AA Global unveils Walter the Watery Male Sheep

Chantelle from AA Global unveils Walter the Watery Male Sheep

WITH suggestions ranging from Ed Sheerin to Sheepy McSheepface, competition entrants were at their creative best when they were invited to name the star of a new marketing campaign.

Other ideas included Ram-beau, Ewe-gene, Wool.I.Am and Lady Baba for the cartoon sheep which features in the material produced by AA Global Language Services Ltd.

The international nature of the company’s work also inspired Baa Baa Brexit and Esper-RAM-to. After studying all the ideas, the AA Global judging team opted for Walter the Watery Male Sheep, in keeping with the howler which inspired the campaign.

Kirk Akdemir, CEO of AA global, has now delivered the prize of a £50 gift voucher to the competition winner, Matt Snowden of Longcroft School in Beverley.

Kirk said: “We’ve sent our congratulations and thanks to Matt, and we’d also like to thank everyone else who took part. There were some fantastic names suggested, and we had a lot of fun ploughing through them all.”

But although the competition raised more than a few smiles it was inspired by the potentially costly errors which can arise from not taking a professional approach to translation.

The case study was based on an example of a “lost in translation” which became quite well known in the industry. It involved a French company which was targeting buyers in the UK, with a large number of brochures for a direct mail campaign.

They invested thousands of pounds only to discover a big mistake – they were promoting watery male sheep instead of hydraulic rams! They’d asked someone to translate their brochure who it turned out wasn’t very good at technical terms.

Kirk said: “The pictures in the brochure showed what the company was trying to sell but the text presented a different message altogether and the result was a lot of confused customers! However good your product and however attractive your prices, you can still lose the deal if you don’t place the right emphasis on approaching customers in their own language.

“We’ve also found examples of health and safety problems arising because instructions and signage have not been translated properly. Businesses should use a professional firm to make sure their messages are conveyed accurately whatever the language.”

AA Global was formed in Worcester in 1992 and opened an office in Hull five years ago. As the business has expanded so has its team, which now comprises 13,000 highly qualified and experienced linguists working in more than 500 languages and dialects.

Other examples of terrible translations – and tips on how to avoid them – will be posted on the dedicated website at www.waterymalesheep.com and on the company’s Twitter feed @AAGlobal_UK