Dr Jekyll or Mr Hyde? The Strange Case of Medical Marketing Translation

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Don Draper has left the building. No creative team, no focus group, and no medical miracle workers at your beck and call: welcome to the world of medical marketing translation – a veritable jungle of multisyllabic pharmacological buzzwords, 140-character limits, and culturally opaque content. This is a challenging field for linguists, who must engage both the right and left brain to master the science of creating artful, engaging, and medically accurate copy. Translators must be prepared to draw on a broad skill set to walk the fine line between pharmacochemistry expert and marketing genius. In this workshop, we will explore the challenges of terminology, linguistic mutation, and brand-specific proprietary terms. Then, we will use sample translations to investigate interlinguistic wordplay, language-specific tone and voice, and production and regulatory constraints. We will also use word-association exercises to improve linguistic dexterity and creative wordsmithing.

Health & Medicine

DR JEKYLL
OR MR HYDE?
THE STRANGE CASE
OF MEDICAL
MARKETING
TRANSLATION
Erin M. Lyons – BiomedNouvelle © 2014 – FIT 2014, Berlin

Erin M. Lyons – BiomedNouvelle © 2014 – FIT 2014, Berlin

“With every day and from both sides
of my intelligence, the moral and
intellectual, I thus drew steadily to
that truth by whose partial discovery
I have been doomed to such a
dreadful shipwreck: that man is not
truly one, but truly two.”
- Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
Erin M. Lyons – BiomedNouvelle © 2014 – FIT 2014, Berlin

PART I:
UNDERSTANDING MEDICAL
MARKETING TRANSLATION
Is this untranslatable?
Building a marketing mindset
What kind of translator
are you?
Erin M. Lyons – BiomedNouvelle © 2014 – FIT 2014, Berlin

WHAT IS
MEDICAL
MARKETING
TRANSLATION?
Erin M. Lyons – BiomedNouvelle © 2014 – FIT 2014, Berlin

Erin M. Lyons – BiomedNouvelle © 2014 – FIT 2014, Berlin
MEDICAL MARKETING
TRANSLATION
TECHNICAL
EXPERTISE
INSPIRED
MESSAGING

Erin M. Lyons – BiomedNouvelle © 2014 – FIT 2014, Berlin
THE POWER,
PERSUASION AND
EFFECTIVENESS
OF A MESSAGE
ACCURACY
DEVELOP CREATIVE FLUENCY

Erin M. Lyons – BiomedNouvelle © 2014 – FIT 2014, Berlin
THE EU PHARMA INDUSTRY

Erin M. Lyons – BiomedNouvelle © 2014 – FIT 2014, Berlin
KNOWING YOUR
LANGUAGE MARKET

Erin M. Lyons – BiomedNouvelle © 2014 – FIT 2014, Berlin
“PHARMERGING”
MARKETS

Erin M. Lyons – BiomedNouvelle © 2014 – FIT 2014, Berlin
DIRECT-TO-CONSUMER (DTC)
** Only 2 nations currently permit DTC **
(USA & New Zealand)

THREE TYPES OF DTC
DTC
Product
claims
Reminder
advertisements
Help-seeking
advertisements
Erin M. Lyons – BiomedNouvelle © 2014 – FIT 2014, Berlin

Erin M. Lyons – BiomedNouvelle © 2014 – FIT 2014, Berlin
DTC EXAMPLES IN THE PRESS

CONSUMERS OF ALL AGES
Erin M. Lyons – BiomedNouvelle © 2014 – FIT 2014, Berlin

Erin M. Lyons – BiomedNouvelle © 2014 – FIT 2014, Berlin
DIRECT-TO-PHYSICIAN (DTP)

Erin M. Lyons – BiomedNouvelle © 2014 – FIT 2014, Berlin
AN AUDIENCE OF PHYSICIANS

Erin M. Lyons – BiomedNouvelle © 2014 – FIT 2014, Berlin
CREATIVE
TRANSLATIONS
TO CONVEY
SCIENTIFIC
MESSAGES
“We’ve Got Your
Back”

WHAT KIND OF
TRANSLATOR
ARE YOU?
Erin M. Lyons – BiomedNouvelle © 2014 – FIT 2014, Berlin

Reading and understanding
the source text
THE CHALLENGES
Erin M. Lyons – BiomedNouvelle © 2014 – FIT 2014, Berlin
Transferring the
source meaning
Writing the target text

AS A PROACTIVE TRANSLATOR…
Erin M. Lyons – BiomedNouvelle © 2014 – FIT 2014, Berlin
TAKE
STRATEGIC
DECISIONS
UPSTREAM
TAKE
DECISIONS
OF DETAIL
DOWNSTREAM

BUILDING A
MARKETING
MINDSET
Erin M. Lyons – BiomedNouvelle © 2014 – FIT 2014, Berlin

ASK YOURSELF:
Is this compatible with
[restriction X, Y, Z]?
What borrows from/builds on existing
industry/cultural references?
What is memorable?
Erin M. Lyons – BiomedNouvelle © 2014 – FIT 2014, Berlin
What is credible?

