Fiat 500 Abarth – sometimes there’s no need for transcreation
By Gordon Husbands | International marcoms, Transcreation | One comment so far
Click to watch Fiat 500 Seduction
This high-trending viral ad for the Fiat 500 Abarth needs absolutely no translation, even though the monologue is in Italian. The target demographic is very clearly boys. Entitled “You’ll never forget the first time you see one “, the ad plays on every heterosexual young man’s fantasy, and probably the nostalgic older man’s as well.
The buzz started mid-week on 14th November, peaking on the 17th but not tailing off until the weekend. What is really interesting is how this buzz was reflected in language, as can be seen in this graphic.
Transcreation – Gordon’s Guidelines
By Gordon Husbands | International marcoms, marketing translation, Transcreation | No comment yet
Now that needs transcreation!
In my company – Wordbank – and many other places, real transcreation is quietly going on every day, often unheralded. However, it is not a mass-market offering that should be applied to every marketing or advertising campaign element every time. Certainly it should not be confused with or applied interchangeably with what tends to be called ‘marketing translation’ or even with ‘translation’.
STOP PRESS: New Transcreation Survey due out
By Gordon Husbands | Transcreation | No comment yet
I recently participated in an extensive Transcreation survey being run by Common Sense Advisory of Lowell, Mass. in the US and I am reliably informed that their report is due out end of this month (March).
While I am honoured to have been included that’s not the news. What is interesting is that Transcreation is becoming a serious topic (but hopefully not without its humorous side) outside of the world of international advertising. Major international companies, Ad. Agencies and a variety of Language Service Providers have all been consulted – so we can expect a broad church of views
I will be very interested to see what CSA conclude and you can guarantee that some debate will ensue.
Particularly as I note a large number of other translation vendors that suddenly have something to say about ‘transcreation’ on their websites. It’s fine jumping on the bandwagon but the question is can you hold the tune?
St.Valentine’s – the Shanghai connection
By Gordon Husbands | Cultural sensitivity, International marcoms | No comment yet
Famous last words, on my last post: “Oh yes and just to complete matters the year of Tiger also began on February 14, 2010!”
I knew it was such a strong coincidence that someone, somewhere would seize the day.
In this instance it was BBDO, Shanghai that came up with up an immaculate synthesis of two cultures for Gillette.
You can read the the whole article on Adage Global News.
Timing is everything: Chinese New Year and St. Valentine’s day only comes around once every 50 years. So by the time we have another opportunity like this we will probably all be fluent in Mandarin.
Smacks more of trans-plagiarism
By Gordon Husbands | Conquest | No comment yet
Advertising breaks during the US annual Superbowl – American Football – continue to generate huge attention and publicity – often for the wrong reasons.
The wardrobe malfunction
Witness the infamous and shocking (was it really?) Janet Jackson exposed nipple incident at Super Bowl XXXVIII with Justin Timberlake in 2004!
Accident or deliberate?
This year’s commercial break has again got the ad. industry buzzing – LinkedIn was awash with comment almost immediately and Adage soon ran the story.
“Does Coke’s Super Bowl Ad Look a Lot Like Old Israeli Dairy Spot?“
To many Israelis this ad and the music look very similar to an ad run in Israel for Yotvata, a dairy in the Israeli desert. And yes, it was for another cold, refreshing drink.
Transcreation – now you’re talking my language!
By Gordon Husbands | Transcreation | 8 responses so far
Well it will neither offer salvation to the planet nor the sinner. If you are an international marketer, working on global advertising or brand development or in the localization business you may have come across the term before.
Here are a few random definitions from around the ‘net:
“…a packet of services aimed at those operating in the advertising sector, including translation, localisation and copy editing services.”
“…is a form of translation, closer to copywriting, resulting in a text linguistically and culturally adapted for its intended audience. Transcreated material is supposed to have the same impact on the target audience as the original source text.”
“… a bundle of services designed for clients operating in the advertising sector. It consists of the complete set of translation, localization and copyediting services. Transcreation is a more complex service as it involves the creativity and discipline of professionals whose core activity is content adaptation.”
