Industry bigwigs hate paradigm shifts, evangelists and integration
Australia’s online leaders have declared war on cliches, with the phrases “paradigm shift” and “digital evangelist” among the targets.
The bugbears are highlighted in the final episode of the Digital Bullets video produced by recruitment agency La Volta.
In this week’s question, industry leaders were asked to name the most irritating cliche in digital. The responses included:
- Domenic Carosa, CEO, Dominet: “During the dotcom days anything to do with the internet was a paradigm shift. That would be a relatively wanky term these days.”
- Martin Dalgleish, media commentator: “If I saw paradigm shift on a proposal or a pitch I would inevitably turn off. I don’t even know what a paradigm is, but I don’t want to shift it.”
- Tony Faure, investor: “At the moment ‘social marketing’ because nobody has got any idea what it means. It’s one of those phrases that people come up with to cover so many different things. At the moment it doesn’t actually mean anything at all.”
- Steve Fanale, CEO, Mass Media: “The most irritating one for me is the evangelist. As soon as I hear it I think of Jim and Tammy Baker.”
- Jenny Williams, founder, Idea Garden: “Integration.”
- Liam Walsh, MD Microsoft’s Drive Performance Media: ‘The worst is ‘people capital’. But in digital it’s ‘deep dive’. Intolerable cruelty – intolerable. It’s used a lot at Microsoft.”
- Adam Dunne, CEO, Aura Interactive: “The most annoying thing that I hear on an almost daily basis is somebody calling me and telling me they are just ringing to touch my base.”
- John Butterworth, CEO, AIMIA: “The one that irritates me is the phrase ‘it will never take off’. I heard it about the internet and it started up about three or four years ago with mobiles. When I heard that again I thought mobile’s a sure cert winner.”
- IAB CEO Paul Fisher: “Hits is an awful term. It denotes people who don’t really know what they are talking about. I hate hits. We should abolish it. And the second is unique browsers. Let’s kill off unique browsers. It’s a ridiculous term. It’s just not real.”
- Lee Stevens, CEO, Aegis: “Anything (his former colleague and – one presumes – friend) Chris Brinkworth says.”
- Jennifer Wilson, director of The Project Factory: “We use all these bullshit bingo buzzwords just as a way of shorthanding and we need to stop. We need to start using language that other people can understand.”
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large. He returned to Mumbrella as Publisher in January 2025
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Or as I call the people who espouse them, “paradigm shits”.
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I’d like to add some context, because the thing about these terms is that they all make people feel like they aren’t in a ‘real’ conversation. That is, that the conversation they are having is disingenuous and they can ‘smell it’ a mile away.
Social Media Marketing = “I need to make you feel inferior with my incredible knowledge of jingoistic terms because I have little commercial experience to otherwise draw on”.
Deep Dive = ” I don’t know anything about this topic and have no idea where to start. So I will try and distract you by feigning interest in a more in depth analysis, this way you will leave me alone for awhile.
Hits = ” We get no traffic to the website, so I will try and distract you with bulls**t stats. Hoping that you are either ignorant and stupid”
Evangelist = I have a belief in making myself a very rich person. All I need do now is give the impression I care about what you care about and then accept your cash.
Touching Base = “I don’t like you and don’t care how you answer my next question, but I am obliged to call you, as my sales report is due today”
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“Shorthanding”
I think Jennifer Wilson just created a new one…
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At the risk of offending everyone I know, the word ‘engage’ has certainly been well flogged in the last two years.
It seems to mean almost anything positive.
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Liam and I covered this off last year too – http://talkingdigital.wordpres.....l-to-arms/
Some funny ones in there!
I’d have to say ‘paradigm shift’ – it is overused and overstated.
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“take this offline” gets me but i wouldn’t say it’s specific to digital … ad wankers of all areas use it regularly
Industry bigwigs would have to be up there
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Nooo! You can’t take bigwigs away from me. That will only leave me with boss and honcho…
replace “big wigs” with “heavy hitters” tim – easy!
There’s always ‘Guru’
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I luv ‘Thought Leaders’ meself and also have a particular soft spot for ‘Ideation’
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“I’m going to push back on you” i.e. ‘no’
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Always be wary of people who want to “push back on you”……unless it’s between two consenting adults
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You’ve reminded me, Rachael. “I need to manage this one upwards…”
I’m talking to you, Kevin Johns…
If you are going to do that, can you two please take it ‘off-line’. Thank you. Carry on.
