What is transcreation?

The short version:
Transcreation is when translation (what translators do) and copy creation (what copywriters do) come together in one expert process. 

The slightly longer version:
Transcreation is about creating the right balance between translation and copy creation, based on a source text and, more importantly, a brief from the client. As such, transcreation services span an entire continuum, from translation on the one end of that continuum to (re)creating copy from scratch on the other end, with varying degrees of adaptation and rewriting as the brief and the cultural contexts dictate.

Meet Transcreation Expert

Nina Sattler-Hovdar

Nina Sattler-Hovdar is the founder, owner, and brain behind Transcreation Experts.

Nina is a graduate translator who grew up in Norway and Austria. She is probably the best known transcreator in the German market, with decades of experience in translating and writing texts that are meant to inform, engage, and inspire.

After graduating with a Master’s degree in translation and interpretation, and following a short stint as a conference interpreter in Central Europe, Nina worked for several years in executive market and consumer research positions in the Americas, coordinating many international corporate accounts. With her combined experience from the translation and marketing worlds, she specializes in advertising, corporate communication, public relations and other texts that, due to their business-critical nature, require top skills in writing for different B2B and B2C audiences. She is also the author of two acclaimed books on transcreation and a frequent speaker.

Nina is fluent in German, English, Norwegian, and Spanish.

Knowing when to translate and when to rewrite, based on a client brief, is the special expertise that I help my clients with.

As a transcreator, I combine longstanding translation experience with profound experience as a market researcher (in both quantitative and qualitative studies) and copywriting for both B2B and B2C purposes.

Clients appreciate my unswerving dedication to crafting German texts based on their English or Norwegian source texts and adapting them to target reader perceptions — which is exactly what transcreation is about.

I am also a proud member of the American Translators Association (ATA) and the German Federation of Interpreters and Translators (BDÜ).

Contact me if you are interested in learning more about my transcreation services.

My highly praised German book on transcreation (“Translation-Transkreation – Vom Über-Setzen zum Über-Texten”) was published by the German Federal Association of Interpreters and Translators (BDÜ) in 2016, as the first (and up to that point only) book on the market dealing specifically with the subject of transcreation in a business context. Get fit for the future of transcreation is an English sequel to that book, with many additions, including checklists, workflows, and a bonus chapter answering more than 60 frequently asked questions.

As a widely recognized expert in transcreation I am often asked to deliver speeches, workshops, and webinars — both for freelance and in-house linguists, project managers, sales managers, account managers, and business development executives.

In 2021, I was also retained as a transcreation consultant by the international market research and consulting firm Nimdzi, and am regularly delivering workshops and webinars for their clients in that capacity.

Contact me if you are interested in engaging me as a speaker or for a custom workshop specifically addressing the needs of your company. I am also available for one-on-one individual coaching sessions.

ATA member

LET ME HELP YOU LOOK GOOD IN GERMAN

Communicating with people — clients, employees, partners — in other markets can be challenging. Often there isn’t just the language that divides you, but also the way people think and read between the lines. Nuances can be overlooked or misunderstood. The consequences can be immediate or long-term, and multiple times the cost of engaging a professional team with decades of local market experience. My team and I are here to help you avoid the pitfalls and take the pain out of:

Transcreations

Transcreation is a service that encompasses translation, copywriting, and intercultural consultancy. Examples where you need transcreation can be brochures, employee communications, website copy, press releases, and more generally, marketing collateral of all kinds. Transcreations are the right choice for any text that is meant to engage and inspire.

Translations

Well-written, specialist translations are the right choice when you need to know exactly what the source text says, down to the smallest detail, without cultural adaptations. We are here to help with translations especially of legal and financial documents such as contracts and agreements, financial reports, market research and other types of business-critical documents.

Copywriting

Sometimes you may not have any source text at hand and need new content written from scratch. Or you have a preliminary version and need someone to copy-edit it. A media statement, a local e-mail campaign, or website updates, for instance. Our copywriting teams can help with that, too. Currently we offer this service for German and English only.

Transcreation Consultancy

This service is for you if you need

solutions to improve international brand reputation and sales

and want to:

FIND out how transcreation can help you achieve that

GET HELP with recruiting, testing and training transcreation talent

BUILD your own in-house transcreation capabilities

OPTIMIZE your current transcreation workflows and outputs

SOLVE other issues critical to international brand communications

WANT TO LEARN MORE ABOUT TRANSCREATION?

GET FIT FOR THE FUTURE OF TRANSCREATION:

A handbook on how to succeed in an undervalued market

€28.00

Get fit for the future of transcreation is a business companion for linguists and language service providers interested in becoming transcreation experts.

Transcreation, a service that combines translation with copywriting skills, is required for most marketing, corporate communication, public relations, and advertising texts, and more generally for all types of texts that are meant to enhance a company’s or a brand’s reputation and sales.

This book seeks to answer all the questions that are typically raised about transcreation by both providers and buyers of transcreation services.

An eye-opening read, packed with practical lessons from a transcreation practitioner with more than 25 years of industry experience.

Testimonials & Reviews

WHAT PEOPLE SAY

Brilliant workshop

Workshop participant

“I just wanted to thank you once more for the brilliant workshop on Saturday! It was really top-notch and I got a lot out of it. I’ll definitely put up a box of ideas next to my desk soon and  implement some of the many other inspirations I got yesterday in my work!”

Ramona W. by e-mail

 

The bible of transcreation

Book review

“This book is like the bible of transcreation! It explains the differences between translation, localization and the transcreative approach to translation very well!

