A French company, an international leader in the development, publishing and distribution of video games, wanted to offer a 2-hour video presenting its new products for the year at a launch event.
In order to make this video accessible to all its customers worldwide, the video had to be subtitled in 11 languages: English, French, Spanish, Italian, German, Brazilian Portuguese, Chinese (simplified and traditional), Japanese, Korean and Arabic.
A few days before the launch, concerned about the quality of the subtitles provided by its agency, the customer urgently requested the help of Acolad on this project to continue, polish and finalize the work already started. Acolad then had 5 days to adapt, revise, integrate and ensure compliance with audiovisual standards for a 2-hour video project in 11 languages!
Here’s a look back at this major challenge in which the team in charge of the project performed brilliantly.
Guaranteeing linguistic and technical quality that matches the brand image
Our client faced multiple challenges. Guaranteeing linguistic and technical quality in accordance with and in line with its brand image was one such challenge. This event, watched by thousands of fans around the world, required a smooth and professional localization. To accomplish this task, the Acolad teams had to ensure the proper use of the 300 or so terms per language found in the customer’s glossary and also collaborate with in-house proofreaders responsible for the brand’s content.
The delivery deadline was the other major challenge for this project. The teams had 5 days to finalize the subtitles in the 11 languages and to deliver a work of impeccable quality to the customer. By Monday morning, the team had been assembled and provided with the customer’s instructions. As the international broadcast was to take place on Saturday evening, the linguists, project managers and audiovisual technicians were expected to deliver the final files by Friday evening at the latest – a challenge that the team met with professionalism.
Why choose Acolad?
In the eyes of the customer, Acolad was able to make a real difference. Its reasons for turning to the team include:
- Acolad's responsiveness in addressing the request. It only took a few hours for Acolad to form a team specializing in audiovisual projects, made up of linguists (one per language) and technicians – all coordinated by two experienced project managers;
- Acolad's ability to assemble a team of in-house professionals used to working with the client’s teams. From the outset of the project, the linguistic teams integrated the terminology and stylistic preferences provided by the customer’s in-house proofreading team. Once this foundation was laid, all linguists were assured of delivering translations that were consistent and in line with the brand’s desired tone and universe.
The method applied to ensure the success of the service in record time
Once all the technical and linguistic aspects had been validated with the customer, our two project managers were responsible for ensuring that the project went smoothly in all 11 languages. The service consisted of the following:
- verifying the full video’s timecoding in all languages;
- proofreading all subtitles and ensuring they complied with the glossary provided, handled by our in-house language leads;
- integrating the terminology and stylistic preferences provided by the customer’s in-house proofreaders;
- preparing the SRT files for the final subtitle embedding.
In addition to managing the various parties involved, our dedicated project manager, had to pass on instructions, prepare the work files and also ensure the technical integrity of the deliverables prepared by our linguists for each language.
On the other hand, the team in charge of customer relations provided the client with our reverse planning, remarks and questions – in real time on Teams and by telephone when necessary – as well as our deliverables.
This pair, complemented by the team of linguists fully aware of the customer’s expectations with regard to deadlines and quality, worked together perfectly, and our strong internal communication enabled us to deliver the service in record time.
A video event accessible worldwide
By helping the customer publish its video in 11 languages on several different broadcasting platforms, including YouTube, and as a video event on its website, at the level of quality, they expected, we have been able to build trust with the customer through our technical and linguistic expertise.
We are fortunate to be able to rely on a team of competent and dedicated people in-house for our day-to-day operations. The team brought the project to fruition through intense cooperation, unbending determination and with tons of enthusiasm and passion.
What’s next?
“This project will provide us with valuable experience for any future projects. If we are lucky enough to work on the project the next time they do this event, we will know what to expect with regard to the different steps involved and be able to prepare ourselves better beforehand. We should know more between now and the end of the year and early 2023 about how the next event will be managed, and we hope to be a part of it!” explains our Market Manager.
