Am I the only one who thinks that we’ve hit a crazy new level of jargon and hot topics in the world of marketing?
Our industry has always been renowned for this – but let’s just look back at terminology over the past few years to see how extreme this currently is.
Take data, for example: from data science and big data, smart data, first-party data to third-party data and now zero-party data. Personalisation became mass personalisation; and let’s not forget about the engagement, attention and then the attention economy.
What type of marketing do I need? Inbound, outbound, push, pull, content, performance, native … the list goes on. We’ve seen a sharp rise in influencers – macro, micro and then nano – now in roll the content creators. And I haven’t even touched on the number of acronyms that we use. Welcome to the metaverse, NFTs and Web3 … I could keep going but you probably get my point by now.
We’re living in a world of words without meaning. These terms get thrown around offices and boardrooms every single day – and so often the individual using them doesn’t even know what they mean.
I have a challenge for you: next time you’re about to use a term that you’re not quite sure whether you understand – truly understand – first, spend some time researching the term; not just the fastest definition that you find, though. Then strip away the hype and focus on the simple, raw meaning.
It’s time to let go of textbook definitions. We need to spend less time learning verbatim and more time finding true meaning and understanding. Our industry greatly under-appreciates the value of simplicity. If you want to stand out and add value, be the one who brings simplicity to the room, create that meaning and understanding.
At the end of the day, we need to remember that the principles of media have not changed. We still need to determine two key factors: whom we reach, and how we build meaning for them.
How we do either of those elements in 2022 and beyond – well, that’s a whole new ball game.
~ Isla Prentis, intelligence lead at Tirisano Consulting, a division of The MediaShop.
