Tips on Latin American LocalizationThis article was originally published on the Acclaro blog.

Category: Marketing, Websites, Localization Tips

We hear a lot about localizing marketing content for

U.S. Hispanic consumers — but what about the

hundreds of millions of potential Spanish-speaking

customers south of our borders? A few tips on

marketing to Latin American Spanish-speaking

audiences, from a localization professional via

Mediapost:

All gestures are not "OK." In Latin

America, to give the OK sign they use a hand

with index finger and middle finger raised,

with the palm of the hand facing the person

whose hand is used. But in the U.K. that same

symbol is equivalent to giving someone the

middle finger!

Dollar bill, y'all. Here in the U.S., the dollar sign ($) refers to U.S. dollars. But in Latin

America, it could also refer to the local currency in other countries (e.g., Argentina).

Also, just like Europe, numbers are written differently — $2,335.47 in the U.S. vs.

$2.335,47 in Latin American Spanish. 

Of course, these are both items that your translation agency should know well! Don't get caught

off guard by having to catch these yourself, or misunderstand the scope of your project. When it

comes to marketing, more has to change than simple document text translation.

Still, you can be optimistic about the final results:

"Marketing communications inherently seek to educate and to persuade. There's no reason why

marketers should experience any drop-off in either as they migrate their copy from English to

Spanish -- so long as they don't lose their grasp of nuance or their respect for what can be

crucial linguistic and cultural differences."

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Final trend tip: a lot of gaming companies are recognizing the untapped market for video games

in Latin America and creating localized versions of their games. Sony, for example, announced

that they will release fully localized blockbuster Playstation games for Latin America in 2011. If

you're a gaming company...something to consider!

About Acclaro: Acclaro is an international translation and localization company that helps the world’s leading brands succeed across cultures. We specialize in website translation, marketing campaigns, documents and software localization to give clients an authentic voice in key language markets.

North America: 1-866-468-5106 Worldwide: +1-914-468-0222 www.acclaro.com sales@acclaro.com

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