Transcreation

Creative rebuilt in-language so it does the same job as the original, rather than saying the same words.

Transcreation starts where translation runs out. A translator's obligation is to the source. A transcreator's obligation is to the effect.

The test is simple. If your headline is translated accurately and stops being persuasive, the translation succeeded and the campaign failed. Transcreation is what you buy when the second outcome is the one that matters.

What changes

Almost everything except the strategic intent. The metaphor changes, because metaphors are the first thing to break across a language. The rhythm changes. The cultural reference changes, or gets replaced with one that carries the same weight for that audience. Sometimes the entire proposition is re-angled, because the benefit that leads in English is not the benefit that leads in Vietnamese.

What doesn't change is the brief: the audience, the action you want, the constraints you can't move, the tone the brand has to hold. That is what a transcreator works to, and it's why a transcreation brief looks like a creative brief rather than a translation purchase order.

How it runs

You brief the intent, not the copy: what this has to make someone do, and what would count as it working.
A creative writer who is a native speaker of the target language develops options, usually two or three routes rather than one answer.
Each option comes back with a back-translation and a rationale, so an English-speaking approver can see what it says and why it was chosen.
You choose, we refine, and the final line is checked by a second linguist for anything the creative energy ran past.

When to use it, and when not to

Use transcreation for taglines, campaign concepts, headlines, subject lines, video scripts, radio, social and anything where tone carries the message. Don't use it for consent forms, policy, legislation or clinical instructions, where fidelity to the source is the whole point and creative licence is a liability.

Most campaigns need both: transcreation for the layer that persuades, translation for the layer that informs. Deciding which is which at brief stage saves an argument later.

Common questions

Speak to our team

How is transcreation priced?

By time and creative scope, not per word, because the output is often shorter than the input and the work is in the thinking. A campaign line for one language typically involves concept development, two or three routes, back-translation and refinement. Expect it to sit closer to a copywriting rate than a translation rate, and to be a small fraction of the production budget it protects.

How do we approve work in a language nobody on our team reads?

Through back-translation and rationale. Every option comes back with a literal English rendering of what it says plus a written explanation of the cultural reasoning behind the choice. Where the stakes justify it, we test the shortlisted options with the target community before you commit, which turns an approval into a decision with evidence behind it.

Can our existing tagline be transcreated, or does it need to change?

Sometimes it survives, more often it needs re-angling, and occasionally it has to be abandoned for a particular language. A line built on English wordplay has no equivalent in Khmer, and forcing one produces something that reads as a translation error. We tell you which category a line falls into before work starts rather than after.