Transcreation goes beyond direct translation – it’s about recreating your brand’s voice and emotion for new audiences. Instead of swapping words from one language to another, creative linguists adapt tone, humour and cultural references so your message feels as if it were written for the target market, not merely converted into that language.
For brands expanding internationally, this is where campaigns either connect deeply – or fall flat.
What is transcreation – and when’s best to use it?
If you want your copy to persuade, inspire or entertain and not just inform, go for transcreation.
Get your copy to land effectively in the target market
- “Our local teams keep rewriting our HQ copy.”
- “The translated version feels flat – it’s technically correct, but it doesn’t sell.”
- “Our brand voice is inconsistent across markets.”
- “We used a direct translation and got negative feedback from customers.”
The brief is the key
Don’t make local teams your unofficial copywriters
- Ensure the tone doesn’t get lost
A phrase that’s playfully ironic in English may sound rude, childish or overly formal in another language. Literal translation can make you sound like a different brand entirely.
- Make sure that humour travels well
Jokes, wordplay and cultural references are notoriously hard to transfer. A pun-based slogan translated word-for-word will usually either sound like nonsense or, worse, cause offense unintentionally.
- Consider cultural context
A concept that’s aspirational in one market can be insensitive in another. Colours, idioms, symbols and even everyday situations carry different emotional weight across cultures.
- Localise your information
Failure to convert measurements and mathematical separators will have a jarring effect on the reader. It’s not just confusing if they see a period used instead of a comma, but may not make any sense at all if they work in metric but see imperial measurements.
Unsure what you actually need? That’s normal.
Many clients come to us saying “We just need this translated” when what they really need is a blend of:
- Translation for factual content (e.g. T&Cs, help articles)
- Localisation for content that functions properly without rewriting the core message
- Transcreation for high‑impact creative assets and sales platforms
- Consultancy on global brand voice and localisation strategy
We can help you define the issue
You don’t have to arrive with the perfect brief. A big part of our job at Media Translations is to help you define the problem:– We can review your existing multilingual content and show where brand voice is breaking.– We’ll flag which assets are fine for standard translation and which are risky without transcreation.– We’ll recommend a pragmatic roadmap that fits your budget and rollout plan.
How transcreation shapes brand voice
Interrogate the brief
At Media Translation, we start by unpacking your brand, target persona, desired emotional response and non-negotiables. If you can’t articulate them yet, we help you do that.
Rebuild the message from the ground up
Adapt tone, not just terminology
Test for cultural and brand fit
How we can help
Based on our experience working with global brands, we’ve built a transcreation approach designed to remove the guesswork:Strategic discovery
We work with your brand, marketing or localisation leads to clarify what your brand should sound like in each market – and where you can’t compromise. Check out our briefing form.
Creative transcreation by specialist linguists
Your content isn’t sent to a generic translator. It goes to creative linguists with marketing backgrounds, native to the target market, who understand nuance, persuasion and storytelling.Collaboration with your local teams
Instead of local offices “fixing” translations after the fact, we involve them early – reviewing options, aligning on tone and capturing feedback that strengthens future work.Consistent frameworks and style guides
Over time, we turn all this into practical tools: tone‑of‑voice guidelines, dos and don’ts, preferred phrasing and cultural best practices per market.Curious what this could look like for your brand?
Explore our transcreation service and case studies to see how we support campaigns across channels and markets.
