How EMS scaled their global marketing campaigns by 300% using Redokun

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“We were doing maybe 4-5 campaigns in 2021, and it grew to 15-16 campaigns this year. This was only possible thanks to our improved translation process."

Pia Andresen

Marketing Coordinator

EMS, or Electromedical Systems, is a global manufacturer of medical devices. From their headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland, and several other locations worldwide, a team of over 1000 works to improve the treatment experience for patients and clinicians in the fields of dental prevention, urology and pain therapy.

Thanks to the company’s drive for innovation and pursuit of perfection, you can now encounter EMS products in any place where you might find a dentist or a hospital — in short, pretty much anywhere in the world.

Scaling B2B marketing efforts to 27 languages

The story of EMS’s global expansion is not an overnight success story. A lot of it can be attributed to combining technical expertise with a deep understanding of customers' needs.

And, of course, communicating the right message to them in their language.

Pia Andresen, Marketing Coordinator at EMS, tells us that they translate their marketing assets into 27 languages as part of their global strategy.

These assets include:

printed materials like brochures, flyers, posters, and rollups;
digital documents like ebooks;
social media posts;
website content;
user manuals;
videos.

Typically, the translations are handled by EMS's local marketing teams, with additional support from translation agencies as needed.

However, the task of managing translations across so many different types of documents and languages proved complex.

To hit their growth targets, it was key for Pia and her team to find a streamlined solution for collaboration between various teams and stakeholders spread across different locations.

You can probably guess which solution they went with in the end.

Problem

Wasting valuable time on manual copy-pasting

The complexity of the task hit home for Pia when she found herself spending days copying and pasting text between InDesign and Excel files. It quickly became clear to her that relying on a manual translation process was unsustainable for long-term growth.

She tells us:

“We were updating our core brochure. It has around 60 pages, and we needed to translate it into 15 languages to cover our main markets. So I started to copy-paste all the text of this 60-page brochure into an Excel file. And I said, this is so time-consuming; it will cost me days only to copy-paste the whole text into Excel.”

After Pia was done, she would hand off the text to team members in the local markets to translate.

This was then followed by another hand-off to graphic designers, who would also have to deal with manual copy-pasting to recreate the original design of the brochure, 15 times over.

“We knew we need to find a better solution here because I could do so many better things in this time. And the worst thing is that afterward, our graphic designer needs to copy and paste text into the brochure from 15 different Excel sheets.”

Mistakes from human error

Pia also tells us that translations using Excel files opened the door to errors at different stages of the workflow.

Misplaced entries, deleted cells, and using outdated versions of the file — all common occurrences that consumed time and resources, highlighting the need for a more streamlined and error-proof solution.

“We just shared Excel files where everyone could, could put in their translations, which led to many errors and mistakes. It’s not that they did it on purpose, but just accidentally, cells got deleted, or someone accidentally wrote in the wrong cell, or the Excel file got lost, or you use an old version. There were so many sources of mistakes that we needed to process.”

Lack of visibility and transparency in the translation management process

Pia shares that in EMS’s early days of handling translations, they lacked a dedicated role for translation project management.

This gap became apparent as they shared files via email, leading to significant challenges in tracking the progress of their translations. Without a centralized system, it was nearly impossible to determine who had started a translation, who had completed it, or who hadn't even begun.

“When I started working for EMS, there was never a position that was called translation manager. And it was managed with Excel files; just everyone was sending out their Excel files. It was always a bit of a struggle, so we wanted to centralize and make the process more efficient and clear.”

A complicated InDesign translation workflow

EMS heavily relies on Adobe InDesign for creating its print marketing materials. So, when looking for translation management, it was absolutely essential for them to find one that could handle IDML files.

“We are based a lot on printed materials like flyers and brochures, as these things work super well in the dental market. So we absolutely needed the tool to support InDesign files because this is just the main format that we use.”

However, finding a tool that offered strong support for InDesign was challenging.

While EMS tried out some other translation management tools, they were disappointed to discover that some of the biggest names in the market didn't meet their needs.

Until they discovered Redokun.

Solution

Automatic formatting of translated files

When testing out Redokun, the “a-ha moment” for Pia and her team at EMS came when they experienced Redokun's automatic formatting feature with one of their own documents.

After translating the test document into their native languages, they could download a correctly formatted document in each language with the simple click of a button.

“We did this test and registered ourselves as translators and just translated it into our native languages. And when we then downloaded it and got the flyer back out correctly formatted in the right language. We were really sitting there and we're like, wow, that's really cool. This will help us so, so much.”

Clear workflow overview

One of Redokun's most impactful features, as highlighted by Pia, is its ability to provide a clear overview of the translation process. With visibility into the progress status at every workflow stage, she never has to send an email chasing people with updates on when the translation will be finished.

“With Redokun, we keep the overview on where do we stand, which countries have already started, which are in the process of translating and who isn't, and who has finished. It's amazing that we can keep this overview.”

Greater control of corporate identity and design

For EMS, maintaining a consistent corporate identity and design across all documents is paramount.

Redokun enables them to review each document before it's finalized, ensuring the design remains untouched and aligned with their brand marketing strategy.

“The idea that we also try to keep with Redokun is that we stay ahead of the corporate identity. We want to have a look at the document before it gets pushed out to make sure that everything is designed correctly, that the design has not been changed. And this is what Redokun allows us to do, which is cool.”

Another thing that stood out to Pia about Redokun was its integration with DeepL and Google Translate, along with its ability to remember and suggest repetitive translations from former projects.

“Redokun also remembers slogans. We have that a lot that we always use, of course, recurrent slogans that will always then be translated in the same way. In the end, it's just time saving for our colleagues as well that they do not have to translate, over and over and over again, the same kind of slogans or sentences, and we just thought this was a great functionality.”

Easy-to-use solution

The intuitive nature of Redokun has been a significant advantage for EMS. Pia finds that adding translators and assigning tasks within Redokun is straightforward and user-friendly. This ease of use, coupled with the tool's effectiveness, made adopting Redokun an obvious choice for EMS.

“Redokun is very intuitive to use as well. From adding a translator to assigning tasks to someone is not difficult to learn. It's very easy to do it. There was basically never the point where we were confused or we didn't know how to do it. So, I think if you have this kind of ease of use and also really good results, then it's a clear and easy decision.”

Results

Global translation assignments in 5 minutes

With Redokun, what previously took a substantial amount of time and manual work can now be accomplished in about five minutes. This efficiency has enabled EMS to distribute translation projects worldwide at a much greater scale than before.

“I think the number one thing is that it's just within, let's say, five minutes, I can give the translation to everyone around the world. I wasn't able to do that before just by uploading a document, and assigning always the same people. Now, that takes maximum five minutes and it's done. Yeah, that was definitely not possible before.”

300% increase in global marketing campaigns

Thanks to the ease and speed at which they can translate marketing assets with Redokun, EMS has seen a dramatic increase in its capacity to launch marketing campaigns.

“We were doing maybe 4-5 campaigns in 2021, and it grew to 15-16 campaigns this year. This was only possible thanks to our improved translation process with Redokun.”

Pia notes that the time saved by using Redokun has allowed them to expand from 4-5 campaigns in 2021 to 15-16 a year in 2023, in another testament to the efficiency gains provided by the tool.

Streamline your translation workflow with Redokun

Join EMS and other global leaders who have transformed their translation processes with Redokun. Experience the ease, speed, and accuracy it brings to your global marketing efforts.

To find out how Redokun can help you and your team succeed in your goals, get in touch for a demo today!

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