South Africa, Aug. 21 -- So someone in the marketing department speaks isiZulu, isiXhosa, Sesotho or any South African language, so the assumption is that they can simply translate the campaign.

But South Africa's multilingual market demands more than a word-for-word conversion from English.

With the country's official languages now including 12 languages, including South African Sign Language, language is an important part of how brands communicate with diverse audiences.

Advert translation requires an understanding of context, culture, tone, humour, idioms, consumer behaviour and the original campaign objective/s.

A pay-off line that works brilliantly in English may sound unnatural, overly formal or completely lose its intended mean...