Transcreation | Definition & Examples
Transcreation is a form of creative translation that preserves tone, style, and emotional impact across languages.
Tools like QuillBot’s Translate can help with the transcreation process.
In Spain, where movies are dubbed, the catchphrase became “Sayonara, baby,” so that the catchphrase would still feel foreign to the local audience.
What is transcreation?
Transcreation is a portmanteau created from the words “translation” and “creation.” It is a process that goes beyond converting text from one language to another. The goal of transcreation is to maintain the tone, style, and intent of the original content while adapting it to be culturally appropriate and engaging for the target audience.
Transcreation was first developed for literary translation, where maintaining the voice and emotional weight of the original text is highly important. It later expanded to other content-driven industries where emotional impact and cultural relevance are crucial, like marketing, advertising, and video games.
Transcreation professionals are sometimes referred to as “transcreators,” but more commonly, they are bilingual or multilingual copywriters with cultural and linguistic expertise.
The benefits of transcreation
There are many benefits of using transcreation instead of just pure translation. Key benefits include:
- It builds trust. The target audience sees that you have a deep understanding of their language and culture, and your messages feel familiar to them, making them more likely to trust in your brand or product.
- It ensures culturally appropriate content. Pure translation (especially machine translation without human intervention) could lead to language that is culturally inappropriate in the target language. Transcreation takes these cultural nuances into account to avoid missteps.
- It increases engagement. If your target audience feels they can trust you, and your content feels tailored to them, there’s a better chance they will engage with your content or product.
- It can boost your SEO. Since transcreation favors content quality and user experience, it could positively impact your SEO.
- It helps you reach “hearts and minds.” Translation reaches the mind, but it can leave out the emotional element that transcreation preserves.
Transcreation vs translation
While transcreation and translation are similar in some ways, there are also key differences.
| Feature | Transcreation | Translation |
|---|---|---|
| Goal | Maintain tone, style, intent, message, and brand voice across language and culture | Maintain meaning across language |
| Creativity level | High | Minimal |
| Cultural adaptation | Extensive; tailored to local norms and preferences | Minimal; translation is more neutral |
| Example use cases | Marketing, advertising, literary works, video games, etc. | Legal documents, technical manuals, academic papers |
The below example is fictitious, but can give you an idea of how transcreation and translation may be used hand-in-hand.
For content intended to evoke emotions, BrewCraft hires a transcreation team. This team transcreates product names, web copies, ad slogans, marketing materials, video scripts, and social media posts to Spanish while also considering how to best adapt the content for a Mexican audience.
BrewCraft works with translators for more technical content, like nutritional labels, product packaging, terms and services, and guides that BrewCraft publishes about how to best brew their coffee with different types of coffee machines.
Transcreation vs localization
While transcreation and localization both adapt content for different regions, they differ in scope. Localization is the adaptation of content, products, or services for another market, and address non-linguistic elements, too.
| Feature | Transcreation | Localization |
|---|---|---|
| Focus | Focuses on cultural relevance and emotional impact | Focuses on cultural relevance, local standards, and local laws/regulations |
| Scope | Limited to written content | More global: written content, images, currencies, user interface, units of measurements and currencies, payment methods, etc. |
| Process | Involves creative adaptation, often changing words, phrases, and imagery | Includes transcreation but also makes non-creative changes (e.g., altering website code to accommodate different versions of content) |
| Used for | Content that requires a cultural and/or emotional connection | Software, websites, products, services, and content that require a functional change |
Transcreation and translation can take place outside of the scope of localization. But when localization occurs, transcreation and translation are often two processes that fall under its umbrella.
Transcreation examples
Transcreation is often used to promote products around the world. Product names, slogans, or descriptions may not resonate in new markets when simply translated.
This pure translation didn’t feel catchy enough for advertisements, so transcreators came up with the following slogans for English-speaking markets: “Kids and grown-ups love it so… the happy world of Haribo.”
This slogan was transcreated for Spanish speaking markets as “Vive un sabor mágico, ven al mundo Haribo” (“Taste the magic, come to Haribo world.”) For the French-speaking world, it’s “Haribo c’est beau la vie, pour les grands et les petits” (“Haribo is a beautiful life for the big and the small”).
Transcreation is also useful when it comes to media. The titles of films and series sometimes incorporate idioms, figures of speech, or cultural details that don’t translate clearly into other languages.
The French version is called La Môme, which refers to Piaf’s nickname as “La Môme Piaf,” meaning “The Sparrow Kid” or “The Little Sparrow.”
Transcreators realized that this cultural detail would not be as widely known in the United States or the United Kingdom as it is in France. So, they used Piaf’s signature song as the title in those markets.
Finally, literary translation relies heavily on transcreation, given that literature is usually highly nuanced, descriptive, and emotional. Moreover, literary devices like metaphors or similes often cannot be translated literally.
To maintain this play on words in other languages, transcreators had to adapt Voldemort’s name. For example:
- In France, he’s Tom Elvis Jedusor (“Je suis Voldemort”).
- In Spanish, he’s Tom Sorvolo Ryddle (“Soy Lord Voldemort”).
- In Danish, he’s Romeo G. Detlev Jr. (“Jeg er Voldemort”).
Frequently asked questions about transcreation
- What is marketing transcreation?
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Marketing transcreation is the process of adapting marketing content from one language to another while preserving the original intent, tone, and brand voice.
It goes beyond direct translation by considering cultural norms, idioms, imagery, and market-specific trends to ensure the message connects with the audience linguistically, culturally, and emotionally.
An example of marketing transcreation is the McDonald’s slogan “I’m lovin’ it.” In Spanish, this became “Me encanta,” which translates literally as “I really like it.”
Transcreators went with this slogan because the verbs for love in Spanish (“querer” or “amar”) are considered too strong to use for food.
QuillBot’s free Translator can aid you in marketing transcreation.
- What is language localization?
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Language localization is the process of adapting a product or service’s translation to a specific country or region so that it feels relevant and accessible to the target audience.
It goes beyond translation by considering linguistic and cultural elements (e.g., idioms, tone, date formats, currency, colors, and images) to ensure the content feels natural and native to the target market. Localization often includes transcreation, a type of creative translation.
QuillBot’s free Translator is one of many tools that can help throughout the localization process.
- How to localize a website?
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Here’s how to localize a website in 10 steps:
- Start with a clear localization strategy
- Do market research on your target areas
- Put a team together, considering translation, transcreation, and engineering
- Do keyword research in your target language
- Internationalize your website with flexible code
- Translate and adapt content
- Adjust formatting and localize visuals
- Localize the user experience and interface
- Test your new website before launching
- Market your website in the new market
There are many tools, like QuillBot’s free Translator, that can help localization teams throughout this process.
