You can effectively and meaningfully provide your top-notch content to customers throughout the world by localizing your multimedia.

Our interactions with websites, applications, and social media platforms now go beyond boring text and unchanging images. The ability to quickly load video, audio, and animations is made possible by today's computing power and connection speeds.

A more fun and engaging user experience is the result of all of this. To put it simply, multimedia content for digital marketing is successful because it better engages and entices users.

Your multimedia material needs to be localized if you want it to have the most impact on a worldwide audience.

Why should your multimedia content be localized?

1.    Increase Sales

Over 76% of international clients prefer information to be delivered to them in their native tongue, according to a 2020 survey by CSA Research. Your company must communicate in the target market's native tongue if it is to grow to its full potential. Multimedia localization becomes crucial in this situation.

2.    Create an emotional response

Localization delivers the emotional effect of your multimedia material in addition to facilitating its literal understanding. For the Korean market, where Korean New Year is seen as the time of the year for family gatherings, a multimedia marketing campaign intended to evoke the shared joy of a family Christmas in Europe may be modified.

3.    Prevent Cultural Errors

Multimedia, especially visual media, can accidentally lead to misunderstanding or even cultural offense. Colors, animals, rituals, and clothing styles can all have quite different cultural meanings in different places. For instance, dogs are regarded as "man's best friend" in the US and the UK because they are devoted, adored, and true members of the family. However, dogs are regarded as filthy, harmful, and most definitely unwelcome in the home in Islamic nations. Text translation is only the initial stage in the localization of multimedia content. Careful consideration must be given to every component of the text.

How to Localize Multimedia in Five Steps

Multimedia localization can be quite advantageous for businesses aiming to establish a market across various foreign locales. Multimedia isn't limited to a single type of information, so there are a few things you should be aware of. Translation often comes first, but because we're dealing with audio and video, there is a second layer that needs to be taken care of straight away.

1.    Transcription

Before the actual translation process begins, all of your audio, video, movie, or mixed media source materials are acquired. The spoken content is then recorded in a script together with any subtitles or on-screen text. To be translated, updated, and proofread into the target language, all original content must first be transcribed. Typically, this is done manually with the aid of sophisticated automated systems or transcribing services.

2.    Translation

The audio transcripts are then double-checked by local specialists to ensure that all language, grammar, idioms, and reference are accurate. Any essential alterations are made in order to get ready for the following phase. The original material is then translated, and local resources are used to ensure that the language, grammar, and other regional conventions are accurate.

3.    Localization

Following that, the remaining source material is analyzed for linguistic and cultural nuances that might not be suitable for the intended audience. Technical issues also fall under this:

• Measurement unit conversions

• Formats for time and date

• Currencies

The freshly produced version will seem as natural to the target viewers as the original did after this rigorous localization process. The goal is for the audience to ingest the content as original by making the translation indiscernible to them. Beyond simple translation, localization aids in content creation.

4.    Voiceover

The localized transcripts are re-recorded as new voiceovers, usually with additional editing and overdubbing, to preserve production quality. The recording is created with the aid of top-notch studio gear and skilled workers. Modern recording technologies and digital platforms have made voiceover work easier than ever before. However, using specialized settings and top-of-the-line equipment while being guided by knowledgeable professionals will produce better results and more consistent audio quality.

To make the recording seem appropriate and accepted locally, a voiceover talent who can portray the right local dialect, accent, enunciation, diction, tone, and similar linguistic traits is also required.

5. Synchronization of Translation

Each audio, visual, and text component must now be synchronized after being separately localized in order to create the full, complex impact of the multimedia experience. During synchronization, the possibility of a mismatch between any of the several components is removed.

Timing must be exact, thus you should only use state-of-the-art professional software programs. Sometimes voiceover translation is replaced with subtitles.

The loss of audio is a drawback of using subtitles for localization. Furthermore, synchronization with subtitles is easier to achieve than with voice because text can be instantly modified and adjusted to match the video.

Utilize Multiple Skill Sets When Localizing Multimedia

Since multimedia localization is a broad field, it inevitably entails a variety of tasks that call for expertise in numerous other areas.

To organize such a large and diversified project and engineer the result into a polished package, it also takes the necessary media expertise in addition to the numerous technical services, such as translation, transcription, audio production, and video production.

I'M Translation/ISiS Korea, specialists in the localization of multimedia content for a global audience, have developed a five-step procedure.

Need a translation? I’M Translation and ISIS Korea provides professional translation and interpretation services.

How might I’M Translation and ISiS Korea aid translation?

At I’M Translation and ISiS Korea, we can connect you with a professional translators and interpreters. We have over 30+ languages available on our platform and we are flexible and available regardless of the language pair, topic, and time zone. Please visit us at www.imtranslation.com and www.isiskorea.com/eng to request a free translation and interpretation quote. Thank you!