Transcreation is the translation of creative content, or more precisely the transfer of creative content into another language.

The first stage consists in fully understanding all of the meaning, on the different levels, of a message or a catchy slogan, in order to then try to transpose it into one or more target languages and consequently into one or more targeted cultural environments. The idea is thus to preserve the style, the tone and as far as possible, the rhythm of a message while adapting it to the target culture.

Transcreation thus involves more adaptation and re-creation than simply translating. A translation, especially a technical translation, has to be faithful to the source and has to use precise lexicons and “bijective” correspondences.

Transcreation does away with these constraints as the most important thing is no longer to transmit meaning but rather “impact”, or in other words feeling. The result is rarely the same as the original and it often happens that for a given message the transcreator will suggest several alternatives for the target content. In the same way as messages sometimes emerge from brainstorming sessions, the transcreated message is determined following discussion between the author-creator and the transcreator.

In the translation field, localisation consists in adapting linguistic content to the realities of the countries for which the content is intended. The limits of this adaptation must be clearly defined and agreed upon by the requester and the translator. Localisation can concern measurement units, particular formats for dates, addresses and telephone numbers, but can also have a more significant impact on the text itself when specific cultural markers (first and last names, customs, etc.) are required

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