A quick question to start us off – how successful do you think the translations of the following slogans are?
‘Just do it’
‘Red Bull gives you wings’
And how would you rate the brand names ‘Audi e-tron’ and ‘Toyota MR2’? No doubt the translations are firmly planted in the minds of the general public. But did they actually hit the mark? To answer this question, we’re diving into the world of specialist translation for advertising texts.
A foray into the world of advertising
We encounter advertising texts every single day – some of them provoke questions; some amuse, reassure or inform us. Advertising texts are one of the most effective weapons in a company’s marketing arsenal. They establish and strengthen a brand to attract new customers.
The AIDA model is a rough framework for developing advertising texts. AIDA stands for Attention – Interest – Desire – Action. The advertising text should grab our attention and generate interest, as well as initiating a desire to buy and prompting us to actually make a purchase. But if a company wants to expand, tap into foreign markets and communicate in another language, specialist translation for advertising texts is a must-have service.
Advertising texts – the pinnacle of specialised translation
The specialist translation of advertising texts, also known as transcreation (i.e. translation + creation), helps you to find a foothold in new countries and language regions. Ideally without making any unfortunate linguistic blunders. Our translators convey your message while taking into account various important factors, such as the geographical target market, the target group and the market sector. The resulting text can be quite different from the original, but it will still elicit the same emotions and reactions from the target audience. This form of adaptation is particularly useful for advertising and marketing texts, since they’re designed to win over the target audience through targeted linguistic references.
Here are a few examples of various advertising texts:
- Advertising campaigns
- Advertising videos
- Digital content (websites, banners, social media posts, newsletters, e-mailings)
- Claims and slogans
- Advertisements
- Brand messaging
- Brand names
Keep a lookout out for slogans and brand names
Now for the answers: Did you find the slogans and brand names in the introductory section convincing? There’s no one-size-fits-all answer to that question. People in German- or Italian-speaking regions wouldn’t spot any problems, even when taking into account the features listed here.
| Slogans | Brand names |
| – rhymes and wordplay – creative – short and snappy – emotional | – readable and writable – unique – short, snappy and simple – sound and look good |
But how would someone in a French-speaking region respond? Would they agree? With the slogans, yes, but with the brand names, maybe not so much. E-tron sounds incredibly similar to the French word étron, which means turd. It seems unlikely that anyone would want to drive around in a car with ‘turd’ on the back… The same is true of the Toyota MR2. In French, MR2 is pronounced em-air-deux – which is close enough to ‘merdeux’ (meaning ‘a***hole’) to pose a significant problem! Just because something works in one language, that doesn’t mean it’s bound to be suitable everywhere in the world. You always need to put yourself in the customer’s shoes and think in their language.
We know and speak the language of our clients!
A lot of work goes on behind the scenes in specialist translations for advertising texts. Marketing, language, culture and creativity are all blended together to form a single phrase or word. Discover the power of specialist translation for advertising texts and expand your marketing strategy across language borders! Get in touch now for a non-binding quote.
