What is the difference between translation and transcreation?
Translation: this profession probably dates back to the times when different human cultures started to interact with each other. And although nowadays translation still means bringing a text from one language into another, there are multiple ways to translate. Transcreation is one of these processes. What it exactly is will be covered in this text.
Transcreation: translating creative content
Translation was for many centuries taught as word by word translation. Translators therefor strive to be as loyal to the original text as possible. With the effect and disadvantage that the text in the source language indeed sounded like that: translated.
Nowadays translators try to “hide” themselves. A text should read as if it had been written in the source language from the beginning. As if there never had been an original in another language. A reader should not feel that there was a translation going on.
So far so good. With highly creative and cultural content this gets even trickier. Here the intercultural skills of a translator come into play. That’s why transcreation can be considered as the art of rewriting a text and spicing it up with the right cultural connotations. Or how the colleagues of Creative Words put it: “You want to evoke emotion, memories, and actions in your target audience.”
Marketing copy: a typical example of transcreation
When localizing a marketing campaign transcreation is essential for the success of the campaign in the respective target market. Think about it: a campaign in Britain that uses typical British humour. Would that evoke the same emotions (e.g. grinning happily) in Germany? Probably not. So, you have to find a way to translate the humor by using cultural references that would make someone in Germany smile.
Want an example? Cool, here we go:
Let’s take Coolblue, my former employer. In our team we transcreate a lot of marketing copy from Dutch to German. Coolblue is famous for its humorous campaigns… which do reflect the Dutch humor and a lot of Dutch cultural references. How do we (and the English team) transcreate those texts?
In the Dutch text about the cookie guidelines the joke refers to the cookies, being yummy food (Smaakmakers = things that bring taste). In Dutch actually a smaakmaker is someone whose opinion has significant influence on the opinion of others. Which is also what cookies are used for: to improve your customer journey.
The German language does not have a word for someone influencing the opinion of others while having a reference to food/culinary terminology.
That’s why we opted for the localization with the word ‘Trendsetter’. The cookies being the trendsetter for your future customer journey on the website. As you can see this is not a word by word translation from the Dutch source text because it would not work in the German language.
When to transcreate?
To stay on the safe side: in general all copy that is more creative, includes humor and/or a lot of cultural references needs to be transcreated. Otherwise you risk that your target audience will not understand your text and therefor lose trust or attention.
Keep in mind to consult a language expert, be it a translator, copywriter or localization specialist: they are the language experts. Being native in a language is often not enough to find out whether your content has the desired effect on your target audience or not.
So, don’t hesitate, write me with me your questions… and I promise you my fellow Germans will understand what you want to tell them. :) To end this article: don’t forget to enjoy transcreating, because it is a lot of fun!