There are multiple writers working on our polyglot, but there is only one George. Who speaks to over 5 million users in soon 6 languages.
George’s copywriters Dag Zimen and Daniela Goldgruber, who manage and create the original German and English texts for the web & app versions, spoke at our first Writers’ Summit, which welcomed George’s local translators from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Croatia and Hungary to Vienna’s Erste Campus. The two gave insight into how they currently deal with over 5,2 million words, dived deeper into the dos and don’ts of George’s register as well as the user psychology behind it, and gave tips on how to provide stylistic consistency throughout all languages.
Once upon a time there was netbanking…
… and then George was born. Our main man of words, Dag Zimen, prepared interesting materials on the topic of who the local translators aka George’s “words and voice” are and how George communicates with his users. We got to listen to important and interesting facts about George‘s life. Who first came up with the idea to deliver George to the Erste Bank customers, what the first challenges and first wins were and how George became Erste Bank’s USP and a brand himself.
Just like everyone of us, George is unique with his tone and style. He is friendly, charming and always helpful. He is clear and understandable. Short and simple. He doesn’t like emojis or shouting in capitals – OMG, what a guy! Hey, did I mention he is also a Brit?
George the Polyglot
Imagine how hard it is to place George in several different pairs of hands? And how challenging it is for our writers and local translators to follow all of Georges’ standards in order to get the same style among the countries? That was our topic for the second part of the workshop, which was hosted by our lovely George language guru Daniela Goldgruber, who explained in detail why it is so important for George to “speak” consistently – in all his languages. She pointed out the common English language obstacles George faces and how we can improve his voice. A fruitful discussion that we ended with translation management processes. LingoHub and Jira sound boring, don’t they? Yet, both of them help George be smart, simple and consistent. We dedicated the remaining time to a discussion about our biggest struggles and how to overcome them.
A great atmosphere, never before seen videos and a lot of take-away information prove that George’s writers know how to organise a successful event. Just like he knows how to build an excellent team of creatives around him.
