What’s the Difference Between Translation, Creative Translation and Transcreation?

You have your content ready to go.

Your readers eager to dive into your words, and you have been working for months with professionals to upsell your products. This means SEO collaborations, trafficking partners, and marketing research day after day.

Your team is already exhausted, but congrats, you've finished! Or have you?

Welcome, to the wondrous world of translation.

The Three Types of Translation

I feel you. You can't forget your international audience. Their investment is key, especially these days with so many brands creating e-content and upgrading their international sales.

It's time for translation. Or is it creative translation? Or even, transcreation?

Yes, there is more than one option. So, which service should you go for?

All three job types will get your content translated – but depending on your goal, one type may be better suited for your text than the other. Keep reading, to find out which solution will best meet the need of your international audience.

What is Translation?

Best for: A true-to-source, fluent translation

Looking for a clear, informative, and to-the-point translation? Then a traditional Translation job type is the way to go.

Just to name a few examples maybe, you are planning on translating informative texts, training material, technical documentation, or product descriptions?

If you are expecting an objective translation and do not wish to create an emotional response from your readers, this is the best option.

Whether the translation is written from scratch or as a result of post-edited machine translation, both options will offer a translation that is as faithful to the source as possible while still sounding natural and fluent.

The outcome won't read as a translation but won't distance itself too much from the original text either. You are not looking for a high degree of creativity.

What is Creative Marketing Translation?

Best for: A localised, creative translation

This job type is for you if your content needs localisation and creativity to produce the target translation.

Perhaps you have your monthly newsletter, an advert for your latest product, or a corporate presentation that needs translating. In that case, a Creative Marketing Translation is a perfect fit. Our translators will provide you with engaging texts of the highest quality.

Creative translation specialists will focus on the message, story, and local culture to deliver the best translated content.

If your written content is creative and you wish to have this creativity reflected in the translation, you should opt for the Creative Marketing Translation job. Our translators will keep the text structure; however, the style and tone of voice will be adapted to your international audience, rendering an idiomatic and readable text.

Upon delivery, we will most probably also offer some comments and suggestions.

What is Transcreation?

Best for: A localised, emotive translation

Transcreation is as close to copywriting as you can get! A creatively translated and final localised version, focused on appealing to emotions to provide the best possible translated curated content.

Do you want to localise your product name? Perhaps a slogan or advertising scripts?

The Transcreation job will allow you to translate your existing material into a new language with the creativity level and style to reach your target market.

It is similar to a Creative Marketing Translation job but differs in that the transcreator will move away from your content to convey the message, concept, and tone of voice in the new language. Your content is the starting point, giving our transcreator the freedom to explore multiple options per item. You can expect to receive suggestions, recommendations and even explanations, really getting you involved in the creative process with a fixed number of feedback rounds.

Our specialist will rework the options based on your feedback in close collaboration with your creative team to choose the best option.

Translation, Creative Translation and Transcreation: What’s Your Best Fit?

These three options are particularly interesting and will help your business reach a global audience. You need to choose wisely and find out which one suits you best.

And remember, all our translators, creative translators and transcreators:

• Are professionals and translate exclusively into their native language
• Have a recognised graduate qualification in translation and/or two to five years of experience
• Are experienced and specialised in the required subject area

If you have any questions about anything we have covered above or would simply like to know more about how LanguageWire can help your business succeed in a global market, please contact us.

Our language experts will help you select the right translation job type for your multilingual project.