Among the 40 million Star Trek fans worldwide, die-hard Trekkies have more in common than pointy ears and Star Fleet insignias. While Klingon language localization campaigns have yet to go mainstream, there are new Klingon language tools, such as audio books, dictionaries and the new Microsoft Bing Translator tool Klingon features for transliterated and Kronos script. Klingon is more than just a gimmick, and today's post explains a bit of its history and place in popular culture.
Passport? Check. Money? Check. Cat sitter? Check. Global SEM strategy? Ch…huh? Planning for a global website launch requires some forethought, much like planning for a trip around the world. Our Top 10 Tips article gives you our suggestions for making the most of your global website launch. From internal code to external user-facing content, we know how to take websites global, and we want to share our tips with you.
Sometimes when I tell people my company helps companies increase their global reach through language translation services, I’m met with a skeptical grin.
“Is that going to be around much longer?” they say. “I thought Google Translate and other automated translation tools were making that kind of thing obsolete.”
And here’s one of the reasons Machine Translation (MT) is such a complex and contentious topic. Yes, it is can be a powerful tool for businesses rapidly looking to adapt to foreign markets. Yes, it can drive down costs and speed projects along. But applied to the wrong projects in the wrong way, it can have just the opposite effect.
Thinking of expanding into Japan? You’ve got a lot going for you. Japan is the third largest global economy and has a well-established consumer base. Certain aspects of American culture are very well-received with Japanese consumers; however, there are some things to keep in mind to ensure that you position yourself well. Our blog post and newsletter article give you some tips to consider.
The winners are in for the “POP Your Culture With The Warhol D.I.Y. Pop App” contest, which Acclaro hosted in association with The Andy Warhol Museum. Nicholas Chambers, the Milton Fine Curator of Art of The Warhol, chose the grand prize, second and third prize winners, as well as the 10 finalists for the People’s Choice Award.
Our contestants won some great prizes, from a trip to The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, to gift certificates, to way more than 15 minutes of fame. Today’s post reveals the artistic winners and shows off their submissions!
South Korea, nicknamed the “Land of Morning Calm”, is anything but sleepy these days. Most East Asian business travelers have the opportunity to land in Seoul International Airport, so why not take four hours to explore the sights. Hide-out at ICN, the world’s best airport — with golf, spas, a casino and much more — to reenergize for the next leg of your trip, or go on over-drive and explore Seoul’s historic, high-tech or traditional landmarks, from Gangnam Style or the DMZ to the herb market, royal palaces and museums. Any block of four hours will be efficiently and enjoyably spent in one of the world’s “newest” 21st Century cultures.
When people think of streaming video, they likely think of YouTube. And not just in the United States. Far from being a repository of mere feline frolic, YouTube is an extremely robust platform with a huge global footprint. With two days’ worth of videos being uploaded every day in five dozen languages, your global marketing and social media campaigns can benefit from folding YouTube into the process. But how do you get started? Today’s post and our newsletter article give you some tips to consider.
Everyone needs a little help sometimes. That’s why no software product release is complete without user assistance and support documentation. And any software release that includes multiple markets in multiple languages will, of course, require technical translation of the help section. User assistance documentation translation is usually is the last step before product release, yet this final stage of the release process is complex enough to warrant a process of its own, which can be costly and time consuming if you don’t plan for it. Here are some of our best tips for smoothing the process.
All marketing and advertising in the age of Twitter, Facebook and YouTube is global. As any PR rep or social media manager can tell you, even the most obscure of local brand campaigns are only a tweet away from global exposure. And as any global brand manager can tell you, there’s a fine balance to maintaining global consistency while still respecting cultural differences and local preferences. Coming up with individual campaigns for every local market is costly to both budgets and brand consistency. More and more brands are finding that the best approach is to go glocal: craft a global campaign and adapt it for local markets.
Byte Level Research’s 2013 Web Globalization Report Card is released, and is full of information for how to take your global website to the top of the class. Selection criteria highlight use of mobile sites, social media, the number of languages, and how easy it is for global users to find information that is relevant to their market.
Not surprisingly, Google holds the top spot. Below that, major global brands have shifted up and down the scale, and there are eight companies from 2012 who are nowhere to be found this year (including one of the former top ten!). Check out our post to find out who’s reaching global audiences most effectively, and what makes a good global website great.
