It’s autumn once again, a time when businesses – everyone from Fortune 500 corporations to boutique marketing agencies – plan out their localization strategies for the coming year. That means budgeting multimedia localization and accessibility, including voice-over recording, video dubbing, subtitling, captioning, and a host of other services. As a localization manager, how do you create a strategy for all this content – let alone a cost-effective budget?

The four tips that follow should help.

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Multimedia localization – languages, content scope & services

A localization strategy needs to identify three main components – the languages needed (or, more accurately, the locales that need to be served), the materials that have to be localized (the content), and the actual localization services engaged. The latter category is especially tricky for multimedia, since there are different services available for each type of content – for example, for video localization there are four kinds of voice-over dubbing available, as well as subtitles and in-studio interpretation.

A successful strategy needs to balance these three elements and track costs. With that in mind, let’s jump right in.

1. Look at the languages you’ll really benefit from.

This may be a bit basic, but it’s really important to keep in mind. You may be tempted to localize into languages with large numbers of native speakers, but this may not be where your ROI is. The key is to target the languages that your customers or potential customers actually speak. For example, it makes sense generally to record Mandarin Chinese voiceover for an app – after all, you’re making your content available to 960 million native speakers. However, if your actual potential customers are in Hong Kong, you should really consider recording into Cantonese instead – or even better, recording into both languages.

Likewise, look at neutral versions of languages that cover large population groups. For example, neutral Latin American Spanish voiceover works great for corporate and informational applications, and covers a large segment of the Spanish-speaking world. Same for Modern Standard Arabic voice-over – if your audience speaks this kind of Arabic, it can be a cost-effective, international solution.

2. Figure out when to transcreate & when to localize.

Localization is great for corporate, informational and e-Learning content. Content like online marketing spots and TV & radio commercials, which rely on specific cultural cues and local references, require transcreation – a full re-write of the content, from scratch, specifically for that locale. JBI Studios offers transcreation as part of its full suite of multimedia services, of course.

Transcreation requires a very different workflow from localization, so it’s crucial to analyze your content suite and try to make a call on which content will need to be transcreated. Or, if you’re not sure, consult with your in-country contacts, especially your marketing managers – they should be integrated into this process as much as possible.

For more information on this service, see our previous post What is transcreation? How is it different from video translation?

3. Don’t assume you need the same multimedia service for all locales.

Again, there are many different post-production services available for your content, and they have different rate structures. You may have a different ROI expectation for each locale, and may find that it makes sense to go with a more cost-effective localization option for some of them. Remember that if the return for a locale changes dramatically, you can always upgrade the localization option. For example, you could pick subtitling for instructional videos for a locale with lower potential, then switch to voice dubbing if user demand grows enough to warrant it.

4. Contact a multimedia localization services vendor right away. 

There are several good reasons to do this before locking down your strategy. For starters, a full-service vendor can give you great tips on how to lower localization costs – even simple ones, like how avoiding graphics with rasterized text can make your e-Learning localization much more cost-effective. They can also help you compare the different services available for particular content – you may even find that a more cost-effective service is a better fit for your materials to start with. Finally, they can prepare sample quotes with assumptions, so you can start a preliminary budget.

JBI Studios encourages all our clients to contact us to review their multimedia localization plans, especially if they have different types of content like audio, video, animations and e-Learning courses. If you’re reading this post, that includes you.

It’s never too early to plan for voice-over, dubbing & subtitling

If you take anything away from this blog, let it be this – you should start planning as early as possible. Having a strategy in place will allow you to create English-language source materials that localize cost-effectively, or even create different ones per locale depending on the type of multimedia service needed. Remember that audio and video localization is labor-intensive, and that any effort gets replicated for all languages in a project – which means that even relatively minor tweaks can have a significant effect on cost. We say it often, but it’s worth repeating: thorough planning is the best way to keep your localization projects on scope, on time – and ultimately, on budget.