Transcreation at London’s premier marketing technology event

Over 2 days last week some 9,392 digital marketers jammed themselves into Technology For Marketing & Advertising (TFM&A) in London’s West End. In line with modern event style exhibitors and presentation theatres shared the extensive exhibition space. This approach works well and generates a constant stream of traffic around the exhibitions. Plus it is fair to say that few people are prepared to slog around an event that is simply a vendor-fest – they are expect much more.

Reflecting the prevailing trends the presentations were, in the main, focused on SEO, Social Media, CRM and email marketing. Inevitably there were a few presentations that should have been labelled – “Government Heath warning- Blatant Sales Pitch”.

However, for anyone keen to keep up to date with best practices in UK-centred digital marketing I can recommend Dr Dave Chaffey’s blog (http://www.smartinsights.com/). His well paced presentation was standing room only.

It will come as no surprise that the emphasis of the Wordbank stand was on ‘Transcreation’. Happily I can report that I was asked by several visitors, “Exactly what is transcreation?” (Result no.1) . More importantly, many more tentatively pronounced a need for transcreation (Result No. 2) and wanted to know if it was the solution that they were looking for.

You may be surprised to hear that my response was “not necessarily”. While vast sums may be expended on creating that punchy, award winning tag line or slogan the value placed on online content tends to decrease exponentially with the volume required or being produced.

At the top of the scale are banner or online display ads, followed by page and section titles with technical facts and stats often ending up at the bottom. Personally, I would place keywords high up the value scale due to their ability to attract, or not, web traffic via Search. However, on the basis of much of the global web content out there, I am sure this is not yet a majority held view.

In order to help decide where and when to apply transcreation I have created this simple diagram.

This provides a rough guide based on content type. In practice any decision will be based upon your own view of the value or criticality of the content, in terms of meeting the communications objectives, and of course the generosity of the budget that you have been blessed with.

Ultimately, if you have the time and the money or the motivation then in-country copywriters should give the most important content the attention it deserves and be able to pander to the particular needs of your local marketers, resellers or agents. As ever caveat emptor.