Running a business on a foreign market requires an entrepreneur to develop a separate growth strategy. Creating one requires not only knowledge of a country’s statistics, but also of its prevailing culture and realities. To make a written text, a recording, a video game or a film script popular abroad, translating the text is not enough. We need to present it in a way that is not only understandable to the recipient, but also evokes the same emotions as the original. The same is true for marketing texts and advertisements. Here too, translation alone is not enough, and in many cases it can even produce the opposite of the intended result.
Transcreation – what is it?
When running a business abroad, in many cases transcreation – a creative process aimed at conveying the meaning and emotions of the original message – proves far more useful than translation. A transcreator has a lot of freedom in choosing words, and thanks to their creativity and knowledge of the target country’s cultural realities, they create content that is attractive to foreign audiences. Using transcreation services is particularly useful when our campaign is based on elements related to culture and customs. Let’s assume the company we work for is from the United States and is a chain of so-called „brunch spots”, i.e. places where you can eat brunch (a meal combining features of breakfast and lunch, usually eaten in the late morning). However, in Poland the reality is completely different – practically no one eats brunch and there is no demand for it. In such a case, a campaign is needed that, instead of focusing on the restaurant’s original purpose, shows what kind of place it is, for whom, and what emotions are associated with visiting it.
Is transcreation a new trend?
The term „transcreation” itself comes from two English words, translation and creation, which respectively mean „tłumaczenie” (translation) and „tworzenie” (creation) in Polish.