Technical communicators generally write, design, illustrate and conduct research for a specific target audience in a specific country. But what should a communicator do when the product is slated to launch in 20 new markets?
During this live, one-hour session on Thursday, July 22, Acclaro's Ora Solomon and Lydia Clarke team up to share best practices and practical, actionable tips for developing technical communication that can easily be transported across languages and cultures.
This is a must-see webinar for any company looking to launch products and services in new language markets: today, tomorrow, or anytime in the future. Register today to be better prepared for that very moment, and minimize headaches, costs and turn-around times on your project.
Welcome to Las Vegas and the 24/7 craps tables. While not the easiest game to play in the gambling pantheon, craps is the one most like a team sport. Players actively root for one another and often bolster each other’s bets. When a table is “hot”, players scream, holler, give high fives and yes, even do chest butts.
When it comes to the English language, craps has actually contributed its fair share of terms into our day-to-day speech. However, be careful when using craps and other gambling terms in your documents and marketing campaigns that eventually need to be localized. These terms, although common in English, may or may not “translate” well into other languages and may require substantial reworking by a translator, ultimately adding extra time and cost to your localization project. Read more about how to write for international audiences.
For the World Cup tournament, Anheuser Busch is working the tried-and-true marketing campaign path, executing two initiatives from previous years:
This year, however, Anheuser-Busch is also launching an upfront, in-your-face (you guessed it) reality show. All online, all action, all LIVE. (Well, as much as possible.)
Called "Bud House," the show has been described as “American Idol” meets “Survivor” meets “football.” Exactly 32 football fans from 32 countries, each representing their national team, will be placed together in a house in Capetown, Sout Africa, with their every move and word recorded by video cameras.
Started on June 11, the players battle battle against each other for the entire course of the World Cup tournament, in a fashion similar to the popular “Big Brother” reality show. The series broadcasts 6-8 episodes (or rather, webisodes) a day, and the website features a live-streamed feed from the house.
The mobile application economy will be worth $17.5 billion by 2012, with much of the growth driven by users in emerging markets of the Middle East and Africa, according to a report (pdf) released earlier this year by Chetan Sharma.
In terms of overall download share, Asia was ranked as the top worldwide market in 2009, and North American users accounted for about half of global mobile app revenues.
But these emerging markets — many of which are "skipping" the broadband revolution altogether and going straight to mobile — will account for the majority of revenue generated by the year 2012.
That's big enough news as it is, but when you look carefully at the numbers, you'll find it's an even larger divide. As Sharma points out in the report, per unit revenues are smaller in emerging markets, for both paid downloads and advertising. Volume, therefore, must not only surpass that of Western markets, but by much more than it would with a comparable pricing structure.
In honor of USA's amazing last minute, elimination-avoiding goal, which led to a victory today and subsequent advancement into the next round of the World Cup, Acclaro presents a history of soccer (or, um, "football") as researched and interpreted by an American, Ben Howdeshell.
I’ll be honest. Football (which I’m calling soccer from here on out) isn’t really my thing.
I mean, I can appreciate it on an athletic level, but I know zilch-o about who plays for Manchester United or how many matches Juventus won last year. I think I might know enough to associate Pele with the game, although if he was ahead of me in line at Starbucks I wouldn’t be any the wiser. I do know it is World Cup season, however, and while I’m not on pins and needles following the teams currently duking it out for prominence, I have to admit: the adrenaline buzz surrounding the event is a little exciting.
With that in mind, as I reflect on my own ignorance of the sport, contrasted with its wild popularity by almost every other human being on earth, I have to wonder: how? How in the world did this game seize the planet, from pickup games with handful of players to packed stadiums, in all four corners of the globe? What’s the draw? To answer these questions without having to figure out what “offside” means, I’m taking a historical perspective.
Might be a bit tardy, but we thought to report that Europe's translation providers and other language
teaching services generated $12bn in 2008, according to a study commissioned by the EU's translation service.
The language industry is growing faster than any other sector in Europe, the report found. Expansion is expected to continue at a rate of 10%, writes The Guardian.
Since 1986, Budweiser has been the official FIFA World Cup beer. The sponsorship awards Budweiser brewer Anheuser-Busch global rights in the beer advertisement category to both the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa and the 2014 FIFA World Cup.
According to FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter:
The fact that Anheuser-Busch is extending its involvement with FIFA is testimony to the immense appeal of football as a game and to FIFA as a superior marketing platform for transporting a brand far and wide around the world.
What does it mean to "transport a brand far and wide" around the world?
Budweiser (and Bud Light) is immensely popular in the U.S. home market, but outside the U.S., the brand struggles. Even Belgian-based, Brazilian-run brewing giant InBev knew better than to try infusing Budweiser into global markets.