The goals of software localization are pretty clear cut: If you really want to capture the minds of consumers in new international markets, you must speak the language. For over a decade, Acclaro has done exactly that, helping brands large and small localize their software for markets across the globe.
But what’s really under the hood of a smooth-running software localization machine? Quite a bit! To make sure it all works together in perfect synchronicity, we bring an array of tools and talent to each project.
Curious about the nuts and bolts of software localization? Read on, and let our localization mechanics give you the executive tour.
In any market, you want your audio and video content to speak to the audience. But you don’t always want to create all that content from scratch for each market. So how do you take your global content and give it local flavor? Great voiceover localization can make your global training video, radio spot, TV ad or multimedia project speak eloquently in any language. Whatever style of voiceover you’re working with — from off-camera narration to carefully choreographed lip-syncing — there are some best practices that can make or break your project.
Here are some of our best tips for making sure your voiceover localization project speaks in a voice your target language market understands.
One of the pleasures of working on complex, interesting website translation and localization projects is watching firsthand how our team adapts and collaborates to meet the challenges of our clients.
It’s gratifying to say that Fitbit’s Japanese launch pushed us to do some of our finest work, and as president, I wanted to publicly thank everyone at Fitbit for the opportunity to help bring their innovative connected fitness products to Japan. The project was a team effort with substantial challenges.
Japanese translation is one of Acclaro’s specialties, and we’re excited to watch Fitbit’s growth in this new market.
To ensure a successful global website launch, it’s good to consider some issues early on in the process, such as your own content management system’s (CMS) infrastructure and capabilities for handling multilingual content, the relevancy of your content for your global users, and the general tone and style you want to impart in translation. If you’re preparing to launch your site internationally, today’s post gives you some good starting points, and links to our more detailed newsletter article on the same topic.
Spanish is an extremely varied language, spoken in at least 20 countries and even differing among regions within the same country. Finding an easy way to express yourself with a single Spanish translation can be a challenging, but not impossible, task. Knowing your specific regions and working with good in-country resources or a translation agency can help make sure you avoid using the wrong term in the wrong area.
A giant monster terrorizes a city, leaving a trail of… art in its wake. Playful and provocative, Bangkok's Bukruk Street Art Festival has literally marked this city in a whole new way. Curious to find out what European and Thai graffiti artists can do when they put their minds to it? Read on to see how their art acts as a global language that pushes boundaries. Think of it as graffiti meets localization on a (literally) massive scale.
Follow in the footsteps of American icon Andy Warhol by entering the Acclaro pop art photo contest in association with The Andy Warhol Museum. Warhol re-imagined everyday items such as soup cans, soda bottles, and portraits to give us some indelible artistic images. Now you get the chance to leave your mark on the world and win a free trip for two to The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, PA. Read today’s post to get all the details.
The only thing that evolves as fast as the technology we use every day is the jargon used to describe it. The phrases “cloud computing” and “in the cloud” are employed on a daily basis by CEOs, CIOs, project managers, and advertising execs to describe a variety of technology and productivity situations in our network-obsessed culture. Like many others, you may have a general sense what “the cloud” is, but what, exactly, do these phrases really describe? And how does the cloud operate for international businesses?
Even if you haven’t invested in a cloud computing solution for your own business, global or otherwise, you’re probably already accustomed to cloud-based services. Whether synchronizing your eBook reading or streaming your music collection through Spotify or Rdio, you’re already relying on the tenets of cloud computing. In this post we’ll define that nebulous nimbus phrase, take a look at some of the pros and cons of building a business dependent upon it, and shed a little light on cloud computing in other countries.
Ah, Iceland. It's the land of fire and ice, Björk, and seemingly-unpronounceable volcanoes. The country's breathtaking beauty has put it firmly on the travel map and we're surprised this northern gem stayed secret for so long. Where else can you learn about Vikings, see whales, relax in geothermal spas, and ski all in one day? Read on for things to see and do in this land of strange contradictions.
So your business plan is in place and you’re ready to enter new markets. But is your content ready? Developing and managing international content for multiple language markets isn’t something that happens overnight. From creating localization-ready source content to figuring out a content management strategy, there are a lot of factors to consider. But with some advance planning, you can set your international content up for multilingual success. Read on for some of our top tips for smoothing the international content creation and management process.
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