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“This is key” — what a load of bulltwang.
Key in this context is an adjective and is supposed to modify, not replace, an existing noun.
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http://www.squidoo.com/businesscliches
if you made the use of these words illegal i’m not sure what we’d talk about. Although I do like ‘polishing a turd’ as a line.
I’m ‘extrapolating forward’ as I type, so must be brief.
Later though, I will be wondering which suggestions I have read today that are ‘counter intuitive’.
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I’d like to remain anonymous, but my experience of talking to / reading Dr Mumbo is he has a heavy learning towards deploying “the great and the good” very liberally.
I would also like to pull the entire industry up on using the word “digerati”..
It sounds like an Eastern Block inspired Secret Police Force dedicated to the internet.
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I’ve always been fond of “watch the whiteboard while I run through it again”, and don’t get me started on “brainstorming sessions”.
Then again I’ve always found conversations with reps who use superlatives as affirmatives particularly cliched. Annoying? Absolutely!
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Bespoke!
This is a bespoke opportunity!
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heard “optimise the social brand experience” the other day – a sure sign of the coming apocalypse
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Hilarious hypocrisy from people with company names like: “The Project Factory” “Aura Interactive” “Drive Performance Media” and “Dominet”
Ha Ha Haaaaaaaa
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I like to get a heads up on the low down from the man on the street regarding what’s on the Radar
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Then I meet with client to discuss if the core business is cross functional enough to be customer driven without commoditizing the key components
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I just remembered “digital native”.
People who say this should be made to spend the rest of the meeting in the corridor.
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I though you said they were Industry bigwigs?
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It’s not a cliche but it’s driving me a bit nuts – there is no such word as Mediums. You can have a single Medium or lots of Media – No Mediums. But I see it in on websites, in CEO presentations. Maybe the English language evolved? Maybe it’s just a new word. Well I’m not using it anyway.
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From the outside looking in … “at the end of the day,” “moving forward” and “no worries/no problem” have become so commonplace as to be rendered meaningless.
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Ahh yes, please don’t leave out, vertical, platform, etc, etc. If I want to experience these particular words I can alway switch on and listen to Bruce McAvaney when he comments on the diving at the next Olympics.
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delicious
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Thanks Tim (Comment 29).
‘Mediums’ drive me nuts too. Especially coming from Media experts.
If you don’t know what the plural of your trade is, why should I give you $10 million?
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Gone are the days of the “one-stop-shop-solution”. Thank-goodness.
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Has anyone mentioned turnkey solutions yet? Grrr.
no one has mentioned ‘social media’ yet …
‘blogger’ is also meaningless now … basically means anyone who uses any sort of networking tool or has made a comment or posted a picture.
“the bloggers the bloggers!”
Must. Vent. Buzzwords:
“Seeding”
“Über”
“Savvy” (arggh me matey)
“To me this product lends itself to social media” (lends itself?)
“Building a presence”
“Agency ABC ‘scoops’ Brand XYZ in pitch”
“Viral buzz”
“A 360 degree approach” – I’m feeling dizzy now.
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media neutral
Granleese,
“Savvy” is my #1 hate too… it angers me just hearing it.
“Opportunities” needs to be squashed also.
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I particularly like having a brain storm so I’m ready to hit the ground running and then I might be up for a spot of paradigm shifting 🙂
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and that’s all before going to the pub for a de-brief!
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I love it when clients start using the terms back on you. I had a client ask me if I can make their TVC “viral”.
“Isn’t that what everyone’s doing at the moment?” was their response when I gave them a funny look.
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Paul Fisher – SPOT ON!
HITS = How Idiots Track Success
My pet hates: “Eyeballs” / “Seats” / “UBs” – treating unique human beings – each of which might have their own interaction with a brand – like marketing cannon fodder.
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I was going to give you a heads up on some media neutral jargonesque that create disengagement opportunites with me … but someone beat me to it.
Pet peeves:
– mediums instead of media (along with stadiums instead of stadia)
– engagement. How can you measure something that no-one has been able to define (forget the ARF’s “what turns a client on definition”!)? So far, Erwin Ephron’s definition of engagement has come closest – it’s gold, has a diamond and is worn on the ring-finger of the left hand.
Anyway, I just thought I’d run them up the flagpole and see who salutes.
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It seems like we are all singing from the same songsheet which clearly shows we all have our fingers on the pulse.
If anyone else has any thoughts lets toss them around and see if we can come up with a salad.
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