"Europeans have no interest in drinking watery American beer. Asians generally do not want our beer. It is completely different product," said one beverage sector analyst when InBev acquired Anheuser-Busch in 2008.
Beer is not like soda. With a few exceptions like Corona and Heineken, beer does not cross borders very well.
Yin and Yang.
Laurel and Hardy.
Tom and Jerry.
Some things are just better in pairs. Although maybe not as obvious as the above "marriages," sports and beverages have proven to be quite an enjoyable pair over the years.
Viewed by some fans as a prerogative for a satisfying sporting event experience, seen by others as merely a natural part of the fun, beer is the beverage of choice when it comes to viewing many traditional sports, such as professional basketball, American football, and of course regular football (or soccer to our American readers).
The beverage industry has definitely recognized the opportunity present in this relationship, and has done their fair share to stimulate the association between the two. Companies spend huge marketing budgets on commercials and ads, especially during major sports events such as the current FIFA World Cup.
Ever notice that when you plan ahead, and do something "right" from the very beginning, you end up saving money?
We have. And if there's one thing we like to emphasize to newcomers to globalizing content, it's to plan ahead. When you know what to expect, you're much more likely to solve problems before they actually occur.
For a country that ranks 153rd out of 180 countries in the United Nations Development Program’s Human Development Report, Cameroon tends to be the unknown country on the African continent. Its population isn’t wealthy by any means, but it’s not the poorest country on the continent either. The country is not in the news due to a civil war or a coup d’etat, but it’s not an African “success” story either. It’s just another western/central African country struggling to get by. That’s why le football is such a lifeline. It’s a way for this country to feel proud about itself and get its name out onto the world stage.
When Cameroon lost today 0 – 1 to Japan in the biggest upset yet in the World Cup, Cameroonians lost a little bit of hope and self-esteem as well. Le Football is the great equalizer. Anyone and everyone plays no matter their gender, religion, tribal affiliation, or poverty level.
The World Cup kicks off today, and we here at Acclaro have created a World Cup Quiz to test your knowledge about the tournament. Is your mind a steel trap of soccer history? Do you know interesting details about some of the world's best national teams and players?
For example, do you know which team Landon Donavan, one of the USA's star players, belongs to in the American league?
Here is a taste of some of the other questions you might have to answer:
Find out if you are a Football Freshman or a Soccer Scholar — take the World Cup Quiz now.
Many expatriates and repatriated Americans find themselves watching their favorite TV show on their computer screen or phone simply because the show isn’t broadcast in the States. Do you love the wildly popular “East Enders” from the UK, “Slovakia’s Next Top Supermodel”, or Hong Kong’s “Super Trio Game Master”? More than likely you can’t watch them on your TV screen and have to resort to the shows’ website or YouTube videos.
Enter GoogleTV, which allows you to watch web content on your TV. While this may not seem revolutionary — going from your laptop or phone screen to your TV screen — just think about how the world just opened up to you on a big screen, from your couch. At a click of the remote, you can delve into the popular culture of nearly any country on the planet. (See demo.)
Want to brush up on a language and can’t afford language classes or a plane ticket? Sit on the couch and watch and listen to some programs in that language. Want to learn how to play cricket, yet live 100 miles from the closest cricket club (not to mention that you don’t readily have access to a crispy clean, all-white cricket uniform)? Turn on the TV and learn how to play from the best in the world.
The following is an excerpt from a guest article published today on search engine marketing localization by Acclaro's founder and president, Michael Kriz. Read this article in its entirety on the iMedia Connection website.
English is, without doubt, the language of global commerce and the lingua
franca of the internet. But while English is the most common
language on the web, about 75 percent of web users are in countries
where English is not the native language. They are writing, speaking,
and — most importantly for marketers — searching for products
and services in their mother tongue.
When taking your business into global markets, it's important to "speak" to your new target consumers in their own language, considering their cultural and linguistic preferences and communicating with them as carefully as you would with someone in your home market. In this case, going global really means going local. Hence the term "localization," which adapts a product, document, or website linguistically, technically, and culturally to the target market where it will be used and sold.
Forums and bulletin boards are the most popular form of social media in China, with over 60% of web users visiting this type of website every day, according to a March TNS study (pdf).
More importantly for brands looking to move into the Chinese market, forums and bulletin board systems (BBS) play a big role in brand awareness, sharing of product information, promotions and product availability.
Chinese consumers use this channel as a way to evaluate if a brand is a good fit for their needs and to find out if the company is a market leader or has expertise in certain topics. Forums and BBS can also nudge new customers to try their offering, TNS found.
The following post is part of the Acclaro blog series on The 2010 FIFA World Cup taking place in South Africa from June 11 to July 11. We're covering all sorts of linguistic and cultural phenonema that arise as 32 countries send their teams to the international tournament to compete for glory.
