What is transcreation - BURG Translations

Clients, particularly in a marketing and advertising department, sometimes request that a translation be “adapted” to a local audience so that it takes into account local culture. When we probe, we learn that these requests mean that clients want us to do more than just “translate the words”. They want us to go beyond that and ensure the translation has the same emotional impact as the original source text – this is transcreation. Transcreation is a mix of translation, copywriting and, potentially, localization to create copy in a target language. It is copywriting in another language, but based on a source text. Sometimes, a client will ask to address non-translation elements like color and images, which brings an element of localization into the transcreation task.

Transcreation requires that the source text has an emotional impact on the reader, which means that transcreation can’t be done with all documents. In this article, we will cover what makes transcreation different from translation, copywriting and localization.

Translation vs transcreation

Translators answer the question, “What does this say?” The answer is not really a word-for-word translation, but a meaning-to-meaning translation.

Those who transcreate answer the question, “What does it say and how does the writer want me to feel?” This only applies when the source text conveys feeling in the meaning. Highly denotative content, like legal documents and scientific journal articles, don’t really have this so you couldn’t really transcreate either type of document. Since emotional content typically involves word play, puns, and heavily connotative meaning, it pertains to text that is mostly found in marketing material and literature. In fact, people who transcreate are bilingual copywriters first, and translators second. Examples of source text include slogans, social media posts, email newsletters, website text, and books. In this kind of text, transcreation is the only way to not only translate the content, but give the target audience the same feeling the source text audience gets when they read the source content.

While translation is about entering the mind of the writer, transcreation is about entering the mind of the reader. As a result, the target text can depart partially or entirely from source text. It is also very culturally specific. For example, if the target audience were Hispanics in the US, you would want to know which community (Mexican, Puerto Rican, etc.) If you want to write for all of them, you might have to choose one, risk getting it wrong for one of the communities, or settle for a careful and expressive translation.

Copywriting vs transcreation

Copywriting is the act of producing fresh text for marketing and advertising purposes. A copywriter uses a brief for writing inspiration. The brief contains context of the writing project, type of content, subject matter, length that the content should be, and general information like the audience and company information. The brief does not contain the exact text that the copywriter writes because that’s what the copywriter is meant to write.

Transcreation has more similarity with copywriting (because that’s what it is) than with translation or localization. Think of transcreation as copywriting, except the transcreator receives both a brief as well as source text. The transcreator then depends on the source text for greater understanding of exactly what to write. The brief acts as supporting documentation to help convey the rationale behind the source text, but in the end, the source text is the starting point.

Localization vs transcreation

Localization is a general term that means translation of text, plus everything else that would need to change in order for something to fit into the new target market. Localization can also mean “everything but the text”. If translation is about translating “the text” between two languages, then localization is about adapting everything else. What else is there other than text to translate? Here is a brief list:

Adapting images to better align with the target markets
Modifying the type of content to suit the tastes and consumption habits of other markets
Adapting design and layout to properly display translated text
Converting measurements to local preferences (such as currencies and units of measure)
Using local formats of dates, addresses, and phone numbers
Addressing local regulations and legal requirements

The more complex a file is, the more localization might be needed. As a result, the term localization is used more for complex projects like translating apps, websites and eLearning courses. These projects have lots of “extras” that need to be addressed other than translation.

Localization service is often paired with transcreation service because there is little point in investing only in the text. Investing only in transcreation, but not localization, is like translating a beautiful, well laid-out brochure into a text file.

Summary

For marketing and advertising content, when you need to ensure that the translation touches the reader’s heart, as well as their mind, transcreation is the way to go. Furthermore, to ensure that the rest of the document supports the transcreation effort, localization might also be needed.

If you’d like to learn more about how BURG Translations helps you ensure high quality translations, contact us today.