Marketing in a language you do not speak
The English line is written, approved, and then sent for translation. Everything that goes wrong afterwards was decided in that sentence.
Translate the intent, not the words. Brief a writer who works in that language rather than a translator working from English copy, cast voices from the region rather than approximating the accent, and put approval in the hands of someone who speaks it, not someone reading a back-translation.
Most multilingual campaigns in India are English campaigns wearing other languages. The idea was built in English, the rhythm is English, the pun only works in English, and the regional versions arrive as obligations rather than work anybody wanted to make.
Translation and transcreation are not the same job
Translation carries the words. Transcreation carries the intent, and usually discards the words to do it. A line that rhymes in Hindi will not rhyme in Tamil, and forcing it produces copy that native speakers find stilted in a way an English-speaking approver cannot detect.
Brief the idea, not the sentence. Give a regional writer the proposition and the thing it has to make somebody feel, and let them write it.
Dialect is a real decision
Hindi in Delhi is not Hindi in Bhopal or Patna. Tamil for Chennai is not Tamil for Madurai. Pick deliberately based on where the business is, and know that choosing the broadcast-standard version is itself a choice that sounds a particular way to a local ear.
Cast from the region
An approximated accent is the fastest way to tell an audience you were not really speaking to them. This is also where the money is well spent: the right voice carries a mediocre script, and the wrong voice sinks a good one.
Approval, honestly
Back-translation into English tells you the meaning survived. It tells you nothing about whether the line is any good, or whether it is accidentally comic. Build a review step with someone who speaks the language and has permission to say the work is weak, not just that it is accurate.
What to test
Comprehension, tone and whether anything lands wrong, with ten people from the actual audience rather than ten colleagues. For search, the term list is a separate problem, covered in share of search in the Indian market.
Questions we get asked
Is translation enough for regional campaigns?
Rarely. Translation carries words; transcreation carries intent and usually rewrites the line. Brief a regional writer with the idea rather than the English sentence.
How do we approve work in a language nobody senior speaks?
Add a reviewer who speaks it and has authority to call the work weak, not just accurate. Back-translation checks meaning, not quality.
Start with a Growth Audit
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