The Dr Susan Love Research Foundation strives to end breast cancer in our lifetime. So, when they asked us to help them with a video series, we were happy to help.
Still, Susan Love’s video series was unique – they wanted the videos to be in both Spanish and English. Why? In California, where the research foundation is located, there’s a large population of LatinX people that speak Spanish as a first language.
Dr Love understands this. She also understands that LatinX people are underserved by media and resources that are only produced in English.
That leads us to our point.
International Advertising Isn’t Done Only to Reach People Who are Far Away
It’s easy to forget that America is a dynamic, cultural mishmash of color and vibrance.
When we say “American advertising,” what do you think? Do you think about the Italian deli around the corner, the Mexican market filled to bursting with dried chiles… or do you think about Budweiser and burgers?
America was built on equality. Equality doesn’t mean one, dominant narrative. Equality means the careful balance of many views playing off of one another.
So, when The Susan Love Cancer Research Foundation thought about advertising to Americans, they realized that—in many ways—advertising on to Americans is like advertising to many different cultures at once. They needed to reach out with different versions of the same message to truly serve the communities they were trying to reach. In fact, this was one of the reasons they initially came to us over other international ad agencies.
You can see this idea active on their website where you can switch back and forth between English and Spanish seamlessly.
So, Does the Close-to-Home International Ad Philosophy Hold Water?
In short, yes. Yes, it does… but only if you do it RIGHT.
When we were creating these international videos, we knew that they would be intended for an audience with international origins from the very start. So we made the videos to work with Anglo-Saxon cultures in addition to LatinX ones. That means that we could send the English videos off for a proper translation and then re-record the voice-over to complete Dr Love’s multi-cultural message.
Even Dr. Love herself embraces this international aspect by providing her own Spanish language interpretation and translation.
We created a 30 video, international video series that Dr Susan Love’s Cancer Research Center is absolutely in love with and that we’re incredibly proud of and continually learn from.
So, again for those in the back, what do you need to do to make a great international ad?
Redo Parts of the Original Video (Probably)
If you’re starting from scratch, you can build an international perspective into the videos you create from the get-go.
However, if you want to translate old videos you already have, chances are, you’ll need to re-record and re-edit parts of your video to better align with the culture that you’re trying to reach. It’s up to you to either redo your videos yourself, or to contact a reputable international advertising agency.
Even with our prior knowledge, we had to rework substantial parts of the videos we did for them to create a truly international experience.
Get a Proper Translation
Everyone can tell if you’re phoning in a translation. A good rule of thumb? If it didn’t work in high school Spanish, then it probably won’t work now.
Send off your script for a real, culturally aware translation or voice-over and BOOM – you’ve got a dynamite translated video.
Advertise Like You Mean It
Like Dr. Love, you may need to think about adding an international flair to your advertisements to reach all of your target demographics.
You may even unlock some customers that you never knew you had.
Either way, international advertising is here to stay, even if it’s staying close to home. If you’re looking to have a video made or translated for a global audience, why not reach out to us? Your story starts here.