Marketing translation services for brands that need their content to create impact
In marketing, a translation that fails to convey the tone, the cultural context, or the emotion behind the message can quietly undermine your brand. We translate and adapt advertising campaigns, product packaging, social media content, brochures and press releases so that your message carries the same weight in every language.
Sleep Country / Dormez-vous?PC Financial ServicesMoment FactoryClub Med CanadaLittle Burgundy
Understanding the service
What sets marketing translation apart from standard translation?
Standard translation focuses on accuracy. Marketing translation focuses on impact. The goal is not simply to say the same thing in another language. It is to produce the same reaction, feeling and impulse from the reader.
This requires a different kind of work. A product name that resonates in English may carry no weight in French. A call to action that sounds direct and confident in one market may come across as blunt or aggressive in another. Wordplay, humour, cultural references, and tone of voice all shift when a message crosses a language barrier. If the translator does not account for those shifts, the campaign might not produce the desired effect. When working on a marketing translation project, we rely on our expertise to identify the pitfalls and ensure an appropriate cultural adaptation.
The work sits at the intersection of language and brand strategy. It is not about translating your words. It is about translating what your words are meant to do, and making sure the result works in the target market.
The types of marketing content we work with
If the goal is to carry your brand voice and reach a targeted audience, we have the expertise to handle it.
Advertising campaigns and creative content
Television spots, print advertisements, digital banners, out-of-home placements, and radio scripts. Advertising content relies on emotion, rhythm, and cultural cues that rarely survive a literal translation. The goal is to make the English and French versions produce the same response, even when the words themselves are different. When straight translation is not enough, we move into transcreation, which rebuilds the message from scratch in the target language.
Product packaging and labelling
We have proofread and corrected bilingual packaging for products sold on Canadian grocery shelves for years. That includes the marketing copy, the nutritional information tables, the legal fine print, and the regulatory language. For the rules that apply specifically to bilingual packaging in Canada, see our article on packaging translation rules. For prepress verification, our proofreading service catches errors at the final stage before print.
Social media and community management
Content for Instagram, Facebook, X, and LinkedIn. Social copy is short and informal, but it still needs to sound natural in both languages. Translating social media content is not about matching sentence structures. It is about capturing the same energy, the same tone, and the same level of familiarity with the audience.
Brochures, sell sheets, and sales materials
The documents your sales team relies on, the PDFs on your website, the materials that prospects read when they are evaluating your offer: these documents carry a real weight in the decision-making process.
Press releases and corporate communications
We translate press releases for bilingual distribution across Canadian media. A press release with awkward phrasing or unnatural language gets dismissed by journalists, regardless of how strong the underlying story is.
Newsletters and email campaigns
Bilingual newsletters, automated email sequences, product announcements, and event invitations. The challenge with email is consistency: your subscribers receive messages regularly, and if the tone of the version shifts from one o the next, something feels off. We use translation memory tools to keep terminology and voice aligned across campaigns. For a closer look at why this matters, read terminology management in bilingual organizations.
Transcreation
When direct translation is not an option
Certain types of marketing content cannot be translated in the traditional sense. A slogan built on an English pun has no direct equivalent in French. A campaign concept rooted in a cultural reference from one market will not resonate in another.
Transcreation addresses that challenge. We take the original concept, understand what it is meant to achieve, and build something new that achieves the same thing in the other language. The words may be entirely different. That is the point. Transcreation is not translation with extra effort. It is creative work, billed by the hour rather than by the word.
We wrote about these challenges in translating cultural expressions, which explores some of the dynamics involved in adapting content that relies on cultural context and idiomatic language.
Editorial revision
Revision and proofreading for books, magazines, and long-form content
We have provided editorial revision and proofreading for publishers and editorial projects including Trois fois par jour, Éditions Cardinal, Éditions Robert Laffont, and Syndicat des Métallos. This type of work differs from marketing translation in its pace and the nuance required to preserve the brand voice. The writer's tone must be preserved. Every correction must serve the text.
Whether the project involves a cookbook, a corporate magazine, an interview transcript, or a long-form feature, the approach changes but the standard does not.
Where our marketing translators have real-world experience
Marketing translation only delivers results when the translator understands the industry. A financial services campaign does not use the same register, references, or level of formality as a tourism marketing campaign. If the person translating your content does not grasp those differences, the result reads like it was produced by someone outside the industry.
Over the years, our work has brought us into retail, food and beverage, tourism and hospitality, banking and financial services, entertainment, technology, and the non-profit sector. That exposure has given us a working vocabulary in each of these fields, not only the linguistic kind, but also the cultural and strategic kind.
Clients we have worked with in this space include Sleep Country / Dormez-vous?, Moment Factory, PC Financial Services (Loblaw), TUX Creative Co., Club Med Canada, Bleuoutremer, Little Burgundy, and Blue Door Agency. You can find a list of all our clients and previous experience here.
Beyond translation
Revision, adaptation, and proofreading for existing marketing content
Not every project begins with translation. In some cases, the content already exists in both languages and simply needs to be tightened, corrected, or reinforced based on current brand guidelines. Our revision service and proofreading service both apply to marketing materials.
For product packaging and high-visibility advertising, we offer a dedicated proofreading service at the prepress stage, before the files go to print. This is where the cost of a missed error is highest, and where a final review by a trained eye matters most.
Our process
How we handle marketing translation projects
The same structured process applies to every mandate across all of our translation services: translation by a first linguist, revision by a second, and a final quality assurance check by a third. For marketing content, particular attention is paid to tone, rhythm, and cultural fit at every stage. If a section calls for transcreation rather than translation, we flag it early and work through it with you.
Frequently asked questions about marketing translation
How much does marketing translation cost?
Standard marketing translation is billed per word. Transcreation is billed per hour, because creative adaptation cannot be measured by word count alone. A clear estimate is provided before any project begins, and rates are locked in for a full year once we establish your pricing grid. More details on pricing are available on our FAQ page.
Can you match our brand voice in another language?
Yes. If you have brand guidelines, style guides, or glossaries, we follow them closely. If no formal documentation exists, we work from your existing published content to establish a consistent voice in French (or English) and maintain it across projects.
What is the difference between translation and transcreation?
Translation converts the meaning of a message from one language to another. Transcreation goes further: it rebuilds the message from the ground up to produce the same emotional response in French, English, or whichever language applies. This approach is used primarily for slogans, taglines, headlines, and any content where the impact of the words matters as much as their meaning.
Do you translate social media content?
Yes, across all major platforms. Social media copy follows its own rules in terms of length, tone, and formality. We adjust our approach to match the expectations of each platform and language.
Can you proofread packaging before it goes to print?
Prepress proofreading is one of our core strengths. We have been reviewing bilingual packaging for products sold in grocery stores across Canada for years, including product copy, nutritional panels, legal mentions, and regulatory compliance.
How do you maintain consistency across campaigns?
We maintain consistency through professional translation memory tools (Trados Studio and memoQ) and client-specific glossaries and style guides. This keeps your terminology consistent from one project to the next, even when projects are months apart.
Got marketing content that needs to create an impactin both languages?
Send us your files. We will review them and let you know the preferred approach.
