When it comes to marketing, slogans are an effective, catchy, and intriguing way to deliver a message. And if you need your slogans translated into Italian for your marketing campaign, you should definitely rely on a transcreation service. Let me tell you why.

​Marketing requires more than just translated content

Crafting an effective marketing campaign for the Italian market means correctly translating the intentions of your ad. To do so, it’s very important to focus not only on the English to Italian translation of the campaign text but also on its intention and the culture of the target audience.

For example, it’s very important to make sure that certain cultural references are not lost in translation, while also making sure that the slogan is just as effective and catchy as the original one.

The web is full of “transcreation fails”, with companies paying the price of a poor choice by the transcreation team with their dignity. Let‘s focus, however, on some positive examples of Italian transcreation over the years.

​Why slogans need to be transcreated into Italian

Italy has a very long history of translation and dubbing. Up until recent years, all TV and media content had been translated, as Italians prefer to enjoy their content in their own language – they even have award nights for dubbing! It just makes sense for slogans to be translated into Italian as well.

TV and printed media are a fertile oasis for slogans translated through transcreation, and here are three examples of slogans effectively transcreated into Italian:

​1) Haribo

Haribo’s catchy jingle is probably one of the first examples that come up in a case study of the transcreation of slogans, and of course Italian has its own version! The original text is in German and it’s very effective to see how the same slogan has been translated into different versions!

The original German version recites “Haribo macht Kinder froh, und Erwachsene ebenso,” which means “Haribo makes children happy, and grown-ups too” and the English transcreation is quite close to the original version, “Kids and grown-ups love it so, the happy world of Haribo!” (Were you singing along in your head while reading it? I bet you were!).

The Italian version of this slogan is “Haribo è la bontà che si gusta a ogni età”, which means “Haribo is the deliciousness you can enjoy at every age”. As you can tell, this would not be a “correct” translation of the source text but it’s a creative way to deliver the message, keep the rhyme, and make the slogan as catchy as possible!

​2) Swiffer

As soon as you read the title you probably imagined the sentence, “When Swiffer’s the one, consider it done”. This slogan is so deeply buried in our heads it’s almost impossible to think the message might be different in any other language, and yet! The Italian transcreated version of this slogan is “La polvere non dura perchè Swiffer la cattura”, that is to say, “The dust doesn’t linger, because Swiffer catches it.” This creative English to Italian translation is regarded as one of the best examples of transcreation; it doesn’t simply keep the rhyme of the original slogan but also mentions the benefit of the product, in a catchy, incisive way.

​3) The Boys

If you look up the marketing campaign for Amazon Prime’s TV series “The Boys”, you’ll get a good sense of what the series is about from its claim: Never meet your heroes.

In English “Never meet your heroes” is a very common saying and the meaning is immediately understood as “…or you’ll get disappointed”, or something to that effect.

There is no Italian equivalent of this saying, so the marketing campaign was changed to “Conosci davvero i tuoi eroi?”, which is the Italian equivalent of “Do you really know your heroes?”.

Even though the Italian version completely changed the claim, even turning it into a question, it immediately gives the reader the idea that, hmm, something might not be right with their heroes, intriguing them.

​Consider it done

If you’re looking to translate your slogan from English into Italian, your search is finally over! Over the years I’ve been collaborating with international clients and agencies to effectively translate their content for the Italian market. Send me an email — we can work together to make your slogan italianissimo!