Erin M. Lyons – BiomedNouvelle © 2014 – FIT 2014, Berlin
WORKING WITH MULTIPLE LAYERS
OF COMMUNICATION

IS THIS
UNTRANSLATABLE?
Erin M. Lyons – BiomedNouvelle © 2014 – FIT 2014, Berlin

A RARE CASE OF
MEDICAL
MARKETING THAT
IS EASY FOR THE
TRANSLATOR
TO SWALLOW
Erin M. Lyons – BiomedNouvelle © 2014 – FIT 2014, Berlin

WHAT IS “UNTRANSLATABLE”
Erin M. Lyons – BiomedNouvelle © 2014 – FIT 2014, Berlin

Erin M. Lyons – BiomedNouvelle © 2014 – FIT 2014, Berlin
FROM EARLIER…

Erin M. Lyons – BiomedNouvelle © 2014 – FIT 2014, Berlin
NOW, LET’S TRANSLATE
How would you
translate these
for your language
combination(s)?
Would
transcreation or
new copy work
better?

INTERLINGUISTIC
WORDPLAY
AND PUNS
Erin M. Lyons – BiomedNouvelle © 2014 – FIT 2014, Berlin

Erin M. Lyons – BiomedNouvelle © 2014 – FIT 2014, Berlin
TRANSLATING
PUNS AND
IDIOMS:
A DELICATE
OPERATION

Arabic ‫ﻱيﺥخﺍاﻁطﺭر‬ ،٬‫ﺏبﺍاﻝلﻥنﺍاﺭر‬ ‫ﻱيﻝلﻉعﺏب‬
English to play with fire
French jouer avec le feu
German mit dem Feuer
Italian giocare col fuoco
Portuguese brincar com fogo
Russian играть с огнем
LITERAL AND FIGURATIVE
CORRESPONDENCE
Erin M. Lyons – BiomedNouvelle © 2014 – FIT 2014, Berlin

Erin M. Lyons – BiomedNouvelle © 2014 – FIT 2014, Berlin
CAT GOT
YOUR
TONGUE?
A stretch in
English, this
pun seems
virtually
untranslatable

Erin M. Lyons – BiomedNouvelle © 2014 – FIT 2014, Berlin
The pun on
“cat” is aimed
at showing a
drug capable of
treating both
indoor and
outdoor
allergies
There is formal
equivalence but a
lack of dynamic
equivalence

SOLVING THE “CAT” PUN?
Can a more banal (no pun)
translation be used?
Do multilingual versions need to stand
up side by side?
Erin M. Lyons – BiomedNouvelle © 2014 – FIT 2014, Berlin
Can the visual be replaced for
an equivalent, rather than
literal pun?

AD-SPEAK,
NEOLOGISMS
AND BUZZWORDS
Erin M. Lyons – BiomedNouvelle © 2014 – FIT 2014, Berlin

Marketers love to invent new
words (neologisms) to make
their products stand out
ALL ABOUT THE BUZZ…
Erin M. Lyons – BiomedNouvelle © 2014 – FIT 2014, Berlin
Sometimes words are used in
novel ways (ad-speak)
Other expressions build on
buzz in the medical field

Erin M. Lyons – BiomedNouvelle © 2014 – FIT 2014, Berlin
DIVERGENCS IN AD-SPEAK

Erin M. Lyons – BiomedNouvelle © 2014 – FIT 2014, Berlin
A CLOSER LOOK

Erin M. Lyons – BiomedNouvelle © 2014 – FIT 2014, Berlin
A CLASSIC CASE…

Erin M. Lyons – BiomedNouvelle © 2014 – FIT 2014, Berlin
ANOTHER EXAMPLE…
Varying degrees
of effectiveness
in translation

EXAMPLE 1
Erin M. Lyons – BiomedNouvelle © 2014 – FIT 2014, Berlin

Erin M. Lyons – BiomedNouvelle © 2014 – FIT 2014, Berlin
YOUR
TRANSLATIONS?

EXAMPLE 2
Erin M. Lyons – BiomedNouvelle © 2014 – FIT 2014, Berlin

EXAMPLE 3
Erin M. Lyons – BiomedNouvelle © 2014 – FIT 2014, Berlin

EXAMPLE 4
Erin M. Lyons – BiomedNouvelle © 2014 – FIT 2014, Berlin

EXAMPLE 5
Erin M. Lyons – BiomedNouvelle © 2014 – FIT 2014, Berlin

EXAMPLE 6
Erin M. Lyons – BiomedNouvelle © 2014 – FIT 2014, Berlin

Erin M. Lyons
elyons@biomednouvelle.com
www.biomednouvelle.com
QUESTIONS?
Erin M. Lyons – BiomedNouvelle © 2014 – FIT 2014, Berlin

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