Planning bilingual vertical video for Cardiff brands

What to take away

What bilingual English and Welsh vertical video means for Cardiff brands

Cardiff is Wales' media and public sector centre. That shapes the brief before anyone opens a camera. A housing association, a health board, a university or a devolved government body in Cardiff often has to publish in both languages, and short-form video is now part of that publishing.

Bilingual does not mean one video with two soundtracks. Vertical video is watched at speed, often with sound off, so the languages have to share a small screen. The practical question is which language leads and which language travels alongside it.

Most Cardiff teams land in one of three places. A Welsh-first cut for Welsh-speaking audiences. An English-first cut for everyone else. Or a single cut with Welsh voiceover and English subtitles, which is common where budget only covers one edit.

Each choice changes your audience target. If you are building the audience profile for a campaign, do it separately for each language rather than averaging the two. Our guide to building a short form video target audience covers how to split that work without doubling the research.

One caution. Do not treat Welsh as a translation layer added at the end. If the script is written for English word order and then translated, the Welsh voiceover will sound stilted and the on-screen text will not fit the frame.

Welsh language creative choices: voiceover, on-screen text and subtitling

Voiceover is the most expensive bilingual choice and the one audiences notice most. A Welsh voiceover read by a first-language speaker lands differently from a read by a confident second-language speaker. For public sector campaigns, the former is usually expected.

Costs are quoted per project, not per language. Voiceover is usually priced per finished minute or per session, translation per 1,000 words and timed subtitle files per finished minute. Typical ranges vary with script length, turn-around, voice direction and the number of platform versions, so ask for a quote in those units.

On-screen text is cheaper and more flexible. Welsh headlines, English headlines, or Welsh headline with English support line all work in 9:16, provided you keep each line short. Welsh words are often longer than their English equivalents, so a headline that fits in English may wrap in Welsh.

Subtitling carries the accessibility load. Burned-in subtitles are reliable but cannot be turned off, which matters for viewers who find captions distracting. Platform captions can be toggled but are auto-generated unless you upload a file, and Welsh auto-captioning remains weaker than English.

BSI's BS 8878:2010, Web accessibility — Code of practice, provides a framework for web accessibility, while subtitle accuracy still needs a separate bilingual review. Its standards catalogue is a starting point when setting an accessibility approach; it does not replace testing captions in Welsh and English.

If your team already has a review process for English assets, extend it rather than replacing it. The short form video quality checklist we use for English teams maps cleanly onto Welsh variants once you add a language-accuracy step.

A worked example

A Cardiff health board wants one 20-second vertical video about winter vaccination. Budget covers one shoot, one edit and two language versions.

The result is two comparable assets, one shoot day, and data you can actually act on.

Welsh Language Commissioner expectations and compliance points

The Welsh Language Commissioner is the body that oversees Welsh language standards for public bodies in Wales. If your organisation is named in those standards, they apply to your video output as part of your published communications, not only to PDFs and web pages.

The duties sit in the Welsh Language Standards (No. 1) Regulations 2015. Standard 46 requires publicity material to be available in Welsh, and Standard 47 requires you not to treat Welsh less favourably. For covered organisations, campaign videos published on websites and social media should be considered as part of their publicity material.

In practice that means a few things for Cardiff marketing teams. You need a clear record of how each campaign was produced in both languages, and you need to be able to show that the Welsh version was not an afterthought added after sign-off.

Compliance also touches how you present the two languages. Giving Welsh equal prominence on screen, in titles and in descriptions is the safer habit. Treating Welsh as a small subtitle under a large English headline is the pattern most likely to attract criticism.

Separately, language and audience treatment sit inside equality law. The Equality Act 2010 prohibits discrimination in the provision of services, and its full text is the reference point when a team argues that a Welsh version is optional.

Finally, remember that paid promotion adds another layer. If you are boosting bilingual video, check your disclosure and consent position before approval, as set out in our guide to UK ad disclosure and consent.

What to look for in Welsh production and translation support

For Cardiff teams, shortlist Welsh-language production and translation support against the same brief. Availability of Welsh voice talent can affect delivery, so check capacity early.

Look for providers who can do both translation and voice direction. A translator who never hears the script read aloud will produce text that is accurate but unspeakable. A studio with in-house Welsh talent avoids that gap.

Verify these credentials before you shortlist:

When you compare suppliers, keep the channel plan in view. A provider who understands where each cut is going will frame and caption differently for TikTok than for YouTube. Our comparison of how to build a short form video channel strategy without spreading your team thin is a useful companion here.

Scheduling bilingual vertical video across TikTok, Instagram and YouTube

Scheduling two languages across three platforms can double your publishing load if you let it. The fix is to decide which platform leads each language before you build the calendar.

TikTok rewards native-feeling content and is where a Welsh-first cut can perform well with younger Welsh-speaking audiences. TikTok's own creative guidance is worth reading before you lock a bilingual format, because the platform's expectations for text placement shape what fits on screen.

Instagram sits in the middle. Reels handle both languages comfortably, and the caption field gives you room for a short bilingual description that TikTok does not.

YouTube is where the two-language approach pays off differently. Separate Welsh and English uploads can be targeted as distinct campaigns, and YouTube's advertising formats support running them side by side rather than competing in one auction.

A simple weekly pattern works for most Cardiff teams. Publish the Welsh cut first on the platform where that audience is strongest, hold the English cut for the following day, and keep the posting times consistent so the data stays comparable.

General creative discipline still applies. The IAB UK's introduction to creative best practice is a sensible baseline for both language versions, particularly on early framing and first-second clarity.

Testing Welsh and English variants against audience data

Test the two languages as separate campaigns, not as one campaign with a language toggle. Mixed reporting hides the thing you are trying to learn.

Set the same success measure for both. If the Welsh cut is judged on reach and the English cut on click-through, you will always conclude that one language underperforms, and you will be wrong.

Give each variant enough runtime before you judge it. Small Welsh-speaking audiences mean slower data accumulation, and a three-day comparison will usually just measure noise.

Watch three signals. Completion rate, which shows whether the language choice held attention. Subtitle engagement, where the platform reports it. And comment language, which tells you who actually turned up.

Feed the results back into your persona work rather than leaving them in a dashboard. Building short form video buyer personas from evidence rather than assumption is the difference between a bilingual strategy and a bilingual habit.

Common questions