One of our clients, a marketing agency here in Munich, received the request from their client — a German corporation in the consumer electronics industry — to develop and execute a campaign for their presence at a trade fair later that year. All marketing collateral, from the microsite and press release for their feature product, through to the accompanying blog posts, videos and social media posts, had to be in English. This was going to be an international trade fair, after all.
Based on past experience, our client knew that simply having content translated for a project like this wouldn’t be enough to make their client shine in the exhibition hall. So, they called on our multilingual team of copywriters, who were able to switch back and forth between both languages to fill in any gaps and ensure that tone, style and brand messaging were consistent and on point across all channels.
A melding of language services across the value chain
By the time our client came to us, the microsite and press release were already in German. It’s on these two larger promotional materials — in addition to a detailed campaign concept and strategy briefing outlining the campaign’s core messages — that all other content would be based. But before we could produce that content, the press release and microsite had to be brought into English.
Our copywriters were tasked with producing English versions of the microsite and press release. But they didn’t simply translate the German texts. They also transcreated the slogan and catchphrase featured on the microsite so that they’d be as effective for English speakers as the originals were in German. And, to make the message resonate even more with the target audience, one of our copywriters carried out a Senior Edit on the English copy his colleagues had produced.
Bringing in the sound studio
Meanwhile, our client sent over their promotional videos, which would not only be imbedded in the microsite, but also shared via social media and played on loop on the video wall at their client’s booth. At the trade fair, the videos needed English subtitles. For all other platforms, the voice-overs needed to be changed into English. So, we brought our audiovisual team on board.
After adapting the original German script in English for screen readability, our audiovisual team headed over to our partner sound studio. There, they worked together with a professional native voice-over talent to record tracks that were both inviting and engaging in English.
Striking the right tone
While our audiovisual team was at the sound studio, our team of copywriters got to work on the blog and social media posts. Our client requested a total of five blog posts, which would be shared before, during and after the trade fair. These had to appear in both languages on the end client’s bilingual website. And because readers in different cultures generally have different reading styles and preferences, our copywriters produced blog posts from scratch based on the detailed briefing we received from our client.
Once the blog posts were finalized and approved, the same copywriters got to work on the social media posts, which featured links to all the promotional materials. And because our copywriters had been involved in the project early on, they knew exactly what messages needed to be conveyed via social media to reinforce the end client’s brand identity, all while promoting their presence at the fair as well as their feature product.
A riveting campaign to the very end
We were able to accompany our client all the way to the home stretch of their campaign. By involving our multilingual copywriters, editors and audiovisual experts in the project, we were able to work with our client in tandem while flexibly adapting our workflow along the way. This ensured the campaign could be launched in time for the trade fair countdown and that it really stood out.
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