Six Benefits of Translation for the Media & Entertainment Industry
Media and entertainment have always been a global endeavor. Increasingly, that global reach is no longer optional. Creating and managing multilingual, localized content has become a central business requirement for organizations and publishers looking to reach and engage their audience.
Advertisers know the value of a quality translation—and the dangers of trying shortcuts. Febreze Mist, translating to cow dung in German, is just one of the many examples.
Quality translation is a topic that reaches far beyond paid media. Media publishers and entertainment producers can find value in translation through these six distinct benefits.
1. Increase Your Audience Size
First, engaging in quality translation for your media and entertainment content increases your audience size. After all, less than 20 percent of the world's population speaks English, and only five percent are native speakers.
At the same time, nearly two-thirds of global consumers prefer content in their native language. If you only offer content in English, that means missing out on a sizable portion of your potential audience.
On the other hand, publishers who offer their content in another language immediately and drastically increase the size of their potential audience. Now, they can gain visibility across different countries, cultures, and continents, expanding their audience size.
Consider the entertainment industry as an example. Every movie has to begin in one language. But as soon as its distribution expands beyond its borders, it can benefit from translated closed captions, marketing, and even dubs. That opens up the potential for more audiences to consume the movie and become familiar with the producer's work.
2. Enhance Authenticity in Different Cultures
Of course, translation goes far beyond simply taking words from one language and transposing them into another. At its best, it focuses just as much on cultures as it does on words, ensuring that the core meaning of the content remains intact even as new audiences look to consume it.
That elevated description involves a process called localization. It ensures that audiences in the new markets can gain just as much value from the content as the home market. Localization experts consider nuances like implicit meanings, cultural backgrounds, and differing metaphors. As a result, it ensures that the perceived quality of content is just as high in all markets and all languages in which it is presented.
Localization also secures another benefit that is especially valuable in the media and entertainment sector: authenticity. Because the content feels at home in the translated language, audiences are more likely to embrace it as part of their culture instead of looking at it from an outsider's perspective. That builds trust and engagement, ultimately enhancing the success of the translated content.
3. Build a Truly Global Brand Presence
Combining the above two benefits and translating your media content brings a significant competitive advantage that is impossible to ignore. Because you can deliver content in your audience's language—and because the content comes with cultural nuances and considerations in mind—you can get ahead of your competition in growing your reach and engagement.
Moreover, you can become competitive with media publishers in the new markets you are trying to reach. Consider as an example BBC, the British broadcast channel that has become an international powerhouse by expanding into areas like Japan, Scandinavia, and the Middle East. In these countries, it has adopted its shows and news delivery to local customs and has become a significant competitor to local outlets.
4. Build Cultural Relationships in Your Home Market
Lessons learned when engaging in foreign markets through translated content can also become invaluable in your home market. The United States, for example, is home to more than 45 million native Spanish speakers, more than any country in the world except for Mexico. Translated content and cultural insights gained from foreign language markets are valuable for these home audiences.
A note of caution, however, applies: foreign language subcultures in your home market should always be considered unique to their counterparts in other countries, regardless of whether they speak the same language. They have developed their cultural customs and habits, making a one-to-one copy of your foreign market strategy inadvisable. That said, insights learned abroad can still provide a foundation for translated content in your home market and vice versa.
5. Improve Cross-Cultural Collaboration
Of course, translations benefit more than just your consumer audience. They can become just as valuable when building relationships with partners, vendors, and potential business clients in foreign markets and cultures.
Consider a production company looking to film a documentary abroad. The documentary may only be intended for use in its home market. So, translated captions or marketing materials will be unnecessary. Still, filming will require partnerships with local contacts and governments. Organizations can make this process easier through translated scripts, production schedules, and more.
We live in an increasingly global economy, and the media and entertainment industry is no exception. Working with other cultures and languages has become an everyday occurrence, and professional translation can go a long way toward ensuring a successful collaboration in these cases.
6. Stem the Spread of Misinformation
Finally, but no less significantly, quality and centralized translated content can help to stem one of the most critical problems modern media faces: misinformation.
It is certainly not a new phenomenon, but misinformation has accelerated quickly. Developments like AI-enabled deep fakes and voice emulations only increase media publishers' uncertainty.
This misinformation becomes more prevalent as content gets translated into different languages—if the translation is unreliable. After all, it is much easier to accidentally change a word here or sentence there if the translation is not completed professionally or through automated tools only.
Media and entertainment organizations can circumvent this issue by engaging with professional translation services. They can take control of their narrative, ensuring truthful transcription and interpretation of their content in all languages.
The Value of Getting Media and Entertainment Translation Right
Add it all together, and translation has become an indispensable tool at the hands of media and entertainment industry players. It is no longer merely a luxury or "nice to have" feature as audiences simultaneously become more global and localized.
You can increase your audience and authenticity through professional translation and building your brand presence. However, you can also more effectively:
Reach segments of your home market
Improve collaboration with partner organizations
Stem the spread of misinformation for content related to your brand
That is what makes getting your media and entertainment translation right such a crucial undertaking. Fortunately, this is no longer a new frontier. You can hire experienced professionals and learn from industry peers about best practices, missteps to avoid, and more.