Not all of us are sports fans, but most of us can appreciate a cleverly designed sports ad. Maybe it’s because of the Super Bowl, but many of the large brands’ ads have been featuring famous athletes recently, like Ronaldo, Messi, LeBron James, Serena Williams etc. Of course, what these brands are hoping to accomplish with these tremendously famous athletes is as much brand awareness as possible, even with people who don’t follow sports that closely.
Sports and advertising are such a constant in our lives these days. It’s hard not to be impressed by the sheer cleverness these campaigns often display. For example, Samsung and LeBron James’s “Strive for Greatness” series? Brilliant! Gatorade and Serena William’s #WinFromWithin? Empowering! Moët & Chandon and Roger Federer’s “perfect serve?” Beautiful! With high level athletes like these, it’s exciting to see marketers go all out with their creativity and come up with these really out-of-the-box kinds of ads that attract the attention even of non-sports fans.
Same ad, different language
When traveling abroad (the US to Germany, for instance) it’s interesting to see the same sports campaigns in both countries. With a little bit of knowledge about the language services sector, it’s usually possible to tell if the content was localized or not. For clients of EVS Translations operating in the sports marketing sector, it’s important that their creative content is compelling but appropriate for the target market; and that the content feels as if it started life in that language.
For this, we give our clients three pieces of advice:
- Allow time for a content brief
If you want creative copy to really resonate with your target market audience, you will need to allow some time for a brief. Suddenly sending your provider a piece for translation on a quick turnaround is not the right approach for a creative piece. Your team wants to make sure that what it’s producing is truly generating the kind of emotions it had planned for the campaign, so allow time for some consultation. Understanding the target audience and the linguistic nuances that come with it is important.
- Focus not only on linguistics but concept, too
In 2017, when Serena Williams became pregnant, a sponsorship lawyer speaking with Business Insider commented, “This will enhance her likeability and certainly her marketability”. This was certainly true. But it’s possible sometimes that what works for a brand in one market may not always work so well in another. Although EVS Translations can’t advise on marketing campaigns, we can support your team both in terms of linguistic content and feedback on creative concepts. These may benefit from some adaptation to avoid any awkward cultural mishaps.
- A professional finish for your ad
This should go without saying, but of course always go for a professional look. It’s not uncommon for our clients to send file formats which are unsuitable for editing or to be unable to locate their native files (such as an Adobe Premiere Pro project file). Make sure you send the right content to the provider and that they can work with the professional tools necessary for the project. It is this finished product that will convey the reputation of your company.
