Calling all marketers! Get ready to upset (yes, that’s one of them) your digestive tract with marketing clichés that will make you vomit. These trendy marketing terms are polluting creative minds everywhere, and there might even be scientific evidence linking these embarrassing slogans to Millennials’ intense feelings of “I don’t want a desk job.” It is certainly possible. However, for everyone else, can we make a pact?
As fellow marketers and creative professionals, let’s remove (or shut down) these irritating phrases so that we can all get over this “noise” that clutters our industry. You are with me ?!
1. Interruption
First, let’s be clear. “Disruption” is more of a business term. Describes a market condition that occurs when an existing market collapses and a new one emerges. It is actually very similar to the “disruptive innovation” that occurs when a new market fully materializes. Uber could be a great example of both, depending on how you look at it.
However, when this “Wall Street” phrase ended up seeping all over Madison Avenue, the terms “disruption” and “disruptive” became overused, diluted in terms that essentially started to mean nothing.
Certainly, “creative disruption” could have a place, as it refers to exposing business model flaws and promoting big changes in consumer behavior (in the creative sense). However, I can’t help but wonder if some agency account manager is just scrapping “disruptive” terms just to win a big account. Well then. Interrupt what? Isn’t it our job as marketers to change consumer habits and get noticed?
2. Growth hacking
Okay, I realize that “hack” is supposed to mean “code” in this sense (not reduce), but this phrase sure sounds like an oxymoron to me!
Popularized by Sean Ellis and other tech experts in the early 2000s, the term was meant to describe non-traditional ways of achieving growth through experimental marketing strategies and emerging technologies. READ: This is also a glorified way of describing underpaid “bootstrappers” (oh, but fairly, of course!) Trying to unlock the key to “mass culture” (yawn).
Perhaps growth hacking was a relevant and meaningful term 15 years ago, but not today. Most marketers are expected to (magically) grow up with technological brilliance and creativity because it’s our job. Sound like a lot of pressure? Okay, welcome to marketing.
3. SoLoMo
Oh no no If your ears haven’t been tagged by this irritating term yet (in what appears to be “slow motion”), it means “Social-Local-Mobile” as if it’s a cool concept or a secret to being relevant. So please don’t use this phrase. Always.
4. Practical perspectives
Actionable? Unlike “Well, we learned something today and we are not going to do anything about it.”
I mean, am I missing something? Where do you look for “practical knowledge”? Is this something that people need in addition to the usual knowledge? For example, if I compare landing page performance in The Marketing Manager and see one campaign outperforming the other, I think I know what action to take. You do?
5. Perfect integration
If you work in the tech industry, I bet you’re emphatically nodding “yes.” This ghastly term is just as common and nonsensical as when your vendor says “we have an API” when asked “does your product do (xyz)?”.
In fact, let’s put in a few pieces of the puzzle to really visually convey (because we’re idiots) that our software integrates seamlessly (puke) with boredom and clichés. After all, we have to “shout” that every piece of our boring app actually works when interacting with some other random technology.
And while this style of tech marketing seems terrifyingly common (more ubiquitous), to me, it feels quite ironic. After all, I’m pretty sure the puzzle pieces have noticeable, jagged edges. It is not like this?
Also, there is no such thing as “perfect” integration. It takes work and maintenance for two tools to “talk” to each other, and you (the consumer) have to pay for it. There you go.
6. Turnkey (and all “key” in general)
Let’s be honest. If someone offers you a “ready to go” solution, do they make you open your wallet? Personally, it turns me into a glazed zombie. Why? Because even if something is difficult, a brand will never admit it or sell you the “turnkey” solution (rigor mortis is established).
Now, of course, I understand that this term was once synonymous with “effortless.” However, it has since become a useless adjective lazy marketers use to describe some blah-blah-blah with blah-blah-blah. That said, I propose that we block this useless adjective (pun intended).
In fact, while we’re stuck in cliche door analogies, can we stop saying [anything]door to describe a conspiracy theory? Maybe I’m being unreasonable, but I would love if people could coin something new. After all, the key (shame) to creative marketing is explaining concepts in a meaningful way. That is why “turnkey” is no longer descriptive; Tell me WHY something is so simple, in an attractive and concise way. Does this sound difficult? Well, it is. That’s why creative people have jobs.
7. Content is king
Yawn. “Content is king” and “(whatever) is queen” sounds like a big gay party, but everyone is really bored.
It is no mystery. Live sports and fan favorites like “The Walking Dead” keep cable TV in business. After all, those cable bills are expensive! Perhaps that is why this irritating and embarrassing phrase just won’t die; decision makers in the media universe ignore the fact that modern consumers are stingy with their time. How else can we explain this endless sea of boring content?
Maybe I’m wrong, but here’s my understanding of modern consumers (that they all have ADD built in)
AWESOME Content = I will only tolerate ads if they cannot be blocked. And if I really hate ads, I WILL PAY to have them blocked, so please stop imposing these painful pre-rolls on me and what feels like 10 minute commercial blocks.
BORING Content = I hate you for wasting my time, also known as “get out of my inbox” syndrome by emphatically clicking on “spam”.
Assuming the media gods disagree with me, I think this painful phrase will still exist.
8. Entertainment
Speaking of “content sucks,” marketers make up stupid terms like “entertainment” to make it look like they’re solving a really big cultural problem, but they’re not.
“Ad entertainment” is essentially an annoying way of explaining “branded content,” product placement, or great marketing in disguise. I get the concept, but here’s the catch: If you call your own work “entertainment,” you sound like a pompous fop.
Don’t get me wrong: some marketers have made the advertising very entertaining, including Red Bull with their adrenaline junkie videos and AMC with their Walking Dead and Mad Men apps (aka “gamification,” which could theoretically be on she is ready ).
However, does “advertising” really solve a problem? I guess so, but can we please not call it that?
However, in all seriousness, if you are a marketer who somehow figured out how to move the product around without disturbing people, congrats. This is an achievement. I’m serious.
9. Ecosystem (to describe everything)
Are we a group of ants trapped in a science class diorama that demonstrates seamless integration (see term # 5 above)? Silicon Valley seems to think so.
We hear this word a lot, especially when some “thought leader” (yawn, could make this list too) is not prepared to answer a difficult question in a meeting.
“Well you see [insert CEO name here], our next step in changing consumer behavior patterns is to move the social conversation into the Internet of Things ecosystem, “said the slightly hangover marketing executive recovering from last night’s vendor confusion.
Look. We’ve all been through it, but the use of the word “ecosystem” is starting to feel out of control. In some ways, it could be said that everything can be an ecosystem, including the Chia Pet that they sell at Walmart. Do you know what I mean? Germination. Photosynthesis. What. And it all brings me back to where I started: my seventh grade science class.
10. Content for snacks
Doesn’t this phrase make you want to throw up? Personally, I find it nauseating, but here’s some “food for thought” – the term “content consumption” is actually the mothership concept that spawned this ugly duckling buzzword. All it means is that time-hungry consumers prefer concise headlines, bullet points, easy-to-read lists (unlike mine), and pretty much the opposite of heavy, homogeneous-looking text. Makes sense.
Still, isn’t it surprising how unappetizing this trivial phrase sounds? In fact, I almost threw up (in a good way) when Welby Consulting’s Grant Higginson tweeted it to us during our “Tweet the most annoying marketing buzzword to win a drone” contest. Needless to say, he won.