Translate or transcreate
The split is by content type, and it belongs in the brief. Translate where accuracy is the point: product specifications, ingredients, legal lines, instructions, interface text and support content. Transcreate where effect is the point: headlines, taglines, slogans, jokes, wordplay, calls to action with attitude and scripts built on a cultural reference. Some content sits in between, such as product descriptions with personality, where a faithful translation with a native edit for tone is enough. Mixing approaches in one document causes trouble: a translator told to be creative may alter a legal line, and a creative told to be literal may flatten the only line that mattered.
A transcreation brief per market
A transcreator needs more than the source text. The brief should give the intent of each line, meaning the feeling or action it should produce; the audience; the tone; what must stay fixed, such as brand name, product names, approved claims and legal lines; what may change, such as metaphors, references, examples and imagery cues; and hard constraints such as character counts or voice-over timing. Include the visual, because a line often depends on the image beside it. Ask for two or three options per key line, each with a back-translation and a short rationale, so reviewers at headquarters can judge choices in a language they cannot read.
Humour, idiom and references
These rarely survive translation. Wordplay almost never carries across, so the transcreator must find a different joke that does the same job, or drop the joke. Idioms need local equivalents or plain language. Cultural references, from sport to television, often mean nothing elsewhere, or something unintended. Numbers and colours carry meaning: four is associated with death in Chinese, Japanese and Korean, and the colours linked with mourning or luck differ between cultures. Formality is a decision in many languages, such as Sie or du in German, vous or tu in French, and politeness levels in Japanese. Set it per brand and market, then hold it across every channel.
Where AI fits in transcreation
AI is useful at both ends of the job. Before the native creative starts, it can draft several directions per line, explain what the source line is doing and check lengths against the layout. Afterwards, it can carry the approved transcreation across formats, lengths and channels without drifting from the chosen wording. The creative choice in the middle stays human: which joke, which reference, which register. The studio localises copy into 30 languages with terminology and approved claims enforced, which covers the translated share of a campaign and gives transcreators a correct base for the rest instead of a blank page.
Updated 25 September 2026 · General information, not legal advice. Rules change, so check the current text with your legal team before relying on it.