Transcreation

Transcreation is writing a line again for a new market so that it does the job the original did, even when the new words have little in common with the old ones. Wikipedia's article on transcreation gives the name as a blend of "translation" and "creation", for adapting a message to another language while keeping its intent, style, tone and context. It is used for the copy whose effect matters more than its wording: slogans, headlines, ad copy, product names, calls to action.

Transcreation, translation and localization#

The three overlap, and it helps to place them by what each one is allowed to change.

• Translation keeps the meaning and changes the language. A faithful translation of a sentence says what the sentence said.
• Localization keeps the purpose of the page and changes whatever the page assumes about its reader, such as the currency, the date format or the address form, along with the language.
• Transcreation keeps the purpose of a single line and is free to change its meaning, its imagery and its length to get there.

So transcreation is a part of localization, applied to the few lines where a faithful translation would fall flat. The article on localization vs translation shows one landing page translated, then localized, and marks the headline as the point where transcreation takes over.

When a line needs transcreation#

A line usually needs it when it rests on something that does not travel:

• Wordplay or a rhyme, which almost never survives translation.
• A cultural reference, such as a holiday, a sport or a deadline only one country has.
• A tone the target language handles differently. A cheeky English headline can sound rude in a language where shoppers expect a formal register.
• A brand or product name that means something unfortunate, or nothing, in the new language.

Most of a website does not need it. Help pages, product specifications, legal text and checkout labels should be translated faithfully, because a reader relies on them meaning exactly what the source meant.

Who does it, and how to brief it#

Transcreation is copywriting in the target language, so it is done by a copywriter who writes in that language and knows the market. A good brief gives them the purpose of the line, its audience, the tone, any words that must stay (a brand name, a legal phrase), the space it has to fit, and two or three versions the brand has already rejected. Expect more than one option back, and test the result with someone from the market before it goes live.

Transcreation in LangRelay#

LangRelay translates pages with AI, live by default, with free checks that hold a page with untranslated text, the wrong language or a changed price, so faithful translation is the default. Transcreation happens when you review a page. A reviewer clicks the headline on the rendered page in the Visual editor and rewrites it, and the rewrite becomes that line's translation. Relay, the agent in the LangRelay Dashboard, can offer two to four wordings for a selected line to start from. Either way, the new line is your own edit, so it goes live when you approve it, whatever the Site's publishing setting.

For a whole market's worth of changes beyond single lines, see the website localization guide. Machine vs human translation covers where people fit into an AI translation workflow.