Running banner campaigns in several languages

A banner campaign in four languages is four campaigns that have to look like one. Every size is multiplied by every language, and each version has to read as if it were written in that market. This guide covers transcreation, text length, typography and formality, and how to check a multilingual set before it runs.

Transcreation, not translation

Translation keeps the words. Transcreation keeps the effect: the message, the offer and the tone, written again by someone who knows how the market reads.

The difference shows fastest in headlines. An English headline built on a pun, a sports metaphor or a phrase like “spring into savings” has no word-for-word equivalent in Dutch, German or French. A literal translation keeps the words and loses the point. Transcreation asks what the line is meant to do, then writes a line that does it in the other language, even if the image changes.

What stays fixed across languages:

• the offer, the prices, the dates and any conditions
• the facts: what is promoted, where and when
• the action the button asks for
• the brand’s voice: how formal, how warm, how playful

What may change: the headline’s angle, the word order, the length, and the example or image a line leans on.

Plan for length, starting with German

German copy runs long. Sizewright’s engine budgets German at 1.3 times the length of the same copy in English, more than any other language it writes.^[1] German also builds compound nouns, such as Kaffeeabonnement for “coffee subscription”, that cannot break over two lines without a hyphen.

You can see the effect in the example campaign for Noordkaap, a fictional coffee roaster. In its 728×90, “Roasted this week.” fits on one line. The German “Diese Woche geröstet.” and the French “Torréfié cette semaine.” each take two lines in the same banner. The button goes the other way: “Order now” becomes a single word, “Bestellen” or “Commander”.

Length matters most where there is least room, so check the shapes in this order:

1. The strips first. A 728×90 or a 320×50 gives the headline a single line.^[2] If the German short headline fits there, the tightest case is solved.
2. Then the towers. A 160×600 has a narrow column, where one long compound can decide the type size of the whole headline.
3. Then the full-screen formats. In a 1080×1920, a longer subline can push text down toward the bottom safe zone.^[3]

The easiest fix is upstream. Write the lead language knowing which languages follow, and keep the short headline short enough to leave room for German. Sizewright does this for you: when longer languages follow, the lead copy is written tighter from the start.^[1]

Typography per language

Each language sets its punctuation differently, and a banner set in another language’s marks looks careless to a native reader. These are the conventions Sizewright’s engine applies:^[1]

French needs the most care. The space before a colon, semicolon, exclamation mark or question mark is a narrow no-break space, so the mark never wraps onto a line of its own. In a banner, where a line break lands is often a matter of a single character, so this matters more than it does in body text.

Numbers have their own rules. Dutch, German and French readers expect a decimal comma, and price formats differ by market. Write prices and dates in the brief the way each market reads them.

Formality per market

Dutch, German and French each make the writer choose between a familiar and a polite “you”: je or u in Dutch, du or Sie in German, tu or vous in French. There is no correct answer for all brands. A sports brand and a private bank may choose differently, and the same brand may choose differently per market. Sizewright’s own site uses je in Dutch, Sie in German and vous in French.

What matters is to decide once, per language, and hold to it. A banner that says du above a landing page that says Sie reads like two companies. In a Sizewright brand kit, formality is set per language, and the copy for each language is written to it.^[1]

If English is your lead language

Most of the work happens before the first banner is written. For teams that write in English and run in Europe:

• Brief the facts, not just the copy. Every other language is written from the brief, so the offer, the audience and the conditions need to be there in full.
• Keep the short headline literal enough to travel. Wordplay can live in the long version, where the other languages have room to find their own.
• Leave out references that only work at home. Holidays, sports, measurements and spelling all differ by market.
• Name the currency. A “$” or a “£” headline offer needs a euro version for the eurozone, and the conditions may differ too.
• Keep a word list. Product names, plan names and terms that stay in English (or never do) should be decided once per market, not per banner.
• Get a native reader to approve each language. Not to translate, but to say whether it sounds like the brand.

One campaign, many languages

In Sizewright, one campaign can carry up to 12 languages, chosen from English, Dutch, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Polish, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian and Finnish. The first language leads, and every other language gets its own writing step. Each version is then set with its own typography and fitted into every size. A legal line can be stored per language in the brand kit.^[1]

Each language costs what a size costs, 1 credit per format per language, with no translation fee. An approval link can cover any of the campaign’s languages, so a reviewer in each market sees the banners in their language.^[1] Exports put each language in its own folder.

See multilingual campaigns for how it works in the product, and pricing for what a set in several languages costs.