Marketing media practitioners are confronted with creating insightful and impactful strategies for clients’ global branding objectives, whilst being challenged to deliver content that’s linguistically and colloquially in sync with the respective target markets around the world.

In the past, every media agency knew that translation alone had failed in global brand and content marketing.

To meet that enormous challenge, key players in the creative media industry embarked on a slew of acquisitions and mergers with in-country agencies, primarily for their location-based operations and local knowledge of the target audience. Publishers and even consulting firms have snapped up creative media agencies or engaged in deals in the media marketing sector in unprecedented numbers — all in an effort to ensure each international market gets messages in a way they can understand, relate to and engage with.

Competing on a Global Scale

For smaller consulting agencies and marketing/communication (marcom) teams without access to a global structure, there’s another route towards initiating multilingual marketing content. And that’s by working with a Language Service Provider (LSP) that provides transcreation services: translation infused with creative editing that connects with your international target markets while remaining unified with your global branding strategy.

LSPs operate as more than just a translator. They also provide creative editing, copywriting, as well as management and administration of back-end online content and transactional systems. Not only can LSPs develop global content at much lower cost and with high efficiency, they also contribute to a total package that enables consulting agencies and marcom teams to operate more productively. Business owners will also reap enormous benefits by working directly with a transcreation LSP.

Why It Works

First, design concepts and creative elements have to be in place in order for an intended worldwide campaign to be simultaneously launched by location-based media teams. Without these requirements, no other offshore media agencies can successfully partake in a concerted and consistent global branding exercise. In other words, the role of the offshore media agency is mostly to adapt existing design elements to suit the milieu of respective target audiences — primarily this involves syncing in localized language content with existing design concepts. This being the case, LSPs offering onsite transcreation and centrally managed media localisation teams can provide the required consistency in branding and content tone-of-voice adapted in multiple languages.

Second, for languages that marketing agencies or media teams aren’t familiar with, bilingual editors and translators from a transcreation LSP act as an effective liaison. A native creative editor for the target market is essential for ensuring that the branding message succinctly connects with the audience.

Third, for campaigns targeting five or six languages, this would certainly pose an even greater challenge as the global marketing practitioner has to liaise with five or six offshore location-based creative teams to manage and ensure editorial consistency, linguistic quality, terminology issues, tracking amendments, archival of multilingual project files, etc. On the other hand, a single transcreation LSP is poised to undertake content localisation in multiple languages and to manage the whole package simultaneously. Arguably, multiple language content workflows are not the everyday activities of creative media or design teams. Hence, it will be much more productive to collaborate with an LSP.

The Whole Package

Some of the areas that LSPs can help address include: target audience research, product customization and cultural connectors.

  • Target audience research. In the same way that media teams develop its source content, LSPs perform research to define and review peculiarities, such as the vernacular of target readers, terminology preferences and relationships with the products or services. The objective is to understand demographics, psychographics, sociological structures and nuances peculiar to readers of each target language community.
  • Product customization. In the old days, multicultural content workflows were limited to single dimensional efforts, such as mass printing of publications with several language versions. In the face of globalization, clients prefer to create standalone product strategies with single or bilingual literature specific to each targeted market. Likewise, media teams working with LSPs are able to adopt a multicultural business-wide approach, especially for marketing efforts in Asian-Pacific countries or Europe where there are significant language and cultural diversities.
  • Cultural connectors. Cultural connectors cover specific identifiers such as language, race, religion, social status, lifestyle and gender orientation. These have substantial implications for blending in with key groups and for retaining favorable influence from the local communities. Every media practitioner understands this important rule. Similarly, LSPs have native as well as local networks with innate knowledge on relevant cultural connectors to assist media teams.

Co-Sourcing is a More Favorable Option

Outsourcing is defined as a better option for getting the work done externally, even though it could be done internally. In multicultural content development, outsourcing may not be the best solution due to its multifaceted processes that may not be familiar to the outsourcer. Multicultural or multilingual content development involves management of unique workflows and digital publishing systems, and a myriad of activities such as terminology research and copywriting in bi-directional languages, multilingual software and applications, various language fonts, etc. In this environment, co-sourcing is the wiser option.

The advent of transcreation, as opposed to literal translation, offers many advantages to creative agencies and media practitioners. Instead of outsourcing the work to multi-location subsidiaries and having to deal with each and every onsite teams, why not collaborate with an LSP for the total one-stop package to serve your marketing efforts?

The media marketing industry still hasn’t fully exploited the content transcreation efforts that a specialty LSP can offer. An LSP specializing in transcreation can help eliminate linguistic barriers with global communities, especially in the hospitality, travel and lifestyle industries. This creates a wide-open opportunity for entry into global content marketing. With exceptional creative instincts and the support from a reliable LSP, you can manage your multicultural or multilingual campaigns with less stress, shorter turnaround times and better returns for all.

Traditionally, when international media practitioners manage multicultural marketing campaigns, they rely on the combined efforts of the specific account team for the client as well as their location-based creative networks to develop their marketing content. They trust these in-country networks to produce culturally appropriate language-friendly content and media assets relevant to their local markets in respective locations.

For example, a media practitioner who leads campaigns in the Asian markets involves in-network creative teams based in Asia. In this case, although the strategies and campaign directions are centrally managed by the media practitioner, the preparations for each market’s campaign elements — the editorial content and post-production products — are decentrally fulfilled by the in-network creative teams, taking advantage of their local knowledge. Finished or semi-finished content assets are then delivered to the client account team to be assembled and made ready for the campaign launch.

