Advertising Translation Services

Understanding creative concepts and maintaining targeted messages is of paramount importance for the growth of international sales and advertising. Globalization has affected the world of translation. With the media revolution, the translator is responsible for every aspect of inter-cultural communication. Wherever the local language is an influential parameter, the translator acts as the decoder , the mediator, or the negotiator. Advertising and design, whether written or audiovisual, has emerged today as one of the areas of activity that make use of the services of specialized translators.


What is Advertising Translation?
Advertising translation is defined as the means of communication of a company exporting its products or services. It is regularly seen in satellite broadcast television channels the same ad campaigns in several languages. In the same way, various monthly or weekly editions of the same magazine enables you to see the same translated advertisements again and again. Translated advertising is the medium to get your products known to a larger audience. Communication becomes effective only after the message has been translated and has a positive impact on the foreign consumer.

Importance of Translations in Advertising
Indeed, the growth of international exchanges requires communication and thus of translation. Advertising translations open new avenues for international trade. The medium of advertising is the radio, press, television, and the Internet. The multinational advertising agencies, the television networks, and the success achieved by multi-language publications have led to the growth of this phenomenon. Companies very well understand that they should adapt their communication to the consumers they are targeting. Thus translation is a business function, the objective of which consists of adapting marketing strategies to a group of market countries. A well-planned advertising campaign can lose its impact if it suffers from an insensitive translation process. Advertising often requires more than a word-for-word translation. A badly translated ad campaign is very harmful, making the brand a laughing stock. Translation companies provide services in customizing and translating your advertisements , so that they communicate the message when presenting your products or services to international markets.

Effects of Advertising Translation
Three types of effects can be observed in translations of advertising campaign:

• Zero effect: The translation of the original message into the languages of the foreign consumers may not bring any change to the status of the company, in terms of brand image as well as commercial repercussions.
  
  
• Positive effect: The translation has a positive effect in the sense that it automatically increases brand awareness as well as increase in demand on the market targeted by the translated campaign.
  
  
• Negative effect: Advertising translations may not always have a positive impact. In some cases translation nullifies the strengths of the company on the international market and produces a negative effect. Translations may not serve the interests of the producers or those of the distributors.

Types of Projects/Work for Translation in the Advertising Industry

• Brochures
• Catalogs
• Leaflets
• Press releases
• Newsletters
• Magazines
• Website Translation
• Flyers and Promotions
• Search Engine Optimization
• International Advertising
• International PPC Advertising

Wrong Translations of Ads
We give below few examples which depict how product names and slogans get lost in wrong translation:
COORS (alcoholic beverages)
English = "Turn It Loose"
Spanish = "Suffer From Diarrhea"

CHEVY (automobiles)
English = "Chevy Nova"
Spanish = "Chevy, It Does Not Go"
PEPSI (soft drinks)
English = "Pepsi Brings You Back to Life"
Chinese = "Pepsi Brings Your Ancestors Back from the Grave"

CLAIROL (beauty & health care products)
English = "Mist Stick"
German = "Manure Stick"

SCHWEPPES (beverages)
English = "Schweppes Tonic Water"
Italian = "Schweppes Toilet Water"

KFC (fast-food chicken)
English = "Finger-Lickin' Good"
Chinese = "Eat Your Fingers Off"