Americans have become used to stuffing themselves on Thursday with all the trimmings and then stuffing their stockings with blockbuster deals on Black Friday and the following Cyber Monday. But (surprise!) it turns out one of the great U.S. cultural exports is our shopping holiday.
That’s right, the doorbuster deals have become a global phenomenon. So which countries spend big on the hottest retail weekend of the year? And which country dwarfs U.S. spending with their own special shopping holiday? We’ll take a look at how U.S. brands are connecting with global consumers and the ways in which major U.S. online retailers localize the holiday for shoppers overseas.
Boo! Instead of handing out candy this Halloween, we’re making a round of the globe to see how people are celebrating. Pumpkins and costumes aside, Halloween has become a marketing phenomenon worldwide. From Indonesia to France, it seems that everywhere you look there’s black, orange, and spooky sales. Want to share your experience of #GlobalHalloween? Read on for more and share your story too.
Do you have new business ventures on tap for Europe this summer? Britain is a natural springboard, combining a low barrier to entry for American business with high economic potential.
Your next step? Localize for the UK. While this may seem far-fetched, the cultural and linguistic differences between American and British English are significant enough to warrant special attention.
In this post, we’ll take a look at the differences which merit translation from American English to British English as well as several high-profile companies which have made the investment.
Pepsi received some great coverage in AdAge yesterday about its Hispanic-focused marketing campaign, playing off of the multilingual advertisements for the 2010 U.S. census, which urges all Americans to make themselves "count."
But within 24 hours of the story — which was also distributed on mainstream media outlets like Crain's New York — was a hotbed of discussion, er, disappointment, in both Pepsi and its Hispanic agency, Dieste.
The argument? "Yo sumo," the literal Spanish translation for "I count," may not have been the wisest choice for a campaign whose self-proclaimed purpose is to encourage Hispanics to go beyond being counted numerically and to share their experiences.
As Judy from New York put it in her comment:
"Yo sumo" means I add numbers (1+1=2). However, "Yo cuento", can mean either I count numbers or I count as a person. Hence, in this context, "Yo sumo" does not make sense. It works exactly the same in English: it's the difference between "I add" and "I count". What makes sense is "I count". What would make sense in correct Spanish is "Yo ME sumo" (I add/include myself).
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