Textappeal Introduces “Transcreation” to China.

Beijing, August 2010 – In an article titled “Textappeal: the Advantage of Talents”, the leading Chinese industry publication Modern Advertising (affiliated to Advertising Age) has introduced the notion of transcreation to China.

“Elliot Polak, the Founder and CEO of Textappeal highlighted the word ‘transcreation’. We can’t find a concise and corresponding word to explain it” says Modern Advertising, before pointing out that in China “the need for this kind of service might start to grow rapidly.”

“The creative ideas and communication of global brands and their agencies will unavoidably face different countries, regions, ethnic groups and cultural backgrounds. Their marketing will have to transfer accordingly. Transcreation refers to complicated and subtle details like strategy, creative illustration and text. That’s why Elliot doesn’t like the idea of describing this type of work as translation.”

The magazine features examples of Textappeal’s work for global brands, and comments: “cultural differences exist in almost all cross-border communications and advertisements. In one example, a classic ‘vintage’ car in the European version of the ad has been changed in China to a brand new car that is fashionable and modern. As Chinese, we believe everyone understands this.”

“We were very curious, facing such a huge number of countries and regions around the world, how Textappeal can conduct such a service where it seems there is nothing they don’t understand. Talents are the core. The company is headquartered in London and has 1470 partners around the world covering 151 countries.”

The magazine also spoke with a Textappeal team member, noting that when she started to talk about the team “enthusiasm came up naturally: ‘it is because we all have different backgrounds and are from different countries that it’s fun to work together. With us, you can experience the brilliance and vivid details of the whole world!’”

The article concludes: “of course, according to Elliot’s standards of talent selection, apart from language and culture, team members need to be experts in marketing and advertising as well.”