Co-Creation: How to Co-Create with Your Audiences in Their Native Language

Translation, transcreation or co-creation? Every in-language communication project has its own unique set of circumstances and goals. Sometimes the budget is limited, or the timeline is tight and the priority lies in sticking to the budget or delivery date. Other times, the utmost goal lies in resonance — ensuring that the audience doesn’t just understand what is being said, but can relate to it.

The Translation Conversation

At an RMIT Symposium discussing The Future of Multilingual Community Communications in Australia, LEXIGO introduced the Translation Conversation — a model to help you decide which approach is best depending on your priority: budget, speed, or resonance. Translation, at its core, is about communication — communicating effectively with multiple audiences in their native tongue.

What is Co-Creation?

Co-creation is a collaborative design process grounded in the principle that the varied perspectives of different individuals can lead to more innovative, effective, and inclusive outcomes. It’s not just about consulting or getting feedback on preformed ideas — it’s about genuinely integrating different viewpoints, native perspectives and expertise from the outset to shape the direction, content, and execution of a project.

The term co-creation was coined in 2010 by C.K. Prahalad, an Indian-American entrepreneur, and Venkat Ramaswamy, an author and marketing professor, to describe the emerging relationship between customers and companies as a more collaborative one.

Co-creation allows us to create in-language content with audiences and communities, not just for them, ensuring that marketing efforts are as diverse and dynamic as the cultures we aim to engage.

The Value of Co-Creation

The value of co-creation lies in its collaborative process that aims to build trust and mutual respect between businesses and their customers. It can help companies, governments, and communities move forward by creating a collective framework based on shared values and goals.

As the market becomes flooded with more businesses looking to gain your audience’s attention, companies need to find innovative ways to appeal to their customer base. Make your audience part of your process and turn to them to provide the context upon which you can create effective native communication.

The Iterative Process

What makes co-creation unique is the iterative process between you and your audience. Each cycle of customer feedback brings you closer to a final product that truly resonates. Co-creation is not a one-and-done affair but an ongoing process.

Establish clear feedback channels for your community collaborators to tell you what they think, and use the insights you gain to continuously refine your creative elements. Don’t be afraid to release multiple versions of creative based on the feedback and fresh perspectives received. This approach allows you to fine-tune the messaging until it resonates deeply with the community.

LEXIGO’s Native Community Partnerships Panel

At LEXIGO, we created a Native Community Partnerships Panel that we work with on every co-creation initiative to coordinate directly with the community and conduct community checking to ensure that creative elements resonate across the board. This panel ensures that campaigns are not just translated but genuinely crafted with community input from the very beginning.