The lighter side of transcreation
By Gordon Husbands | Transcreation | No comment yet
Gone tweeting…
You can be creative and
funnyBrowsing Twitter
feeds to see if transcreation was
a subject that was generating
any interesting debate
or insight, I was
quickly disappointed. Was I
expecting too much of
the micro-blogosphere?
Yes, there is a #transcreation tag and a #copywriter, but it didn’t take much effort to find out how boring and repetitive said transcreation tweets were. Well, the ones that I could find.
Surely if lawyers are connected to the law and tennis professionals to tennis, the transcreative people should be, well, sort of CREATIVE? A modicum of creativity, innovation or even imagination?
Don’t we owe it to the world to practise what we preach?
With barely a second’s hesitation I sent out the call, and lo! a hero emerged from the depths of the blogosphere. There is a small but hopefully not lone outpost of creativity attached to transcreation.
Get thee to Twitter and follow @eltcblogger; and #transcreationjokesfor a bit of a larf!
Here’s one to get you started:
“Hear about the dyslexic who thought
transcreation was an art director with
gender issues? Boom boom!”
Google, Yahoo and Bing succeed in world domination
By Gordon Husbands | International marcoms | No comment yet
Well, actually, no they don’t!
The world is dominated by ocal search engines and from an international online marketing point of view, this is important to understand. Google does cover a large portion of the world, but markets such as Asia are dominated by various local search engines rather than the “global” players.
Want to find out who these local Asian search engines are and stay in touch with what’s happening in the world of multilingual or international search marketing?
Then follow Wordbank’s Mark Burns’ news and views on the Global SEM blog.
Transcreation: just good customer service?
By Gordon Husbands | Conquest, Cultural sensitivity, International marcoms, Transcreation | 2 responses so far
Over recent months there has been a rush by translation companies to jump on the ‘transcreation bandwagon’ and even a few blog posts calling it a new service or just spouting dubious sales-speak. But surely the question of when to transcreate versus translate is really more about what level of customer service we want to deliver in which country or to what target audience?
Firstly, the word ‘transcreation’ – it’s not new
At Wordbank we have been providing this service since the mid ’90s – our Conquest™ service was launched in 1997 specifically to offer a better way of adapting creative copy to different local markets. Indeed, I first heard the term back in 1996. It was coined by a European advertising agency executive laboriously making a point about how marketing should be properly adapted rather than just translated.
Transcreation downtime in Sicily
By Gordon Husbands | Cultural sensitivity, International marcoms, Transcreation | One comment so far
I am fortunate to have spent the past week or so on holiday near Syracuse, on the eastern coast of Sicily. The weather has been very changeable, but far from chilly. What is staggering is that along with the sun, sea, sand and tourists, you are surrounded, everywhere you turn, by ancient history. The evidence of past civilizations is ubiquitous. Crossing the bridge into Ortygia, the original Greek island settlement of Syracuse, you virtually fall straight into the Temple of Apollo. Well, what’s left of it. Turn around and cast your eyes upwards and you see the Greek Theatre, the foundations of the huge, sacrificial altar of Hieron II (241BC onwards) and, finally, the impressive Roman Amphitheatre.
Cheesiest Bin Laden bandwagon of the day
By Gordon Husbands | Cultural sensitivity, International marcoms, Transcreation | One comment so far
I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. Just how cheesy is this?
I received an email on Tuesday 5 May from a British company called Corpdata aiming to sell me B2B marketing lists with the headline: “Accurate data killed Osama bin Laden (helped by US Special Forces)”.
A tenuous link at best and definitely a case of jumping on the nearest and most recent bandwagon. Cheese aside, does it work from a marketing perspective?
On the one hand, I laud the speed of response and yes, the targeting is correct. But on the other hand, how can I take it seriously? The Roquefort quotient is only increased when you note the company’s name – Corpdata. Or should that be ‘Corpsedata‘? Ouch!
The revenge of the Spanish punter
By Gordon Husbands | Cultural sensitivity, International marcoms, Transcreation | No comment yet
Throughout history, many Mediterranean countries have gained a reputation for unnecessary and convoluted bureaucracy – much to the chagrin of the naive and vulnerable foreigner.
However, if you thought that all the ‘locals’ are happy and willing to participate in the form filling, jobs-for-the-indolent game you would be wrong.
Brand bidding: transcreant or miscreant?
By Gordon Husbands | International marcoms, MSEM | No comment yet
Are you are aware of brand bidding? Is someone surfing off your brand on Google Search? Don’t know what I’m talking about?
Try the following >
- Enter the name of your company into Google Search.
- Get your colleagues and friends in other countries to do the same.
- Check your search results – you should be top of the organic search results, right
- Notice any paid or sponsored ads appearing above or to the right of your search results?
- Are they by any chance promoting one of your competitors?
What you are witnessing is brand bidding. The example I’ve used in the presentation at the bottom of the post shows very clearly what is happenning – check out the ads on the right-hand side.
007 takes a walk on the wild side
By Gordon Husbands | Cultural sensitivity, International marcoms, Transcreation | No comment yet
Maybe this article is more transgender than transcreation, but then it is international women’s day today.
At Wordbank we have been tweeting since yesterday on how to congratulate the ladies in your life in the relevant local language. As many readers will know, today in Russia is a day of flowers, presents and congratulations to mothers, sisters, daughters, aunties etc. Much as the celebrations will vary country-by-country, relative to the local history and culture, similarly the lifestyle, rights and expectations of women will vary depending on where they live.
Suffice to say that attitudes to women vary significantly across globe.
Today, however, is a good opportunity for we men to consider for a moment the realities of life as women.
Shrink-wrapped, instant global website – a worrying trend?
By Gordon Husbands | International marcoms, MSEM, Transcreation | One comment so far
I have noticed some rather strange localization offers on the web recently, various companies promoting ‘ instant global websites‘ , ‘windows on the world’ – all on the cheap, of course. Is this a new phenomenon or just something I had not spotted before? (I would welcome any sane input on this.)
To quote one example from many: “Now for less than $5,000 US, you can have close to 90% of the world’s web visitors find you when they search for your keywords in their native language. The Window to the World page will then lead them to the rest of your website.”
Festive Greetings – Tricky Transcreation
By Gordon Husbands | Cultural sensitivity, Transcreation | No comment yet
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Well, it’s nearly Christmas again. Or is it?
Yes, if you live in North America, Oz, Kiwi-land or the UK and bits of Western Europe it is, but outside of that it all goes to Greenland in a handcart. Strictly speaking, of course, Christmas does not exist for the majority of the world’s population, but that doesn’t stop bedecked fir trees from being lit up in Dubai or Hong Kong. The Russians still stick to the archaic calendar and celebrate Christmas after New Year’s Eve, and everyone else. And so it goes.
