What is multilingual video localization and why is it important?
With digitalization and COVID, video formats have seen nothing but a dramatic influx in demand this past year. Studies estimate that 82% of all content will be in video format by 2022. Considering only 17% of the world population understand English, video in one language is not enough. Therefore, businesses across different industries worldwide must transform their videos to address and be understood by the global audience. That is essentially what multilingual video localization means.
While the media and entertainment industry always had the most demand for video production, the rise of videos for live events, meetings, training, and education is unprecedented. These new demands for videos in professional settings have given video localization the power to shape how we share information and interact with each other in the world. No wonder the video localization market is estimated to reach a whopping 5 billion USD in 2021.
What should you know about the power of video localization?
Companies have always used videos for advertising. But for businesses to amplify their impact around the globe, they must learn to apply the format on social media platforms, at conferences, and even at discussion panels. That means videos now need to be instantly and remotely interpreted, captioned, and translated. Therefore, many companies are looking to invest in multilingual video localization.
Some businesses are combating physical separation by combining professional translation work with technologies like Remote Simultaneous Interpretation (RSI) or live captions for their live events and online meetings. Without it, exchanging ideas and opinions, let alone the sharing of information becomes very difficult.
Other companies use video localization as a business and marketing strategy. By posting and promoting different localized versions of the same video on various online platforms, they can help the business reach new target audiences, and at the same time, achieve more than one objective. Video localization can happen by localizing subtitles, captions, or audio video localization with dubbing and voice overs. As a result, companies that invest in video localization potentially become more agile and responsive to the market.
A case in point would be the leading French toy company, Smoby, part of the Simba Dickie Group, who produced a series of localized internal videos with us to demonstrate their toy functions in various European languages. The video series helped the team and their worldwide clients understand their product play value when they cannot physically meet at the usual Toy fairs or showrooms.
So, how can we ensure that our video content is relevant to specific local crowds?
People enjoy videos because it is effortless, entertaining, and impactful, but video localization is not just a piece of translation work. Effective localization needs to be done with proper intention and strategy, especially since the modern content viewers have very short attention spans. Here are some things we suggest companies to consider prior investing in video localization:
1. Understand the market
Research to understand the local language, the culture, and the market itself. You may find different objectives or unmet needs that you can address while localizing your video. That is how you can achieve a share of voice (SOV) and become truly impactful in the new market.
2. Plan ahead
Outline and detail the content and contextual requirements from your targeted audiences first. Incorporate the findings into the video script accordingly, and localize the content to be linguistically and culturally appropriate for different markets. The ultimate goal for the localized video is to sound as natural as it was in the source video.
3. Define your priorities
Companies should define the extent of the localization based on market potential, budget, project lead time, localization quality, and more. An example of this is the work we have done for the asset management firm First Sentier Investors. We have localized their fund managers‘ videos for the corporate website in four languages. These videos became powerful marketing tools as they help potential leads from around APAC understand investment in the language they speak.
It is crucial for companies to partner with an experienced translation agency to achieve video localization best practices. A company can expect a smooth video localization process if the translation agency possesses references and talents from different industries, uses the latest technologies to facilitate multilingual video localization projects, or fulfill specific tasks, such as youtube video localization.
At DataSource, we provide that and more. With our own in-house professional studio and a team of sound engineering specialists, our technical abilities have allowed our clients to enjoy voiceover and dubbing, plus all post-production services such as high-quality subtitling, sound effects, transcription, and more. Unlike other language service providers, we handle and monitor the whole video localization process from beginning to end, ensuring a smooth and efficient process from translation to recording and editing.
Our unique one-stop video localization solution has helped countless companies from the cosmetics, toys, finance, and compliance industry extend their reach around the globe. With 20 years of experience, we have built a network of 500+ voice talents and an extensive resource hub to support multilingual video and content localization.
If you are interested in our flexible and speedy services favored by different-sized companies, visit here to see our recording, dubbing, and subtitling project samples today!