Changing Global Landscapes

In the face of widespread globalization, creative media practitioners have initiated massive consolidations through mergers and acquisitions. Two key groups have emerged:

  • Very large groups — such as WPP, Omnicom and Publicis Groupe — have become Holding Establishments.
  • Renowned consultants — such as IPG, Dentsu and Havas —have grown extensively by acquiring networks in various country locations, companies purchased primarily for their onsite presence and ability to offer respective clients immediate access to vital location-based knowledge.

It’s normal for overseas-based networks to upsize or downsize according to their group’s business cycle, which is also somewhat linked to their client’s business cycle in those territories. But the new normal isn’t tied to brick and mortar. The Internet of Things (IoT) has introduced new perspectives for multicultural content to be almost simultaneously developed and ready for dissemination at a much greater speed and fulfilled at a cost than wasn’t possible a decade ago.

With the convergence of wireless technology and content applications, as well as broader data transmission bandwidths, creative media assets are conveniently uploaded and downloaded. Content in multiple languages can be vetted, proofed and even approved online. Indeed, it has offered content developers so much more convenience and flexibility to directly leverage multi-ethnic resources working in their respective home-countries.

Customize Content for Each Market

Achieving success in a multicultural, multi-language project, requires:

Streamlined Marketing Strategies

Once finalized, the media concepts and content directions can act as source material, especially as they refer to the campaign strategy, editorial guidance and media assets needed to develop the other market’s content assets. With the concepts and strategy in place, the creative design elements become less critical. What is critical for each market’s content is that it be:

  • Consistently adapted to the objectives of the source material
  • Equally impactful and appropriate to the cultural milieu of the respective target audiences

Onsite creative teams often work with a local translation agency or freelance bilingual editors. The onsite creative team’s role during the content localisation workflow has shifted to that of a project coordinator. LSPs, on the other hand, already have project teams consisting of bilingual editors and native web page or print media artists who regularly work together and are capable of independently fulfilling the requirements of localized media assets or the target content of source material.

Allow the Experts to Do What They Do Best

Consider campaigns that need to be in four, five or six languages. The onsite creative team has to deal with several groups of translators and proofreaders on linguistic issues that range from industry-specific terminologies to revision and change tracking, re-editing and customizing content to suit each new target market and solving text display issues — due to space constraints or improper word/paragraph breaks that render words or phrases meaningless — consume enormous amounts of resources. Meanwhile, an LSP is organically structured to undertake multiple language content activities and provide a single-point liaison to manage the respective resources involved.

Arguably, translation and multicultural content workflows aren’t the everyday activities of traditional creative design teams. Hence, media practitioners who partner with LSPs operating with a network of in-country native resources and project management teams are likely to fulfill multicultural content faster, with shorter lead-times and at a significantly lower production cost.

All Avenues of Marketing Are Covered

Some of the areas this partnership addresses include:

  • Audience research. Although research is often time-consuming, it’s necessary to allow creators to “see and feel,” to evaluate market segments for their peculiarities and relationships with the product or service. Research helps determine the right localisation strategy. The purpose is to understand the demographics, psychographics and sociological classifications of the target audiences, as well as the cultural nuances common to the client’s product or service.
  • Content customization. To reach multicultural audiences, marketers should consider a two-prong approach: managing the respective creative elements to develop the source, and creating customized language versions by adapting the source. With the proliferated use of websites that have become vital marketing infrastructures, companies are now enjoying a centrally controlled and versatile media platform.
  • More content control. Not only can you offer immediate dissemination of information on a global scale, but you can also disseminate customized content that is exclusively localized for specific groups of native-language speaking audiences. Media practitioners who collaborate with LSPs benefit from not only providing creative expertise to their clients but also in effectively conceptualizing how respective market’s content should be aligned — achieving better focus on planning and initiating global-wide campaign launches.
  • Cultural connectors. Cultural connectors cover race, religion, language, social status, lifestyle and gender orientation. They have substantial implications for blending in with key groups to win and retain favorable influences on their local communities at large. The way each of these key groups views the product or service can influence how individuals perceive the company that’s behind the product or service. Every advertising practitioner understands this important rule. In a multicultural landscape, it’s equally important that the customized content achieves the right cultural connectors.
  • Outsourcing vs. co-sourcing. Outsourcing means getting work done externally. Even if you have the required skills and resources to accomplish the work internally, it’s often more economical to have it done externally. In multicultural content developments, outsourcing may not be a right solution if you aren’t adequately familiar with the multifaceted processes of multicultural or multilingual project management.

As a service profession, content localisation involves unique workflow processes and procedures — such as terminology research, copywriting in bi-directional languages, multilingual software, fonts, inspecting content entropy and verifying integrity on quality display, among other issues. In all fairness, these are mostly activities that marketing/communication managers and creative teams are less accustomed to, which is why co-sourcing is a wiser option.

End-customers Ultimately Benefit

The roles and the functionality of creative media teams are irreplaceable. However, do not ignore the present-time capabilities of LSPs to localize and populate information online or through various content management systems.

Transcreation through co-sourcing with an experienced LSP offers new perspectives and a greater scope for you and your team, whether your marketing team is internal or external. You benefit if you run a marketing agency that offers these services to your clients targeting global audiences. Compared to the traditional approach taken by the creative industry at large, we see a better option by combining the media practitioner’s good creative instincts and that of LSPs – that allows multicultural content to be managed with less stress and completed in a shorter timeframe… translating to better returns for all.