April 12, 2016
Starcom MediaVest’s co CEO Pippa Glucklich told us recently: “If you spoke to people the way advertising speaks to people, they’d punch you in the face.”
We certainly don’t want any injuries at Bloomberg Media’s panel at Advertising Week Europe.
The great advertising detox begins by identifying the problem buzzwords and phrases. Source: Bloomberg Media Studios
To make sure, there will be no jargon allowed on our panel. Viktoria Degtar, Bloomberg Media’s Head of Sales EMEA, outlined our thinking in Campaign: we want to have a real conversation so you can walk away with actual answers to some of the questions that affect marketing and advertising people today.
We asked our Advertising Week Europe panellist Sue Unerman, who is Chief Strategy Officer at MediaCom UK, what jargon words bother her. Her worry is that people overuse the term ‘innovation’ without considering what it means to do something new and transformative.
Why is Sue Unerman worried about the word “innovation”? Source: Bloomberg Media Studios
“They want innovation that’s definitely going to work. That’s a bit difficult, isn’t it?” Unerman said.
MediaCom UK’s managing director Claudine Collins had not just one but three advertising buzzwords and jargon-filled phrases that drive her mad.
“I hear ‘thought leadership’ all the time. It’s just words.” – Claudine Collins, managing director, MediaCom UK
“’Programmatic’ is about automated trading. Say what it is,” she said. “I hear ‘thought leadership’ all the time. It’s just words.”
There are three advertising buzzwords that annoy MediaCom’s Claudine Collins. Source: Bloomberg Media Studios
Ahead of Advertising Week Europe this week, we’ll hear what folks outside of the media industry think of overused advertising jargon words.
In the meantime, you can cleanse yourself of advertising buzzwords ahead of the session on Twitter, using #jargondetox.
Read next: Why we’re partnering with Advertising Week Europe
– Shannon Doubleday | April 12, 2016