20 Dec /19

Video Content Is King, ‘Future-Proofing’ Is Business Critical, and the Kids Will Outdo Us All: 2019 in Review

2019 in Review - EVS Translations enjoyed all the challenges
2019 in Review – EVS Translations enjoyed all the challenges

Video as the staple of content marketing

Forbes gave its Top Marketing Trends for 2020 recently. Alongside Augmented Reality experiences came personalisation and, predictably, video content which the article notes will “continue to be important into 2020 and likely beyond that.” Some advice for 2020? “Don’t overlook live video. On average, live videos on Facebook Live and Instagram Live keep your audience watching three times longer than recorded ones.”

EVS Translations has enjoyed a solid performance in 2019 delivering video localisation projects to some high-profile clients and certainly notices the impact of this trend with interest. A highlight?

Our translation engineer Chris from the USA office comments:

This year we’ve had a noticeable surge in the demand for video localization. Our teams deliver high-quality videos on time and on budget by carefully consulting clients in the planning stages, utilising the right software for each step of the process and effectively aligning the expertise of our staff to achieve the best results.  2020 should be an exciting year in this area.

An eye on the Olympics

This year, Japan experienced hosting its first rugby world championship and has steadily been building on its capacity to welcome a huge number of foreign visitors for the Olympics through a number of strategies including language technology. Our German offices have been especially busy in the area of sports working with some of the world’s leading organisations across football and basketball to support legal, financial and marketing translation, which includes digital translation demand. Our sports translations expert enjoyed making new connections within the industry and delivering projects to a growing client base. So, how was his 2019 in sports and, with Tokyo2020 now firmly on the horizon, is he excited about what’s ahead?

Sports translations play an increasing role in the portfolio of EVS Translations worldwide. Our participation in selected global sports conventions resulted in a notable growth both in terms of new clients and total turnover figures. In 2019 we especially were happy to welcome some “heavy weights” in the sports industry as new clients, e.g. two top-ranking Bundesliga clubs or one of the world’s major sports marketing firms located in Switzerland. I’m looking forward to next year’s sports events and I’m sure we will support existing as well as new clients on a constant top-level.

AI, automation and the pressure to do more for less

We’re all feeling it, no matter the industry. Automation continues to be important for businesses to ‘future-proof’ themselves. This has certainly been a topic for our clients from the legal sector of late, as law firms attempt to reduce mundane and staff intensive tasks such as document review to increase efficiency. For EVS Translations it’s no different. Offering our clients a platform to manage large scale translation demand across multiple departments is one way we’ve been helping businesses to streamline and automate. But for our teams too, we have to continually find ways to innovate and counteract the pressure to do more for less.

Our translators talked brand strategy with a major European bank

What are the values your business stands for? What language and tone is used to communicate these values successfully? How are target groups effectively addressed? These were the questions asked at a workshop delivered from our client in the banking sector to which our translators were invited. And the message from the Marketing and Communications department? “Our translation team at EVS Translations should give free rein to their creativity and utilise their heightened feeling for language to successfully formulate texts with the ‘corporate voice’”. The challenge remains being true to the original, while at the same time taking account of the many directives and standards, including those on consumer protection in finance communication.

Sorry Greta, we did enjoy some global jet-setting

Greta Thunberg has been on a brave crusade this year, so it’s with a twinge of guilt we look back on our international teams enjoying some jet-setting around the globe. The year kicked off with a sales & marketing meet up at HQ near Frankfurt, Germany, where we all took a break from conference calls and skype sessions to brainstorm face-to-face. Our MD, Edward Vick, flew to San Francisco to join SlatorCon – a major event for the language services industry – and Lucy Kikuchi from our global marketing team visited Japan for business development. The nature of our work in languages means that the outlook is always international, but EVS Translations continues to grow in its global ambition and physical presence.

Has anyone got Machine Translation figured out yet?

In 2019, EVS Translations has continued to develop its propriety systems for Machine Translation, training engines with high-quality data and working within a closed system to deliver fit-for-purpose translations. According to our Project Manager Mohamed, the annual Tekom technical communications trade show in Stuttgart “finally introduced AI this year. What was striking is that many visitors seemed to have no experience in this area.” In a similar vein, when Florian Faes, co-founder and director of Slator, discussed the competitive landscape for machine translation at SlatorCon Amsterdam 2019, he noted that the market is “still trying to figure out how to interact with MT technology and what exactly to do with it”. He believes there is an “opportunity for tech companies to come up with a product that allows translators and linguists to interact with it in a better way than traditional language productivity tools.”

So, on the topic of AI, I’ll leave you with this case study of a recent translation project. All the technological changes we are experiencing now are going to look like an Atari game of Pong in the not-so-distant future…

The kids are programming our future

A highlight in 2019 was the translation of a topic which is as interesting as it is innovative: computer programming for children. This is the hottest subject right not for parents who are trying to give their kids a head start in life. Content for the programming course was broken down to its most basic elements and explained in a simple and relatable way to make it accessible for children, as well as adults. Our project manager Galina explained, “The translation process was fascinating. The translators had to consider language choices which would be appealing for children, but which would also create intrigue for their parents. Needless to say, we love a creative challenge and we sincerely hope there will be more projects to come like this one.”

EVS Translations enjoyed all the challenges of 2019 and looks forward to a productive, energized 2020. For now, take a break and have some fun with your family and friends over Christmas. And when you get back to business, call our teams and find out how they can help you with translation and localisation projects.

Do you have any questions about business translations for your company?
Contact our team today.

EVS Translations UK Ltd.
+44 (0)115 964 4288

EVS Translations USA Inc.
+1 404-523-5560

EVS Translations GmbH
+49 69/82 97 99-99

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