LocWorldWide 45 is coming to a small screen near you! Between October 19th and 21st, you can tune into any and all of the virtual event’s fantastic panels, meetings, and discussions. This year’s theme? “Pushing boundaries.” 

We certainly believe in pushing boundaries — especially cultural and linguistic. Globalization is about uniting people from all over the world in relevant conversation; it’s bringing a range of experiences to the table, and figuring out how to relate; it’s building bridges. 

LocWorldWide’s event is certainly a boundary pusher, and we’re particularly excited for one panel in particular!

 

Argos’ Senior Localization Consultant, Kathleen Bostick, will moderate a panel discussion on October 20th, called, “Up Close and Personal.” The panelists — Noreen Henry of Sojern, Loy Searle of Workday, and Val Swisher of Content Rules, Inc. — will discuss their career journeys, focusing on their experiences as women leaders. What challenges have they encountered? How did they overcome them? How have they built credibility in the workplace as a woman in a sea of men? And how do they envision (or hope to envision) females in the workplace beyond the present day?

Chillistore’s DNA is female (we were founded by Anna Woodward Kennedy), and we continue to employ talented women from around the world. Check out our team of women leaders on our management page.

We’re eager to hear what these leaders have to say. Be sure to tune in!

Learn more about our diversity and inclusion efforts.

First impressions are key, and while our parents taught us never to “judge a book by its cover,” they never said anything about websites and marketing materials! Your business’ writing is your business’ brand, and you want both to stand apart from the competition. After all, anyone can drone on and on about why they’re the best; but only some can actually be the best.

When globalizing, it may seem easiest to create one piece of content, and then simply translate it into several different languages. This probably is easier, but it’s certainly not more effective. Simple translations leave room for errors — both linguistic and cultural. 

What if there were people who could write original content for your brand, in a variety of different languages? What if they were able to take a marketing brief, or a source language sample, and craft those into original copy that would reach and attract the local target audience?

Lucky for you, these people and services exist! And they’re at Chillistore.

We understand that audiences — no matter where they’re located — want their content to sound natural and culturally appropriate. They want to feel that content was made for them and them only — not for multiple different audiences. What does this mean for your business? It means your copywriting can’t be cookie-cutter; it has to have originality.

Our copywriters work with your departments, to understand your offerings, absorb your voice and messaging, and then replicate them in the target language. They maintain your business’ voice, without alienating your target culture. They know what phrases will hit, which to avoid, and how your target audience likes to be targeted. They know your audience, and will make sure your copy makes them feel seen and understood. 

Chillistore believes that content has purpose. And we want to help you find yours.

Learn more about our copywriting offerings

First impressions are key, and while our parents taught us never to “judge a book by its cover,” they never said anything about websites and marketing materials! Your business’ writing is your business’ brand, and you want both to stand apart from the competition. After all, anyone can drone on and on about why they’re the best; but only some can actually be the best.

When globalizing, it may seem easiest to create one piece of content, and then simply translate it into several different languages. This probably is easier, but it’s certainly not more effective. Simple translations leave room for errors — both linguistic and cultural. 

What if there were people who could write original content for your brand, in a variety of different languages? What if they were able to take a marketing brief, or a source language sample, and craft those into original copy that would reach and attract the local target audience?

Lucky for you, these people and services exist! And they’re at Chillistore.

We understand that audiences — no matter where they’re located — want their content to sound natural and culturally appropriate. They want to feel that content was made for them and them only — not for multiple different audiences. What does this mean for your business? It means your copywriting can’t be cookie-cutter; it has to have originality.

Our copywriters work with your departments, to understand your offerings, absorb your voice and messaging, and then replicate them in the target language. They maintain your business’ voice, without alienating your target culture. They know what phrases will hit, which to avoid, and how your target audience likes to be targeted. They know your audience, and will make sure your copy makes them feel seen and understood. 

Chillistore believes that content has purpose. And we want to help you find yours.

Learn more about our copywriting offerings

Our desire to look inward is one of the things that makes our company so unique. At Chillistore, we don’t settle for the way things are or have been — we talk to each other; we assess pain points; and we make concrete plans for improvement. Continuous Improvement is the first of three pillars that define our company.

Pain Points

What does it mean to continuously improve? The first step is identifying what isn’t working (or, what isn’t working as well as it could). In a recent brainstorming session, we discussed why improvement can fall by the wayside during an average day at work. Maybe you’re up against a deadline and don’t feel like there’s time to “work on yourself”? Perhaps the dogs are barking, your Wifi is slow, and you haven’t had enough coffee (most likely, all three of these things are true!). These are all obstacles that can make it hard to see the bigger picture and to self-motivate. 

