When capturing the meaning is not enough and you need localized copy that will do justice to a text that is culture-specific, packed with puns or highly creative… that’s where a transcreation specialist comes in.

Our team will endeavour to produce content that will trigger the same emotions and response in the target language as you intended for your original copy, all in a perfectly natural rendition.

HARIBO gets it

“Kids and grown-ups love it so, the happy world of Haribo.”

The perfect slogan associated with a catchy tune that sticks in your mind. Who would have thought this was a translation, or rather a transcreation? The original slogan was in fact in German: “Haribo macht Kinder froh, und Erwachsene ebenso”, which roughly translates to “Haribo makes children happy, and grown-ups too”.

The challenge here was to capture that idea of a product appealing to people of all ages, with a message as playful as the original. And, of course, it had to rhyme as well, which would have been impossible with a literal translation.

The priority was of course given to the rhyming, something that would have been impossible to achieve with a simple translation.

They pulled it off in French too: “Haribo, c’est beau la vie, pour les grands et les petits”!

Wise NIKE

Sometimes, the best choice in localization is not to localize at all. Launched in 1988, the “Just do it” campaign was on every billboard around the world for two decades and is still a major part of pop culture.

Three words, eight letters and an incredibly effective message, all of which made it an extremely challenging slogan to adapt. After toying with several ideas and consulting with the transcreation team, the Swoosh brand decided it was better to leave the slogan as it was in countries where it could be understood, a strategy that paid off handsomely.