7. With TV advertising, think about the style of voice-overs. Firstly, what kind of dialect or accent would work best in each market? Then also consider whether a male or female voice may be more appropriate depending on the product as this can also vary from country to country.

Unless consumers feel that you are talking directly to them, in a relevant and appropriate way, they are unlikely to listen to what you have to say. So, for brands spending millions on customer communications, isn’t it a terrible waste to allow your message to be lost in translation? Transcreation is a complex science and does take time and investment to get right. However, those brand owners who master it and create a seamless and relevant experience for all their customers, wherever they are, will know that the impact they create makes it more than worth the effort.

About the Author

Steve Puttock is Managing Director, London at Schawk, Inc. Steve has worked extensively in production and advertising/marketing planning for the past 15 years.  Prior to working at Schawk he had senior positions at Publicis, Omnicom and DuPont, plus also ran his own successful production agency, The Network, for a number of years. Schawk is a leading provider of brand point management services, with the skills and services that guide the life of a brand from its conception to its packaging, advertising and promotion worldwide, throughout its lifecycle.