2015 – 2021. AI translation.
How Smartling made translators the heroes of its brand.
As Head of Marketing, Adrian stopped selling how the software worked and started telling why it mattered. The campaign drove 216% year-over-year growth in its product line, and ARR grew from $15M to $62M through the exit to Battery Ventures.
The challenge
Smartling talked about how its technology worked. Over time, competitors adopted the same message. The company needed a voice that stood out, and a reason for customers to buy more of its translation services.
Swipe to see how ›
01 · The why
He rebuilt the website in 41 days around a new narrative: why translation matters, not how the software works. Qualified leads doubled. Later updates took Smartling from tenth to first in search for “translation management system” in one quarter.
02 · Film
The first of two short films that launched Adrian’s marketing career at Smartling: the story of the written word, and the people who carry it between languages.
Watch Quill to QWERTY ›
03 · Film
The second film. It showed that a brand could make B2B buyers feel something about translation. A third film, Home, followed.
Watch Anywhere, Today ›
04 · Campaign
Global trade runs on translators, so Move the World with Words put them at the center of the brand. That product line grew 216% year over year, a turning point on the way to the exit.
Read the AdAge story ›
05 · The people
Photographer Elisabeth Brentano traveled for five weeks and spent more than 100 hours interviewing translators. Their lives became a coffee-table book, printed in A4 so it would feel at home outside the US.
06 · Events
He launched the book with large events in London and New York, where translators spoke to customers directly. The user conference grew from 40 people to more than 250 in three years.
07 · Workplace
He hung the campaign portraits through Smartling’s headquarters. Visiting customers walked through a gallery of the people behind the product.
08 · Media
He hosted more than 100 episodes, including 34 recorded in two days at one conference, and made Smartling a go-to source for the press, with coverage in AdAge and Forbes.
09 · Early AI
Round-the-clock AI conversations on the website lifted the goal rate 75%, and Drift invited the team to present to 5,000 people.
10 · Efficiency
He moved spend to the channels and segments that converted. Marketing-sourced pipeline tripled while acquisition cost fell 50%.
11 · Resilience
When COVID cancelled the in-person event, the team built a virtual one that held 1,000+ people for 90 minutes, closing with a live set by The California Honeydrops.