It may seem obvious to state that FIFA’s World Cup is a multicultural celebration, as crowds from 32 different countries flock to the fill South African stadiums, chanting in more than 10 languages.
This event, for a linguist, is a unique opportunity to see how culture and language dovetail. Football, in a way, can serve as a mirror for language and culture.
One characteristic common to all languages is arbitrariness. That is, language is arbitrary per se, as there are no links between the codes of language and the object they refer to; there is no natural relationship between a word and its meaning. We just connect certain concepts to certain words because our culture has passed down the meaning from generation to generation.
For example, because of this arbitrariness, we might each believe that dogs express themselves by saying “guau” in Spanish, “woof” in English, “Wau Wau” in German, and “ouah ouah” in French.
Getting back to football... the sport "speaks" its own language, with its own cultural variants.
For instance, why do so many football English idioms relate to food, such as “to do a banana kick”, “a banana shot”, or “to nutmeg a defender”? A literal translation of this last expression into Spanish would make no sense at all, and keep the audience on tenterhooks.
Writing is a snap. Well, it can be. Take the easiest, most enjoyable type of writing: Sharing a simple message to a like-minded, familiar audience — an American whitewater kayaker, for example, relaying a story of his latest trip down the Upper Yough Sand Run to another East Coast kayaker, perhaps on an online kayak forum, or via email.
In this situation, there is not only no pressure to perform (i.e., gain business or attract customers) but you are writing for a reader with similiar background, interests, and linguistic/cultural perspective as your own.
What if... this were not the case? What if you knew the content you were creating was not only required to have impact in your own language market, but also might eventually (perhaps sooner rather than later) be translated for another?
Do not fear. Follow the five tips for developing global-friendly content, and you'll make the translation process smoother than, well, that whitewater kayak ride.
The legendarily obtuse Nouvelle Vague (New Wave) French director, Jean-Luc Godard, premiered his new and perhaps, last movie at the Cannes Film Festival on May 17. Entitled "Film Socialism", it has created quite a whirlpool of chatter due to its densely packed themes, images, and a multilingual cast whose lines are subtitled into "Navajo English."
First, a little background on Godard and the French cinema culture. In France, le cinema is considered a high art form and is discussed with the same fervor as philosophy, politics and the French language. In Paris, there are over 100 movie theaters, ranging from the 10-screen mega multiplex playing the latest Hollywood blockbusters to the 25-seat sous-sol (basement) art houses playing foreign, classic and truly independent movies that would never see the light of the screen in the States.
In one day of cine-trolling within one single Parisian arrondissement, you could see, for example, a film from Mali by a first-time director, a $300 million Hollywood thriller, a classic Italian spaghetti western, a French comedy, and a collection of animated short films from Japan.
This post introduces the Acclaro blog series on The 2010 FIFA World Cup taking place in South Africa from June 11 to July 11, as teams and fan from all over the world converge upon the country for this incredible event.
You don’t have to be a “footie” fan to feel the excitement building around the upcoming World Cup. The scale of this event dwarfs that of any other sport in the world — yes, even the Super Bowl, the NBA playoffs or the entire yearly audience for professional golf tournaments. The proof is in the numbers: according to FIFA, the sport’s governing body, the last tournament in 2006 in Germany had a total cumulative television audience of more than 26 billion people in 214 countries and territories.
The upcoming tournament between 32 national teams kicks off with a match between host-country South Africa and Mexico on June 11. For billions of fans all around the world, day-to-day life will grind to a halt for 30 days as they cram bars, pubs, theatres, friends’ houses — anywhere there is a television — to watch and shout and groan and cry as they root for their country’s 11 players on the world stage.
Before he devoted his life to tree, dolphin and lotus poses, and chanting to the elephant god Ganesha, one of my yoga teachers, Les Leventhal, was a jet engine salesperson. He traveled extensively throughout Latin America and beyond and was no stranger to cultural miscommunication and language barriers.
However, he discovered on a recent trip to China and Japan that teaching his style of spiritual and physical yoga in two cultures very different from his own, created some interesting challenges — and insights.
Word on the street is that multilingual search engine marketing is going to dominate 2010.
Here's our take on why:
1. SEO is "cozy-ing" up to social marketing, according to a Mediapost article, which explains that marketers have begun to bundle SEO with social marketing, especially now that real-time social content (e.g., Twitter, Facebook) are indexing in Google search results.
And guess what? Real-time social updates are not just in English. In fact, with social networks growing like wildfire in countries like Japan, Brazil, and India, as well as Turkey, France, and Germany, it's no wonder that multilingual web content is exploding. Think about it: many of these users may be speaking, writing, and reading English in their professional lives and internet use, but when it comes to personal use, they're likely using their mother tongue.
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