Marketing localization: how to adapt a campaign for a new market

Start with what is fixed

Before anyone adapts a word, decide what cannot change: the brand name, the legal claims, the product facts and the one idea the campaign is built on. Writing this down on one page saves the longest arguments later.

Then decide what is free to change

Almost everything else can move if it helps the campaign work in the market.

• The message. The benefit that matters most may differ by country.
• The proof. A local customer, a local number or a local certification is stronger than a foreign one.
• The offer. Currency, delivery terms and promises often differ by market.
• The format. Channels, lengths and image styles that work at home may not exist elsewhere.
• The tone. How formal a brand sounds, and how directly it asks for action, varies a lot.

The order that avoids rework

1. Brief the market, not just the language. Who is the buyer there, and what do they already believe about the category?
2. Adapt the message first. Write or transcreate the key lines before building anything around them.
3. Fit the words to the format. Text that grows 20 to 30 percent in some languages breaks layouts and timing, so adapt with the format in view.
4. Voice and picture. Choose voices that sound like the audience, and check that images, gestures and colors do not mean something else locally.
5. Native review of the whole piece. One reviewer who listens, reads and watches the final version, not only the script.
6. Measure and keep the learnings. What worked in one market becomes the brief for the next.

The mistakes we see most

• Translating headlines word by word and keeping the English rhythm.
• Keeping humor that needs the original culture.
• Reusing an English voice-over style for a market with a different norm for narration.
• Leaving the review to the person who commissioned the work, who is not a native speaker.
• Burning text into the video so every language needs a new edit.

What to prepare before you hand a campaign over

Give the team the editable files, the brand guidelines, a glossary of terms that must not change, and a short note on who the buyer is in each target market. With these, the work is faster and the result is closer to what you would have written yourself.

For how a project is run from brief to delivery, see content localization services. For the idea behind the first decision, read localization vs translation.