“Wordbank’s values align with Circle’s values, which is connecting the world in a personable and trustworthy way.”
Sean Hagerty, Localization Lead at Circle
WITH UNIQUELY LOCAL FLAVOUR
BACKGROUND
Founded in 2013, Circle is a US-based peer-to-peer payment app that offers bank-level security and uses blockchain technology on the back-end of its transactions. As this electronic currency is universal, you can send money to friends and family around the world in US dollars, euros, or British pounds without paying currency exchange fees.
A real game changer, Circle has made transferring money instant, global, free, and fun. And they have gone from strength to strength. By 2016, Circle expansion into Europe was well underway, and localization became increasingly important strategically.
CHALLENGE
With European expansion underway, telling the Circle story internationally was critical. They were looking for an agency that could handle highly creative and nuanced content, at volume, while integrating with the established workflows.
Each Circle content type required a different approach. Legal information had to be accurate and detailed, but also easy to understand for people using the Circle app. Marketing content, on the other hand, had to be fun, engaging, cool and clear, to appeal to the young target audience and get them excited about Circle. Simple translation would simply not do.
Circle required a seamless localization workflow to produce consistently high quality and relevant copy that could be scaled to handle the increasing volumes of content and expanding language scope.
SELECTION
To address quality, shortlisted translation agencies were sent test pieces. This was a long process for Sean Hagerty, Localization Lead at Circle, that involved an in-depth review by his internal QA team. After a highly competitive bid process, Circle and Wordbank started working together in September 2016.
Sean explained: “We were really thrilled with Wordbank’s quality”, as well as their ability to maintain a “young, relaxed tone” across each language while remaining aligned with Circle’s brand identity.
Wordbank has since supported Circle with their legal and marketing content in the following languages: Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Icelandic, Italian, Japanese, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish, Simplified Chinese and Swedish.
SOLUTION
Content drives behaviour. And so it needs to be mapped to its intended purpose – treating a homepage tagline the same as a CRM email or legal terms document will dilute its impact. Hiring a talented writer isn’t enough. Content needs to be written by an expert in the intended channel and content type, with industry experience and the right tone for the brand.
So we built a dedicated content team of mother-tongue copywriters matched to Circle’s brand voice, the social payment industry and the type of content required. We introduced them to and trained them on Circle’s preferred translation workflow, and we carried out Source Text Review in English to ensure all of our linguists understood the humour and nuanced language. The results speak for themselves:
“We trust Wordbank. Over time we have learnt that Wordbank copy needs little to no QA. We can trust when we send our content to Wordbank for localization, then it’s going to come back, and it’s going to be quality.”
And we created a dedicated Circle account team that looked after all of the brand’s needs – something Sean particularly appreciated:
“The customer support that we have received is so incredible, from Hanne and Claire, even Damy in accounting. I’m constantly getting invoices back and forth and there’s always a small personal note, asking how I am and wishing us well. It means a lot”.
From a workflow perspective, our common platform allows multiple linguists to work on a project at the same time, and display translations in-situ in real time, so everyone involved could review their work according to the latest changes. Linguists could also raise queries or add culture-specific comments that automatically reached the content author. These comments were visible across language pairs, so everyone was kept up-to-date with no extra effort.
RESULTS
We gave Circle the agility and transparency to move fast and meet their ever demanding global content schedule. We are proud to continue supporting Circle as their brand goes from strength to strength.
When asked to identify the reasons behind the strength of the relationship between Wordbank and Circle, Sean identified three key areas:
Confidence – In the Wordbank team and our content.
Trust – That Wordbank have Circle’s best interest at heart and are working to support their objectives, even if that involves late evenings and weekend work.
Compassion – Having a mutually beneficial relationship with real people that you can depend on – people who have compassion for you and who understand the work that you do.
“It’s good to rely on Wordbank like a member of our team.”
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