Marketing mumbo-jumbo is the real barrier to learning digital
For a generation of reporters in the 1970s, Harold Evans, the former editor of Britain’s Sunday Times, was regarded as one of the greatest journalists of his generation, with his crusading style of investigative articles exposing scandals around the victims of pregnancy drug thalidomide, Soviet spies or challenging the official secrets act.
Today, not slowed in his 90th year, Evans has turned his ire towards an arguably more monstrous beast – the world of business buzzwords, bullshit and office mumbo-jumbo.
Russ Easther teaches Mumbrella’s new Digital Essentials course
It’s something you sense always annoyed, judging by his previous books on concise copy, but his anger levels clicked up a notch in his latest, titled: “Do I Make Myself Clear: Why Writing Well Matters”. Citing everyone from George Orwell to Winston Churchill via Shakespeare, the great man takes his red pen to all manner of confusing English.
Yet of all the professions he attacks, the one that seems to irk him the most – perhaps unsurprisingly – is digital marketing. “As for marketing speak,” he rages, “I don’t have enough shoes or energy for all the branding baloney. Waffle dressed up as a high-level digital concept gets regurgitated by business leaders who promise to dedicate themselves to ‘improving the efficacy of measurable learning outcomes’.”
But gobbledygook has consequences, as he continues. When the Great Recession-ravaged much of the West a decade ago, it was revealed the housing crash was in part due to millions signing agreements they didn’t understand. He goes further, too. The movie and book The Big Short reveals how many of the perpetrators of the chaos were similarly nodding along to simple concepts disguised by baffling terminology.
Last year, former creative director Dave Trott wrote an article published on Mumbrella that debated why these words have become so prolific across the industry. He argued that executives like to sound intelligent, and that jargon helps them do that by forcing others out of the conversation. “If advertising is about anything,” he points out, “it should be about communicating with ordinary people. So why is the sort of language we use the exact opposite?”
And this poison exists not just at the top, but also at the bottom. Today, marketers of all levels are expected to have a far greater knowledge of concepts outside their job descriptions than ever before. Why? Because campaigns now frequently roll out across half-dozen channels and are then opened up to rapid scrutiny from social media. More and more agencies, for instance, are organising their offices so the creatives sit next to the PR guys and the account managers share a water cooler with the strategists. But for that to happen, staff need to be trained in new skills – and that’s where all that nonsense speak can prove a barrier to entry.
It’s a trend noticed by Russ Easther, who teaches Mumbrella’s new – jargon-free – Digital Essentials course. “I’ve been in the room when digital specialists deliver a sales pitch or strategy plan and I can see everyone isn’t getting the message,” he says. “And I’ve been in the room where nobody wants to put their hand up and say, ‘What does this mean?’ I saw an opportunity to simplify things so that my students understood.”
Harold Evans still writes about his passion for straightforward English. His new book, Do I Make Myself Clear? Why Writing Well Matters, was released last year
It’s something he observed most when teaching programmatic advertising, a concept that has struggled to get its message across. “It’s a fantastic idea but the way the industry talks about it is terrible,” he continues. “The conversation is hijacked by the negativity when there is so much positivity.”
Case in point: today, Mumbrella received a press release from Rice, a Singapore PR agency who were touting a new software release for its programmatic client Dataxu. “dataxu®,” it reads, “the leading provider of programmatic marketing software for marketing professionals and media companies, announced today the launch of its enhanced Omnichannel Contextual Suite, powered by Contextual Intelligence leader Grapeshot. Available globally through dataxu’s TouchPointTM demand-side platform, the Contextual Suite includes brand safety measures, contextual pre-bid targeting, and custom keyword targeting.” Bafflingly, it continues to discuss how the software’s “GDPR compliance” allows businesses to apply “relevant and scalable” targeting to their campaigns. No wonder young marketers are confused.
And so Russ argues his sessions differ to most in that they try to avoid being a comprehensive guide to subjects, but instead a plain-speaking crash course that will enable marketers to embrace different concepts without being tripped up. He starts by using analogies and stories to explain the core principles, and then introduces the buzzwords at the end. And he does it so his course can appeal to marketers of all levels – from the account execs to the C-suiters.
Who typically attends? “We see all types of people,” he says. “Some students come along because they feel they aren’t getting enough true digital knowledge in their jobs, while others just want to learn away from their teams. Many feel they aren’t getting mentored as much as they would like and instead want an independent third party to bring them up to speed.”
This year the two-day event in Melbourne will tackle topics as broad as data, analytics, programmatic, content marketing and marketing automation. “Our goal is not to make someone a specialist, but to increase their confidence in the right areas so they can engage that specialist with confidence.
“I want our students to avoid suffering the deer-in-the-headlights moment.”
CONTENT SPONSORED BY Digital Essentials
‘… simple concepts disguised by baffling terminology.’
Complex is easy, simple is hard.
User ID not verified.
Sounds like DataXu needs a new PR agency, or the agency needs to push back harder on the client, that’s what they’re being paid for.
User ID not verified.
Bullshit words make up for nothing new. It’s just direct marketing with pixels
User ID not verified.
Well said.
User ID not verified.
Can’t remember who it was who said, ‘Good writing is not about making the writer look clever. It’s about making the reader feel clever.’
No one wants to work hard to read sales, marketing and PR. Make it easy for them. Use a copywriter who knows what a readability index is. Or use one yourself.
User ID not verified.
I wouldn’t say that the press release is that hard to understand – Dataxu has a new product, available through their dsp, uses grapeshot (the name of a company) to deliver contextual targeting in safe environments. GDPR is a universal acronym relating to data regulations – calling that jargon is like calling ASIC, WHO or UN jargon.
User ID not verified.
Just like in finance, the marketing golden rule applies – by over complicating things we came off as more intelligent.
User ID not verified.
This is how so many professions preserve their status – exclusionary jargon.
User ID not verified.
The article would be far more convincing if it were not an undisguised attempt to sign people up for a Mumbrella seminar.
Decrying mumbo-jumbo and at the same time flogging a course to decipher said mumbo-jumbo is rather disingenuous.
Oh, and the Dave Trott article linked to is actually about the ability of liars to brazen it out if they are convincing enough.
Something you may wish to consider.
User ID not verified.
I agree. I think dataxu got treated a bit harshly there.
Where the release suffers is simply being too dense, with too many elongated brand names. That said, contextual pre-bid targeting is a pretty convoluted little phrase that could do with simplifying.
User ID not verified.
Why even have a digital essentials course? Why not just a communication essentials course? The whole subdivision of “digital” is just an another example of the waffle. (The fundamental rules apply: always, and forever, and regardless of what we’re calling it this year.)
In any case, I suspect the use of marketing gibberish is a shibboleth that identifies you to others as a like-minded person who operates entirely within the system that substitutes process for product.
Moreover, it’s a sign of submission; especially to those who hold the keys to the thing you are trying to attain or maintain… a job, a promotion, an account etc.
User ID not verified.
Thing is, Dave Trott actually did do a piece on jargon: https://mumbrella.com.au/advertising-jargon-has-become-smokescreen-for-people-who-dont-know-what-theyre-doing-490157
Case of a wrong link, Mumbrella?
User ID not verified.
Good spot. Yes, it was the wrong link, which I have now updated. Thanks all.