Localization By Design

Make the story travel

Stories fall apart when they’re built for one audience. In five minutes I show why localization belongs in the creative plan, not as a postscript. When intent is clear early the work travels cleanly and truthfully, and you avoid the rewrite treadmill that flattens voice and wastes time.

Define intent. Write a 50–100 word creative intent note for every episode draft: who this is for, what it should feel like, and what must not change. At MTV a single-paragraph intent note kept a joke from being flattened in LATAM and preserved character voice.

Ship localization-ready assets. Deliver dialogue stems, editable graphics, caption CSVs, and timecoded scripts. Flag cultural touchpoints and optional swaps for music and imagery so regional teams get tools not puzzles. On a Walt Disney Imagineering special documentary, supplying separate stems and editable lower thirds saved two weeks of rework.

Micro-test early. Localize a 30–60 second scene for two markets and vet it with native speakers, expatriates or local colleagues. Capture fixes, update the intent note, then iterate once not ten times. Nickelodeon caught a visual gag that failed in one market and avoided a costly re-edit after a quick micro-test.

Watch the five-minute episode above. Try the intent note in your next format and reply with what changed. That feedback loop teaches you faster than any postmortem.

That’s the Signal, the rest is just noise.