A must-read for people in the industry like me and all marketers needing help to make their communication work in foreign languages.”

Noelia G. on LinkedIn

Starkes Buch

Book review

“Das Buch kann ich allen Übersetzern nur wärmstens empfehlen. Wie auf der Titelseite beschrieben, geht es darin nicht nur um die Übersetzung von Werbetexten, sondern wirklich um alle Texte, die für das Image eines Unternehmens oder einer Organisation wichtig sind (und das sind ja die meisten).

Was viele Übersetzer möglicherweise intuitiv machen und nur schwer beschreiben können, bringt Nina Sattler-Hovdar sehr schön auf den Punkt. Ganz klare Kaufempfehlung!”

Katherina P., auf amazon.de

Clear and to the point

proz course participants

👉 “I really enjoyed this course because your content and your explanations are clear, you get to the point, and you always give examples. I also appreciated having the possibility to have assignments marked, along with your comments.” (Marion B.)

👉 “Excellent, learned exactly what transcreation is and what it involves. I found all of the examples particularly helpful.” (Leighton J.)

👉 “Although sometimes creativity can be misunderstood, I think Nina has got the knack of the real work behind it.” (Adriana S.)

👉 “Your excellent to-the-point slides and your elaboration on them make for a super informative combination!” (Nana R.)

 

NINA'S BOOKS AND COURSES:

Ideas & Inspiration

NINA’S BLOG ON TRANSCREATION TOPICS

Interested in one of Nina's workshops?

RECENT & UPCOMING EVENTS

Anytime -- on-demand

How to Get Started and Prosper in Transcreation
Professional transcreators are in such high demand and so hard to find that they are often referred to as the “unicorns” in the translation world. Find out what makes this skill set so special, or better still:

Become one of these coveted unicorns!

For details and registration, see Transcreation Course Online

ATA 63 in Los Angeles

12 October 2022

Workshop at the 63rd annual ATA Conference in Los Angeles, California, USA
Venue: Los Angeles, USA

For details and registration, see ATA 63 in Los Angeles, CA

Postponed -- new date to be announced

Two-day transcreation workshop (in German)
Venue: Achat Hotel

Bad Dürkheim, Germany

For details and registration, see transcreation seminar in Ludwigshafen

Postponed -- new date to be announced

One-day transcreation workshop for advanced English-into-German transcreators
Venue: BDUE NRW

Cologne, Germany

For details and registration, see transcreation seminar in Cologne

Select past public events

(custom company workshops are not shown here)

2022:

  • July 2022: Webinar for ATISDA, the Association of Translators and Interpreters in the San Diego Area, USA
  • May 2022: Speaker at the ADÜ conference in Hamburg, Germany
  • March 2022: Transcreation Panelist at SlatorCon Remote organized by Slator

2021:

  • November 2021: Keynote at the Australian Interpreters and Translators Association’s (AUSIT) national conference
  • October 2021: Webinar for the Netherlands Association of Interpreters and Translators (NGTV) (German Chapter)
  • July 2021: Webinar for the Indonesian Translators Association
  • March 2021: Webinar for the Israel Translators Association

2020:

  • November 2020: Webinar for the National Technical University of Kyiv, Ukraine, in cooperation with the German Academic Exchange Service DAAD
  • November 2020: Webinar for the University of Graz Department of Translation Studies (ITAT), in cooperation with Universitas and the Tyrolean Chamber of Commerce
  • October 2020: 2 sessions for “Translate Better”, in Laufen, Germany, organized by the BDÜ Fachverlag
  • April 2020: Webinar at BP 2020 (Organized by: Business Practices 2020)
  • March 2020: 1-day workshop (in English) at the Anhalt University of Applied Sciences in Köthen, Germany
  • February 2020: 2-day workshop in Leipzig, Germany (Organized by: BDÜ LV Sachsen)

2019:

  • October 2019: Master Class at the MCE Conference in Prague, Czech Republic (Organized by: Meet Central Europe)
  • February 2019: 2 workshops in Ludwigshafen, Germany (Organized by: BDÜ Rheinland-Pfalz)

2018:

  • October 2018: Speaker at “Meet Central Europe 2018” in Budapest, Hungary (Organized by: MCE2018)
  • June 2018: 1-day workshop in Dublin, Ireland (Organized by: Irish Translators’ and Interpreters’ Association)
  • May 2018: Speaker at “Translate Better 2018” in Germany (Organized by: BDÜ Fachverlagsgesellschaft)
  • April 2018: 1-day workshop in Graz, Austria (Organized by: Austrian Chamber of Commerce, Styria)

2017:

  • November 2017 in Vienna, Austria (Organized by: Universitas and Vienna Chamber of Commerce)
  • September 2017 in Cologne, Germany (Organized by: BDÜ NRW)
  • June 2017 in Vienna, Austria (Organized by: Austrian Chamber of Commerce, Vienna)
  • April 2017 in Munich, Germany (Organized by: BDÜ Fachverlagsgesellschaft)

2016:

  • 2-day Workshop in Hamburg, Germany

2014:

  • Speaker at the FIT World Congress, Berlin, Germany

2011:

  • Transcreation workshop and speaker at the ADÜ conference in Hamburg, Germany

2009:

  • Speaker at the 50th Annual Conference of the American Translators Association in New York, USA (“Translators hired as copywriters: What it takes”)

2006:

  • Speaker (“When translators are hired as copywriters”) at the 47th Annual Conference of the American Translators Association in New Orleans, USA

Looking for a seminar near you? Want a custom workshop specifically for the needs of your company?

Serious about transcreation?