Is Marketing Transcreation Dependent on Human Expertise or Can AI Do It?

In the lead-up to a fashion show in Shanghai in 2018, Dolce & Gabbana committed one of the biggest blunders in marketing history. It released several promotional videos, showing a D&G-clad Chinese woman attempting to eat Italian staple dishes with chopsticks, a Chinese voiceover mocking her miserable attempts to the tune of stereotypical Chinese music. What followed was a nightmare for the Italian luxury fashion house. It is a prime example of marketing transcreation gone wrong.

Exporting light-hearted, self-deprecating Italian humor to the Middle Kingdom might have seemed like a fun idea to Italian creatives who like laughing at themselves (you know those spaghetti-breaking clips on Tik Tok?), but the Chinese are a proud nation and did not receive the tongue-in-cheek videos as such. The failure to grasp the foreign culture resulted in huge revenue loss for D&G, with Chinese consumers not forgiving them to this day.

How did nobody, not even Chinese creatives involved in producing the ad, realize what was going to happen? Localization and transcreation were not new concepts in 2018, and ensuring the cultural adaptation of marketing material must have been part of the job description of at least some of the involved parties. Maybe they didn’t want to upset their bosses, maybe they thought Dolce & Gabbana was too big a name to get such backlash, maybe they were ignored… What this example comes to show, however, is that no brand is too big to suffer from inappropriate translations, and transcreation should not be taken lightly.

What is the Difference between Translation and Transcreation

This example shows the real-life damage a lack of proper translation, be it in word, visuals, or other elements, can have on a brand’s image, its finances and expansion plans. There weren’t any language errors in the clip, yet it was all wrong. No translator worth their salt would ever claim that translation is just rendering words from one language to another, that cultural norms and understanding don’t play a significant role in basic translations too, but as the D&G scandal showed, sometimes even the comprehensive approach to translation is not enough, and good transcreation is needed.

The difference between translation and transcreation is that whereas translation tries to stay as faithful as possible to the original wording, transcreation tries to recreate the impact and emotional resonance of the original, even at the price of sacrificing formulation similarities. Of course translation, too, aims to transmit the same “voice,” message and feeling of the original, but it has little freedom to depart from the source material and must render it within clear textual boundaries. And of course transcreation must remain faithful to the source language, but in general terms, as the term suggests, transcreators “create” something new, rewriting marketing campaigns, websites, presentations, etc. Their goal is to hit the same spot but through a different trajectory.

As mentioned, translation involves cultural adaptation as well, but on a minimal level. For example, when translating a manual, measurements should always be changed to the locally used format, idioms should never be translated literally (except in rare cases where the idiom is the same in the target language), and so on. Technical documentation, legal agreements, clinical trials and the like require translation by someone that is knowledgeable in the respective field and can therefore make the necessary cultural and professional adjustments.  But when it comes to more creative texts that aim to resonate with readers on an emotional level, it will almost always be necessary to opt for transcreation, because emotions are closely linked to culture and can vary greatly, even in adjacent countries or regions, sometimes even cities. Transcreation is an infinitely more complicated process than translation and requires a combination of skills that for others makes up their entire profession: translator, content- or copywriter, brand specialist, sociologist, market analyst, and more.  What, then, must a transcreator do well?

Key Elements of Successful Transcreation

1. Breaking Down Strategic Intent

Transcreation begins with understanding the strategic intent behind the marekting message he or she must translate. It’s like working backwards towards the beginning of the branding and marketing process and then retracing it in a different language and culture. How did the existing marketing campaign come about? What is the brand trying to achieve? What emotions are they aiming to evoke? What action do they want consumers to take? By focusing on these underlying objectives rather than the specific words used, transcreators can create content that achieves the same goals in a culturally appropriate way.

2. Rendering Emotional Resonance

As part of the first step, the process inevitably leads to understanding the emotional connection the campaign is trying to establish, and how it does so. A transcreator must have strong analytical and creative skills, not just to understand the emotional aim behind a campaign, but to know how to effectively do the same in a different language. This can also mean that as part of the transcreation process, we might conclude that a brand will do better to hit a different note, i.e. emotion, in another language, since that emotion has different connotations in that culture. Emotional resonance is therefore not the end but a mean, and ultimately it’s its consequence – be it to establish a relationship with consumers or for them to take action –that truly matters.

3. Adapting to Local Dynamics

Market-specific knowledge plays a vital role in transcreation, and even with the adaptation of linguistic and cultural norms, campaigns can fall on deaf ears if local dynamics are not accounted for. Local competitors, consumer behavior patterns, regulatory environments, and current cultural trends all play a role in shaping marketing campaigns, and it is a transcreators job to raise doubts and questions about how a campaign should or shouldn’t be adopted. Especially in the fast-moving cultural environment we live in, and which marketing professionals more and more often want to take advantage of with swift campaigns, many strategies can work temporarily in one location but not in another.

4. Conversion

All the above is irrelevant if the campaign doesn’t do what it is supposed to do: convert. Whether its purpose is informational or transactional, the campaign will be measured by its response, and the transcreator must use his linguistic skills to achieve the stated goals. Hard as it may sound, transcreation is about de- and re-constructing a marketing campaign, taking into account strategic intent, emotional and cultural resonance and local market dynamics, and crafting a compelling and converting campaign. Remember what we said above about the many hats a transcreator wears?

The Future of Marketing Transcreation in a Global Market

It’s no secret that machine translation and artificial intelligence are upending traditional translation. However, the more creative and complex the translation, the more human involvement is paramount. Marketing transcreation is therefore rather shielded from automated processes. Moreover, the increasing interconnectedness of markets means that it’s likely that the demand for skilled transcreation will continue to grow. This is particularly true as brands expand into emerging markets with distinct cultural traditions and consumer behaviors.

As usually happens when new technologies disrupt long-established work processes, automation will replace basic tasks but demand for specialized skills actually rises. Machine translation has already reached relatively high translation levels for non-creative texts, especially in common languages, which isn’t to say that businesses should blindly rely on them with important documentation – they shouldn’t if they do not want to pay the high price a single substantial mistake can cause. But it is here that the human vs AI fight is battled out. Meanwhile, specialized types of translation, like marketing transcreation, will only increase in importance.