Creating a successful kids’ TV show does not happen overnight.

It takes time to develop.

But when a show does succeed, it’s crucial to be prepared to manage your brand globally and consistently.

So what do you need to implement a successful strategy? It’s called a glossary management system, and here’s why you need one.

You’ve Gone Global

Your show just sold in multiple countries.

Now what?

By now, you should have a style guide, which is generally created in the early stages of IP development. However, a style guide alone is not enough to fully manage the international expansion of your IP.

For organization and consistency purposes, there are several things you need to consider to simplify the sharing process for international licensees, toy and merchandise vendors, and book partners.

Determine where all the translations of your character names will live, in addition to translated episode titles, descriptions, and character phrases, as well as comments, requirements, and direction for how certain terms should be used.

Independent dubbing companies translate this information in an Excel spreadsheet, but there’s a more efficient way to house and share these translations with vendors and partners.

Give Up Old-School Spreadsheets

Spreadsheets may be the norm for the majority of brands, but there’s something better that’s making its way to the top.

Cloud-based glossary management software, such as GlobalLink Term Manager, is now used by streaming service giant Netflix. In fact, thousands of global companies have made the switch from spreadsheets to glossary management software to manage their brands in over 180 languages.

About Glossary Management Systems

Glossary management systems can function on their own as a repository for your key names and phrases (KNPs). They can also be used for general or marketing terminology, resulting in a consistent holistic output to marketing and social campaigns. Plus, they can integrate with your existing systems to pass information back and forth between resources, departments, and global offices and teams.

Rules can be set that give IP holders admin access and limit international licensees’ access to translated glossaries for the specific brands and territories they licensed.

Vendors can be on-boarded to the platform so translated glossaries are automatically ingested in the cloud, or existing glossaries can be imported to centralize all terminology. 

Glossary management systems can also be customized to your brand and company needs with options to further archive graphics, audio clips, word pronunciations, and vital metadata like synopses, which get repurposed multiple times over the content lifecycle—which is especially important as kids’ content has a long shelf life.

Don’t Give Up Control

Dubbing is an important element in the globalization of your IP.

In many cases, where the first translation of your content occurs, giving up complete control to your licensee is not the best way to manage your global brand.

Historically, licensees will manage the dubbing, but in today’s environment where kids’ content can have multiple linear and OTT partners in a single market as well as long shelf life, managing the dubbing without alienating your licensee is crucial and more common.

By owning the dubbing process, you obtain all the required rights for downstream and future licensing opportunities. This allows your partners to participate in voice casting, script, and final deliverable approvals via cloud-based platforms. Doing so means they’re involved in the creation of the localized asset, but brand consistency is still managed centrally. 

If you’re looking for a better solution to maintain consistency of your global brand, consider TransPerfect, which is the largest international brand management company in the world. With offices in over 100 cities worldwide, TransPerfect currently helps manage global brands in over 180 languages.  

Contact us at medianext@transperfect.com to learn more about how we can help manage your brand.