We understand real-time disruption and the quest for best-in-breed holistic tools, the need for martech stack enablement, new social currencies and client centric touchpoints, but AdNews loves a chuckle at the buzzwords that mean nothing.
1. Growth hacking
Much like "intepreneurial" (see below) the phase 'growth hacking' has spilled over from start-up culture. Literally, it means to find new ways to achieve growth. It sounds fancy and hip, but really, it just means marketing. If you're any good at marketing, you should be finding new ways to drive growth. You don't need a fancy new term for it, just be good at your job.
2. Pokeconomy
If you don't know about the biggest location-based augmented reality game of 2016, or probably of the last decade, then you're as behind as Facebook Poke. Not only did the Nintendo-owned Pokemon Go create global chatter, but a whole economy spawned off the back of it as brands and local businesses snapped up Lures to entice gamers.
Retail shops like Woolworths benefited from Lures being set up in stores
3. People-based marketing
This one is so obvious, it's absurd that it's gaining traction. What other marketing would there be? If a business isn't marketing for people, you've really missed the purpose of what you're doing. This is being used more and more in the digital space and seems to refer to marketing to people no matter what device they're on, but by its very definition marketing is about reaching people with the right message, at the right time.
4. Viewability
The concept of viewability is legitimate. And advertisers wanting to know whether their ad was in fact viewable, and only wanting to pay for serving ads that can actually be seen by real humans eyeballs is also legitimate. But the frequent use of this buzzword opens up to risks of undermining its importance.
5. Intrapreneurial
Not everyone can be, or act like, a start-up. We respect this concept and the attractiveness of acting nimble, adopting waterfall processes and iteration, to a big company facing disruption and transformation, but really. A big corporate, frankly, cannot be entrepreneurial and cannot act like a start-up, no matter how hard it tries.
6. Snappable
As Snapchat continues to penetrate the social sphere, fans of the short-form mobile app increased - no doubt helped in-part by the onslaught of celebrities giving regular glimpses of their lives, and rears. The action of taking a good snap has seeped into the notion of things becoming 'snappable'.
McDonald's made its burger Snappable this year
7. Smarketing
Smarketing refers to the holistic stance that both sales and marketing should be taking in order to achieve the ultimate success. If the two could just get along and ditch the shoulder chips then wouldn't that be nice.
8. Screenager
This could be the worst invented consumer demographic since millennials arrived on the scene. Screenagers, also a 2016 documentary educational movie of the same name, are young consumers who rely on a multitude of devices in every aspect of life. According to an Accenture report (also of the same title) "hyper-accelerated growth has amplified our dependency on real-time consumption, constant connectivity and an ever-expanding universe of expectations. Screenagers are now power players in a multi-billion-dollar game."
9. Adblockalypse
Forget Trumpaggedon - there's real shift going down, and that's consumers having a choice in what banner ads smack them in the face by upping their use of adblockers. Yep, that's right, 2016 really hit the fan for brands when they realised they hard to start producing content that people want to see.
10. Womenomics
Forget Freakonomics or Pokenomics, it's the era of Womenomics. Closing the gender employment hole and seeing more women not only retain their top jobs after maternity leave, but seeing many more stepping into leadership roles, is a must for the media and marketing world and the economy, but does it need a word?
Have something to say on this? Share your views in the comments section below. Or if you have a news story or tip-off, drop us a line at adnews@yaffa.com.au
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