Ladies and Gentleman, start your buzzwords

October 21, 2008 by Dave Haynes

If your working life sees you in meetings with advertising media and brand people, you’ve probably wqished more than once you brought your trusty jargon decoder ring with you.

The New York Times sent a reporter to the National Association of Advertisers meeting last week in Orlando, who filed a story about the proceedings and his own observations – among them the latest buzzwords and phrases that fly around when this crowd meets.

Each year the conference exposes students of language to the buzzwords and buzzphrases (if that is a word) in vogue among marketers. Among those heard during the speeches this time: “forward predict” (as if there could be “backward predict”), “stakeholder engagement,” “maximizing the shelf sets,” “single-point accountability,” “enablement experience,” “tailored solutions” and “relevant touch points” (as if there could be irrelevant ones). 

Give me a little time and I could sort out the meanings of most of those, but I think enablement experience may have me permanently strumped.