Ideas for Improvement

The key to self-motivation? Working with others. We find that teamwork gets more done than working on an island. After all, there’s a reason the English expression, “two heads are better than one” exists. A busy workload can make it difficult to find time to collaborate and meet; so, how can we encourage collaboration? Managing our time more effectively is key. If we want to have discussions, we need to make time for them. Brainstorming sessions (like the one that inspired this blog post) are great ways to keep ideas flowing and encourage honest dialogue.

And then there’s the question of quality meetings. It’s one thing to book a one-hour meeting, but it’s another to stay fully focused and dedicated during the hour. We’ve all fallen into the trap of responding to emails and texts, or of thinking about our grocery lists and household chores while someone else is talking. Perhaps to fully collaborate we need to be actively  present. For some, this means silencing our phones and focusing on the task at hand. For others, this means active listening, via techniques like note taking and asking questions. And then, if meetings continue to be high-quality, we can shorten them for maximum efficiency. 

Action Items

What are the actionable items we can take away/have taken away from all of this brainstorming? One thing we can all use is a checklist of questions we can ask ourselves, in order to stay accountable. When you begin your day, consider how you’re addressing work — are you reacting to things in your inbox, or are you prioritizing work you know you need to get done? A good way to find balance is by setting a time limit. Perhaps you start your day with ten minutes of correspondence, put the rest aside for later, and then jump into your personal and/or collaborative work? 

Another thing to assess about your workday is how long you spend in your inbox and Slack messages. If you find yourself spending more time discussing than working (or the reverse), then it could be helpful to again set a time limit for yourself.

Of course, it’s difficult to “get to work” if you don’t know what work you need to complete. Size up your tasks in a way that makes most sense. Some people like to begin with smaller tasks, so they can get those out of the way before completing larger ones. Other people prefer to start with the hard stuff. Decide what defines your best practices and stay true to those. Doing what works best for your style will help you be more efficient. As will keeping a diary and calendar! You may feel like a student again, but aren’t we all students? Embrace your inner student and improve continuously.

Top Three Principles: Clear Communication

Electronic Arts (EA) is making great strides with regard to accessibility! This week, the video game giant opened patents for some of its accessibility-related tech. This means that games that have been using this technology won’t see lawsuits. One of the most impressive innovations is the “ping system” in the game, Apex Legends. The system allows for the visually and hearing impaired to play this team-based game, without hearing or speaking. EA will also open patents for its super popular games, Madden and Fifa, with the goal of making them more accessible for people with low vision and/or color blindness.

Our goal at Chillistore is to advise with sensitivity and inclusion at the forefront. When we work with screen readers, for example, we look for pain points that could hinder someone’s ability to receive the desired message. Screen readers often either include too much detail, or not enough, leaving the receiver with an inaccurate vision. We boil down what’s relevant to the messaging, so the audience can fully understand all aspects of the intended message. We go through this process in many languages, assuring that content is sensitive from an accessibility standpoint, as well as a cultural one. We do this because at Chillistore, we care about people.

Read more about EA’s efforts here.

Read more about our efforts with inclusive localization

In July, Apple TV signed a production deal for Russian and ‘multilingual’ shows, as an apparent ode to Netflix’s successful approach. Alexander Rodnyansky’s company, AR Content, will work with Apple to create several shows, some of which will take place in Russia. Apple’s move represents a growing effort to address other languages and cultures in their own language from the start, as opposed to relying on translated content. 

Dare we compare apples to chillies and say the Apple approach is in-line with the Chillistore approach? At Chillistore, we believe in using localization, transcreation and/or in-country copywriting, depending on the type of content needed to sell products and services. Knowing which approach works for which market is key, and is one of our biggest strengths. 

Say you have translations that you want to tailor to fit a certain audience; our localization services help check the quality of translations, and make sure they’ll resonate across cultures. You don’t want a direct translation to misconstrue your intended messaging, which is why our culture experts are so crucial. This is also why customers often choose “transcreation” (translation + creation) as an approach to globalization. Transcreation is a mobile process, in which in-country creators build messaging that will resonate with their country’s language and audience. Rather than performing a quality translation of an existing message, these experts build new messaging from the ground up, and remove or add elements that will resonate most with their target audience. This is also how in-country copywriting works. Writing brand new copy each time you need to translate your content can sometimes be more efficient and effective than performing hundreds of translations. 

At Chillistore, we’ll identify which of these above approaches will work best for your needs, and will assign the right people to the job. After all, we pride ourselves on knowing cultures, and that requires understanding people.

Read more about Apple’s deal here https://bit.ly/2W1thkZ

Learn more about our creative localization and inclusion services