What German isn’t familiar with advertising slogans such as “Quadratisch, praktisch, gut” from Rittersport or proverbs like “Vorfreude ist die schönste Freude”? These kinds of advertising slogans and proverbs are melodious and memorable to a native German speaker’s ears. The Rittersport slogan has fulfilled its purpose in advertising: most people would instantly associate “Quadratisch, praktisch, gut” with Rittersport chocolate without even having to mention the product name. Would a 1:1 translation into English serve the same purpose as the original German slogan? Probably not. This is why Rittersport advertises its chocolate in the USA with the slogan “Quality. Chocolate. Squared”.

Proverbs are just as difficult to translate into another language. The word “Vorfreude” does not exist as such in Italian. It can only be represented, described and paraphrased with other concepts. This is where 1:1 translation reaches its limits and “transcreation” is called for.  “Transcreation” is a combination of the words “translation” and “creation” and means something like creative translation. This type of translation has established itself particularly in recent years. More and more companies are making use of transcreation for their advertising campaigns. Why? It’s very simple: promoting and advertising a product abroad well requires more than a 1:1 translation. “Square. Practical. Good” is a direct translation of the German slogan, but would probably would not be as well received in the United States as “Quality. Chocolate. Squared”.
Cultural differences, specific characteristics of the local market, the diversity of language concepts, etc. must be taken into account when trying to position a product abroad correctly. Transcreation is also becoming more important due to increasing digitalisation: the need to provide multilingual content on the web and search engine optimisation are forcing content managers to rethink their work if they want keep up with international competition. This is also because most people prefer to read information in their native language.

Achieving the best result for the customer requires the expertise of an experienced transcreator who has the necessary linguistic skills as well as marketing and sales knowledge . What is important in the transcreation process is coordination with the customer —this is the only way to achieve satisfactory results. 

*) Now it’s over to you! Can you come up with English slogans for the ones we could not find an equivalent for? If you have other interesting examples of transcreation, you are welcome to send them to us (jennifer.full@enssner.de).