International Translation Day: Keeping Communication Wow Across Markets

Amongst all of the businesses today, the sectors of media and mass communication have been transformed more than ever by the rapidity with which technology has rendered the world borderless.

Previously, only big budget media products could ever hope to be distributed worldwide. Nowadays, anything that anyone has produced can be distributed with great success, practically for free, as long as you have access to a thing called the internet.

This has increased the pressure on big budget projects more than ever to succeed. Where they previously only had to battle each other, now they have to contend with the random cheaply made viral that could be an even bigger hit than their own material.

Particularly in the fields of brand marketing and blockbuster television shows and film production, the production, let alone the marketing budgets, for one campaign often are more than enough to haul a couple of third world countries out of staggering poverty.

This has led many media organisations to re-think the way they talk to their markets, with the increased pressure to make distribution and marketing more effective than ever to recoup multi-million budgets.

Recently, more and more media companies, such as advertising agencies and television networks, have been relying on translation companies to deliver more effective sales and distribution platforms for their products. This trend has arisen from the expertise that these organisations have gained: that it takes more than knowledge of a mother tongue to create an authentic translation that preserves the impact their materials were created to deliver.

To gain better insight into the translation process, an effective translator who is a specialist in the communications sector has the experience of not just knowing a language at native level, but are also able to assess sectoral trends in linguistic styles and are up to speed on the speaking/listening cadence of a specific audience demographic. They are also aided by a depth of cultural knowledge, not just of the specific country they are translating the work for, but also specifically an understanding on how a certain sector communicates in a certain country in order to connect with their audience more effectively.

It is the ability to assess a multitude of factors involved in communication that makes a professional translator such an effective tool in making sure your materials retain the desired emotional impact across markets when they are translated.

The choice of an appropriately skilled translator for your creative materials is key. It will spell the difference between a film being marketed correctly or incorrectly. For instance ‘Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs’ became ‘It’s Raining Falafel’ in Israel, and ‘Bad Santa’ became ‘Santa is a Pervert’ in the Czech Republic.

So if you’re not quite ready for your communication to get lost in translation have a chat with a reputable service provider who can provide you with the necessary expertise.