Does your business need creative translation?

Transcreation. What an interesting word!
If you’ve never dealt with translation before, I am sure you’ve never heard of it.
Transcreation is the combination of two words: translation and creation. As simple as that!
When your business needs to reach foreign countries, make an impact and win the new market, it’s essential to understand which contents can be translated and which one need a more creative approach.
How to understand which kind of content needs transcreation?
Well, it’s not that easy and it often depends on your brand’s style and attitude.
Broadly speaking, the contents that need transcreation rather than translation can be ads, taglines, payoffs and everything strictly related to advertising. Some other copies that really could use creative translation are the social media posts, along with editorial content you may have on your website.
However, if your brand has a strong attitude and very distinctive voice, I’d suggest to use a creative approach even in other kind of copies to make sure your branding does not go lost in translation.
How exactly the transcreation process works and why it has a higher price compared to translation?
First, when you ask for a transcreation you will not only get the translated text but detailed comments on the choices taken along with what we call “back translation”: a literal translation back to your mother tongue that helps you understand how the creative text will sound in the foreign language.
Beyond that, there’s much more effort and expertise required behind transcreation: having copywriting skills, a bit of marketing knowledge and knowing your market very well are all essentials skills.
A one-word payoff can require hours, or even days, of work to find the perfect words that will catch your reader attention and make the same impact of the original copy.
These are some of the main reasons why the prices go up: plus, think about a leading brand that win a foreign market because of a successful campaign, how much will the brand earn thanks to translator’s work? I think that’s priceless.
Have you ever heard of transcreation before? Do you think your business could use it?
If you want to know more about it, drop me a line!