Talk and Networking Lunch

Event report

On 7 May 2022 the Lincolnshire Society enjoyed an excellent and fascinating talk with slides by Clément Dhollande, a French translator and reviewer specialising in marketing. He graduated with a Master of Arts in Literary Translation from the University of Angers in 2018, and quickly stepped into the localisation industry. Clément helps his international clients to produce high quality, consistent texts for the French market, as demand and expectations have increased sharply with digitalisation. In his talk, Clément outlined trends and practices in the industry and gave insights on digital marketing, both from a vendor’s and a customer’s point of view.

Today’s new streaming platforms require new approaches from both marketers and the linguists who translate them. Clément explained that it has become essential that brands know how to talk to their public; expectations are high, with the public expecting a standardised digital, seamless experience. That is why linguists are required to understand various concepts prior to performing translations, in order to provide the most relevant translations. Amongst other topics, the speaker guided his audience through the importance of the hidden areas of technical content, consistency of the user interface, and how brands have to work both within their ecosystem (websites and own apps) and outside of it (third-party apps, e.g. YouTube for advertisements).

The localisation industry is fast moving and new tools are constantly being developed to increase the efficiency of linguists. It is a branch of the translation industry that requires a lot of practice to be able to reach the right tone while respecting the various rules imposed by the clients (ecosystems). The core of the job is to be accurate, but very often nowadays the linguists have to understand deeply the culture and the target language they work with, in order to sound familiar to the customers. Clément said that brands will be looking for more and more qualified linguists who are willing to work within a fast paced environment. The brands react strongly to major events happening in the world and this means that linguists need to keep up to date with what is going on around them, as well as understanding the state of mind of the businesses that ask for flexibility whenever necessary.  

Clément’s talk was followed by lunch, with a discussion and networking session.

Candia Hillier DipTrans MCIL
Chairman of the Lincolnshire Society

This event will begin at 12:15pm with a talk by Clément Dhollande, a French translator and reviewer specialising in marketing, entitled ‘Localising for a Hyperactive, Digital Market’. The talk will then be followed by a discussion and a networking lunch.

Speaker bio

Clément Dhollande is a French translator and reviewer specialising in marketing. He graduated with a Master of Arts in Literary Translation from the University of Angers in 2018, and quickly stepped into a localisation industry that has been on the lookout for an increasing number of qualified linguists. Clément helps his international clients to produce high quality, consistent texts for the French market, as demand and expectations have sharply increased with digitalisation. The health crisis that the world has been experiencing has only accentuated digital activities, and localisation now has a greater impact on businesses than ever. From the home page of a website to application features, online texts are now being read by all sorts of people as globalisation is taking over our lives. How do these businesses talk to their fans and inform their customers? And why are historic markets like France (from an American point of view) becoming more relevant than ever? In this talk, Clément will outline trends and practices in the industry and will give insights on digital marketing, both from a vendor’s and a customer’s point of view.