How creative automation builds Cardiff's English and Welsh ads

What to take away

Welsh language duties and where they bite on campaign creative

Welsh language duties in Wales are not a single law. They start with the Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011, which created the Welsh Language Commissioner and the standards system, and the duties themselves are imposed by the Welsh Language Standards Regulations 2015 and 2016 on named public bodies. Around 100 organisations are covered, including the Welsh Government, local councils and national park authorities. Each body has a compliance notice setting out what it must do, and the Commissioner publishes a register of those compliance notices.

The duties affect campaign creative in four places: the main message, the call to action, the legal or regulatory small print, and the accessible formats. If a poster or a paid social ad is bilingual, the Welsh text cannot be a smaller afterthought. It must be visible and usable.

The Welsh Language Commissioner enforces the standards. A body that ignores them can be investigated and required to act. That risk shapes how Cardiff public bodies brief agencies: Welsh is scoped at the start, not added at the end.

For agencies, this means versioning is a production requirement, not a translation task. The Welsh variant needs its own layout, its own line breaks and often its own image crop. A single source file with a text swap rarely works.

This is where ad creative versioning software earns its place. Platforms such as Celtra and Bannerflow generate variants from one structured source, so the English and Welsh versions stay linked to a single source of truth and a late change to a headline flows into both.

Public-sector bilingual requirements in Cardiff and across Wales

Cardiff is Wales's media centre. The Welsh Government, Senedd Cymru, Cardiff Council, Cardiff and Vale University Health Board and Transport for Wales all commission campaign work from the city. Each has its own bilingual policy layered on top of the statutory standards.

In practice, those policies go further than the law. Some require Welsh first on certain materials. Others require equal prominence. A few specify that Welsh must not be a direct translation of an English idiom.

The UK GDPR and PECR also apply. Cardiff public bodies running email or SMS campaigns must follow the rules the ICO sets out for direct marketing and the public sector, including consent and the right to object.

Approval workflows are another constraint. Public bodies often need sign-off from communications, legal and Welsh language officers. Each sign-off can trigger a new version. A campaign with six assets and three approvers can produce eighteen review rounds.

That is why Cardiff teams increasingly use controlled intake to documented withdrawal as the frame for campaign work. It gives every variant a clear owner, a version number and an audit trail.

How English and Welsh variants change a creative versioning workflow

A bilingual workflow is not the English workflow with a translation step bolted on. It changes the order of operations. Here is a sequence that works for Cardiff campaigns.

That sequence depends on the content being structured. If the Welsh copy lives in a separate document, the two versions drift.

Versioning also changes the cost model. A bilingual campaign is not twice the work, but it is more than the English job plus a translation invoice. Layout, proofing and approval all carry a Welsh cost.

For multi-location campaigns, the same logic applies at scale. A retailer with stores in Cardiff, Swansea and Newport can automate local ad creative while keeping the Welsh and English strings separate and traceable.

A worked example

Suppose Cardiff Council runs a recycling campaign with four assets: a bus shelter poster, a paid social set, a radio spot and a leaflet. The English copy is 120 words. The Welsh copy is 135 words because Welsh often runs longer.

The poster has a fixed headline box. The longer Welsh text forces a smaller type size, which fails the council's own accessibility rule. The fix is a separate Welsh layout, not a smaller font.

With a structured workflow, the Welsh layout is generated as its own variant from the same data sheet. The radio script is checked by a Welsh copywriter. The leaflet is proofed by two readers. The social set uses the approved Welsh strings.

Total extra production time is measured in hours, not weeks, because the variants share one source. Without that structure, the same campaign can stall for a fortnight on layout and proofing alone.

Named Cardiff agencies and public bodies working bilingually

Cardiff has a cluster of agencies that handle Welsh and English work as standard. They are worth naming because their workflows show what good looks like.

Cardiff agencies

Cardiff public bodies

These organisations do not all work the same way. But they share one trait: Welsh is treated as a first-class language in the brief, not a translation afterthought.

Agencies that win this work tend to have Welsh-speaking copywriters on staff or on retainer. They also have a proofing step that is separate from the translation step. Translation and copywriting are different skills, and the best Cardiff campaigns use both.

The Government Digital Service has published standards that inform how public bodies structure approvals and content. Its guidance on Government Digital Service is a useful reference for Cardiff teams building sign-off workflows that stand up to audit.

Quality checks for Welsh copy before a variant is released

Quality checks for Welsh copy are the step most often skipped when a campaign is running late. They should be the last gate before release, not an optional extra.

Start with the claim. The CAP Code applies to Welsh-language advertising claims exactly as it does to English ones, as set out in the Advertising codes. A Welsh headline that overstates a benefit is just as actionable as an English one.

Next, check the translation against the intent. A literal translation can be accurate and still wrong. Welsh idioms, mutations and word order need a native copywriter, not a machine pass.

Then check the layout. Welsh text often runs longer than English. If the Welsh variant is squeezed into an English-sized box, it may breach accessibility rules or simply look like a second-class version.

For high-risk campaigns, use the ASA's Copy Advice service before publication. It is a pre-publication check, and it can catch problems in both language versions.

Finally, run the same pre-launch checks every advertising variant should pass: source identity, claim evidence, approval record and a documented release version. A bilingual campaign needs two of each.

Common questions

Do Welsh language duties apply to private companies?

Generally no, unless the company is delivering a public service under contract or is named in a compliance notice. Private brands can still choose to advertise bilingually, and many do in Cardiff.

Is a machine translation enough for a Welsh ad variant?

No. Machine translation can handle simple phrases, but it misses idiom, mutation and tone. A native Welsh copywriter should review every public-facing variant before release.

Does the CAP Code cover Welsh-language advertising?

Yes. The CAP Code applies to ads in Welsh just as it does in English. Claims must be substantiated, and misleading Welsh copy is treated the same way as misleading English copy.

How long does a bilingual campaign take compared with an English-only one?

It depends on the number of assets and approvers. With a structured workflow, the extra time is usually hours per asset. Without one, it can add days or weeks.

Which Cardiff public bodies have Welsh language standards?

The Welsh Government, Senedd Cymru, Cardiff Council, Cardiff and Vale University Health Board and Transport for Wales are among the bodies with duties. Each has a compliance notice setting out its obligations.

Can creative automation handle Welsh text properly?

Yes, if the Welsh strings are stored as structured content rather than as images or fixed text. The automation then generates each variant from the same source data, keeping both languages in step.