The translation of technical marketing and advertising texts puts to the test the writing style and the imagination and linguistic creativity of the translator, since this kind of material often contains terms and set phrases that cannot be translated straight away, but require a reinterpretation and reformulation with different words that convey the same idea but flow smoothly in the target language. The task becomes even more challenging when the source text uses ambiguity as an expressive device, a frequent resource in many advertising and marketing pieces. In many cases, there are no equivalent terms in the target language, so the translator must act more as a copywriter, seeking imaginative solutions to the translation challenges.
Technical marketing: the hard part
When, in addition to its primary marketing purpose, the material contains technical elements specific to the client’s technological realm, the translator must be knowledgeable enough about the field to fully grasp all the technical nuances of the product or service, which requires, in addition to an excellent writing style, a deep knowledge background of the relevant subject matter.
Our services in the area of translation of specialised marketing material include:
- Press announcements
- Advertising brochures
- Campaign plans
- Marketing texts for online ads
- Signage and external advertisements
- Scripts for video ads
- Subtitling
- Product presentations to customers
Conveying the message when the client is the expert
The translation of marketing documentation pertaining to products or services addressed to users with specialised technical knowledge poses requirements beyond those usually found in the advertising of consumer products and services. The technical difficulty of the source text adds to the challenging style characteristics of advertising copy, with requires flair for nuance, accuracy, clarity in the choice of wording, and elegance when it comes to conveying to the target language the (sometimes ambiguous) meanings and expressions used in source texts, without the resulting text «sounding like a translation». This is one of our specialities: transmitting complex information to readers who know the matter.
