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LokalLokal
Local news & community · Multi-language

Every story, in 5–6 languages — with the right characters for each region.

How Lokal produces region-perfect video news at scale — one input in a Google Sheet generates the same video across five or six languages, each cast to resonate locally, written straight back to the sheet.

Videos per editor, per day (2 → 10)
5–6
Languages per video, from one input
1
Google Sheet — trigger to delivery
The challenge

Localizing every video, by hand, across every market.

Lokal serves audiences across many Indian language markets, and the same story has to land in each one. That meant producing every video five or six times over — once per language — and the version that works in one region doesn't work in another. The face, the voice, the presenter that resonates in one language isn't the one for the next.

Done by hand, that's one video multiplied five or six times, plus the judgment of casting each version for its region. At Lokal's volume and speed, manual localization simply couldn't keep up.

What we built

One sheet in, every language out.

We built Lokal a pipeline that runs entirely from a Google Sheet. The team fills a row; the pipeline produces every localized version and writes the results straight back — no tools to open, no prompts to write, no per-language production.

Trigger the run from a Google Sheet
The team adds the story to a Google Sheet and the pipeline picks it up automatically. That's the entire trigger — no app to open, no prompt to write.
Generate the video in 5–6 languages
The same video is produced across all of Lokal's target languages at once — so a single input covers every market, not one at a time.
Cast region-specific characters
Each language version uses a custom set of characters, matched to what resonates in that region — the right face and voice for each audience, not a one-size-fits-all presenter.
Write results back to the sheet
Finished videos are written straight back into the same Google Sheet, so the team has every localized version in one place — ready to review and ship.
The impact

Every market covered, from a single row.

One entry in a Google Sheet now produces a full set of localized videos — five or six languages, each cast for its region — delivered right back to the sheet. What used to be the same job done five or six times over, plus a manual casting round for each, is now a single input.

The team works entirely in a tool they already live in — no prompting, no per-language production, no repeated casting. One video editor's output went from 2 videos a day to 10, producing region-perfect video across every market instead of one at a time.

“My video editor was able to ship 2 videos a day, now he can ship 10 a day with SurgeGrowth.”

JA
J Abraham
Creative Head, Lokal
What we built for Lokal
Multi-language localization Region-specific characters AI Talking Head Automated video editing Google Sheets trigger + writeback

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