Christmas Comes Twice When You Do Swedish Transcreation

Ho, ho, ho, it’s already October. Swedish Christmas campaigns don’t write themselves.

By the time most people start thinking about Christmas, I am already deep into it. Merry metaphors, brand-approved joy and glitter everywhere. I usually hit peak Christmas spirit sometime in early November and then feel slightly less “fa la la” when the real thing finally arrives.

If you work at an LSP, you probably know the feeling. For us, Christmas comes twice. First when we create and localise the campaigns. Then when everyone else finally sees them.

This is where Swedish transcreation matters.

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Why your Christmas campaign needs Swedish transcreation

A Christmas campaign is never “just” a adaption job. To work in Swedish, it needs to:

• Keep your brand voice, even when the words change

• Feel like it was written by a Swede, for Swedes

• Hit the right tone on joy, humour and urgency without sounding cheesy

If anything is allowed to be cheesy in a Swedish Christmas, it should be the actual cheese, like gingerbread with blue cheese for Lucia. Knowing those tiny, very Swedish details is exactly what makes the difference in a campaign.

A literal Christmas marketing translation might be correct, but still fall flat, because it doesn’t really land emotionally in this market.

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All I want for Christmas is… a good brief

If this sounds like what you need, then I’m your Christmas girl. I work with LSPs across the world on Swedish transcreation, marketing translation and VO scripts for campaigns, including all the seasonal ones.

On my wish list is one simple thing that helps me help you: a good brief for Swedish holiday campaigns, including:

• Where the campaign will live, for example social, video, display, CRM

• Any existing Swedish material or tone of voice guidelines

• What is fixed and what I am allowed to rewrite or rebuild

Give me the intent and the constraints, and I can do the rest.

Your Christmas joy will be a campaign that feels truly local, not just literally translated. Bring in a Swedish transcreator early and your clients get better results, and you get fewer review loops.

Christmas comes twice. Let it work both times.