Amex’s Open Forum recently posted this tweet about entering new markets:
The shortened link points to their article Language Lessons: Tips for Accessing Emerging Markets.
In the article, the writers point out that approximately half the world’s population communicates using just 10 languages—but what do you do if you need to reach a market that doesn’t speak one of them? Continue reading
So you’re thinking about taking your business beyond your home market? Obviously, you will need marketing materials for your new prospective customers. You know that your existing literature, including anything you have online, is focused on your home market, so you will at least get the stuff translated.
What if you’re a US company starting to woo European customers? You already know the Old World is much more fragmented than your American home market, but close to 50 countries and 230 (yes, you read that right, two-hundred-and-thirty) languages? Ouch. Continue reading
There was a hilarious story by Kirsten Grieshaber on Associated Press the other day, Heil Hound: Nazis dogged by Hitler-mocking mutt.
The story about a Finnish businessman’s dog trained to lift its paw in a mock Nazi salute is in itself both amazing and hilarious. There’s some sloppiness, however. Although the people’s names are spelled correctly, a total of three typos have managed to find their way to the name of the businessman’s company, two words. Continue reading
Many people seem to be somewhat unclear about what a B2B copywriter actually does. I am perhaps not one of your run-of-the-mill copywriters in that besides writing copy I also do transcreation, but I thought a quick summary of a month in my professional life might shed some light on what types of assignments I work on.
This month is an excellent cross-section of the versatility of my assignments.
I’m already hearing the muttering from the back row “But what’s your niche?” True, at first sight the above list may seem to include a little everything to everybody. There are, however, two distinct specialities:
That’s the niche: bilingual B2B copywriting, translation and localisation.
Stay tuned. Thanks!
Alma Media, Finland’s second largest media group with an annual turnover of 308 million euro, published its Annual Report for 2009 in early March. The report is published in Finnish and in English.
With the exception of the tables section in the financial statements, I translated the report from Finnish into English. This was the third time Alma Media has assigned the translation to me.
So, if you want to see a recent example of my transcreation work that combines economic, legal and marketing terminology, take a look at the Alma report.
Both language versions are available online for easy comparison (will open in a new window):
If you have similar needs, just let me know! As always, comments are more than welcome.
Years ago, when print advertising was still going strong in the B2B arena, there was an advertising agency working with a client, a paper machine felt manufacturer, who wanted to run a Christmas campaign in the US.
The agency was in Finland, the home country of Santa Claus (although I’ve also read a claim that he lives in New Jersey—obviously an uninformed source). You can reasonably expect a Finnish agency to know all there is to know about Santa.
From there, things started to slip.
Continue reading
I just recently encountered what must be one of the strangest, most unethical ways of doing business.
A client’s ad agency asked me to translate the client’s website, 7 letter-size pages of text in all, into another language by tomorrow.
Tomorrow?
Continue reading