Case Study
Confidential · Medical Device Company
One global launch date, twelve language versions — subtitles, on-screen text, and motion graphics rebuilt and delivered ahead of the embargo.
Challenge
The Problem
Due to a non-disclosure agreement, we are unable to identify this client by name. The client was launching a new diagnostic device simultaneously across Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and Asia, behind a fixed global embargo date. Eight launch videos — a flagship brand film, product demos, and clinician testimonials — carried dense on-screen text inside After Effects motion graphics, and the content used regulated medical terminology that regional teams would scrutinize. A previous vendor had delivered subtitles with literal translations of dosage and measurement terms that a regional reviewer flagged as non-compliant. With eleven weeks to launch, the client needed twelve language versions with zero tolerance for terminology errors — and no possibility of moving the date.
Solution
What We Did
MediaLocalize started with terminology, not translation: we built a project termbase from the client's regulatory-approved glossaries and had disputed terms signed off by regional reviewers before subtitling began. Native medical translators then condensed dialogue to reading-speed standards per language — German and Russian lines shortened aggressively, Arabic rephrased to fit two-line limits. On-screen text was rebuilt directly in the client's After Effects files, with keyframes, expressions, and animation timing preserved and text boxes resized per language. Two QA stages followed: a linguistic review against the termbase, then an in-context video review where native reviewers watched the final renders, checking subtitle timing, line breaks, and whether on-screen text ever collided with subtitles. Delivery covered SRT and VTT files per platform specification, plus burned-in versions for trade-show screens.
Results
The Outcome
All 96 localized versions — 8 videos in 12 languages — were delivered five days ahead of the embargo date. Regional regulatory teams raised zero terminology escalations at launch, a first for the client's global campaigns. The rebuilt After Effects masters were returned to the client's agency, which has since adopted the same workflow for regional adaptations. The client's launch lead described it as 'the first launch where localization was the workstream we stopped worrying about.'
Launch localization fails in predictable places: terminology decided too late, subtitles timed for translators rather than viewers, and motion graphics treated as an afterthought. Fixing the order — terminology first, timing second, graphics in parallel — is what makes a fixed global date survivable. When localization runs on the same critical path as the original production instead of trailing behind it, launch day stops being a negotiation.