Simply translating an ad into Spanish is easy, but not effective
As seen on Campaign US
How to use transcreation to go deeper with U.S. Hispanic audiences:
In today's diverse market, traditional demographic segmentation is no longer sufficient to create meaningful connections with audiences. The US Hispanic population, accounting for nearly 52% of total growth in the U.S. and commanding $2.5 trillion in annual buying power, represents a significant business opportunity for brands. In fact, most US population growth Post COVID is from Hispanic people and by the year 2060, over 1 in 4 Americans will be Hispanic. To put it more plainly, the time for brands to connect deeply with this audience was yesterday.
The Challenge:
With limited budgets, many clients get asked to do more with little. Therefore, in their attempts to reach this audience, they default to doing straight translations of “General Market” work. While good intentions, this aims for efficiency over effectiveness which is a waste of business dollars.
Doing a straight translation of an ad into Spanish often results in ineffective work because of cultural nuances (even within the Hispanic community itself), language differences, and expressions that can get lost in a literal translation, leading to misunderstandings or even harmful creative work.
To truly resonate with this diverse and dynamic group, marketers must move beyond translation and localization to embrace transcreation.
What is Transcreation?
Transcreation is process that includes language but also applies critical cultural nuances, values, perspectives and brand priorities to creative work.
This guide acknowledges that every client and/or campaign has its own circumstance when it comes to reaching Hispanic audiences. While it would be nice to create bespoke work for each Multicultural population, that would be unrealistic and sometimes unnecessary.
This guide is also NOT meant to be the magic bullet for the US Hispanic advertising. Every brief should be handled appropriately and accordingly to the situation they are in. Ideally, your brand will have a US Hispanic or Multicultural plan and/or process put into place. This guide is meant to help brands or agency teams that don’t have a process or are just beginning to build a relationship with these audiences.
When to use transcreation?
When you have one marketing brief that’s meant to solve both “General Market” and Hispanic in the same brief.
When clients ask for your “General Market” work to be translated into Spanish.
When production time and dollars are a barrier.
The Approach
Transcreation can live on a spectrum of 3 different paths to a marketing brief. Each path varies based on the US Hispanic business opportunity so ensure your strategy and insight teams are involved. Let’s assume your brand doesn’t have much data or cultural insights on the Hispanic market. In that case, you may need to pull data via resources available (e.g., MRI/Simmons, GWI, KANTAR, etc.)
Path 1: Language Adaptation
Strategic Identification: Teams identified there is low business opportunity + a relevant insight that will connect with both Hispanic and GM audiences. Even better if it’s a culture led insight.
Creative Output: A creative expression that is properly adapted in Spanish with the same message and RTBs. This is the bare minimum approach. You cast representation of your Hispanic audience or you might have different bilingual talent that can navigate both the “General Market” and in-language creative.
Example: ATT Wireless (Inclusive Mass, US Hispanic)
Path 2: Language & Culture
Strategic identification: Teams identified there is a strong business opportunity + and authentic storytelling opportunity. For example, how US Hispanic celebrate the holidays will look much different than how most American Non-Hispanic White family would.
Creative Output: One creative concept that gets expressed differently for the Hispanic market. This might be recreating scenarios w/sublet cultural cues, environment, behaviors and values.
Example: Toyota Grand Highlander (Inclusive Mass, US Hispanic)
Path 3: Language, Culture & Unique Consumer Need
Strategic Identification: This approach is the most bespoke of the three. It happens with your teams have identified that there is a strong business opportunity and a distinct consumer tension for your US Hispanic audience. For example, Healthcare barriers and approaches are very different for US Hispanics vs. NH-White populations. therefore, your creative might also need a different message in addition to a different creative expression.
Creative Output: A unique creative expression that solves a unique tension for your US Hispanic audience. While under the same strategy, this will likely result in a different message and RTBs in addition to different talent and tone of your ad.
Example: Trulicity (Inclusive Mass, US Hispanic)