The Jargon Problem @ Interactive Agencies

This blog post was originally published as the feature story in the Portland Advertising Federation VOX Newsletter on 11/3/2009.

Given the current economy, we took it very seriously when a prospective client accused us last week of using too much marketing jargon in our sales pitch.

Given a tough problem, we immediately did what any great agency would do; we left work and went to the bar to discuss it!

Jargon is great for communication within an industry, but it can be harmful when communicating with those outside of your industry. Jargon is more useful in some industries than it is in others. There are some unique things about the world of advertising, marketing and interactive that make our use of jargon especially harmful.

What is Jargon? Simply put, jargon is terminology specific to an industry.

Examples of marketing jargon include:

Business transformation strategies, business intelligence, KPIs, blasts, content marketing, Web 2.0, social media channels, product life cycle management, brand platforms, strategies to promote advocacy and awareness.

Those are terms that you think most clients would know, but they don’t. Of course, there are even more esoteric terms like, K.A.G.O.Y.,  the hard eight , advergaming and “P marketing”. Please, do not ever use those terms with a client.

Why is Jargon especially harmful in the interactive industry?

Because of the multi-disciplinary nature of interactive, it naturally forms a huge lexicon (marketing advertising, software, research, consulting).

Interactive agencies walk a tight rope. On one hand, interactive requires a software culture. Within the h4×0r (hacker) subculture, jargon is cool. (See: Jargon file).  Interactive agencies also have an advertising culture – and until recently, advertising was second only to politics in the number of professional bull sh*tters that it attracts. The so-called social media industry is worst of all in attracting self-proclaimed “experts” to a discipline with very little discipline and very little history.

“At the end of the day,” business executives have little tolerance for jargon. (See: MBA Jargon Watch or this video about  Marketing Jargon on the streets of New York for examples of annoying jargon. Or just watch The Office).

When an agency babbles in jargon and the client gets frustrated, which of the following is true?

1)      The agency is full of sh*t.

2)      The client is a “noob”.

3)       The agency might be smart; the client might be educated; the agency is simply failing to speak to the client in simple, clear language to which the client can relate.  

While sometimes #1 and #2 may be true, more often than not, #3 is in play. Unexpected words distract your audience from following your vision and your story.

Words are pregnant with meaning. Jargon is very useful in concisely communicating complex thoughts. Still, the costs of jargon simply outweigh the benefits when speaking with folks who are outside of your industry.

Try observing the use of jargon by those in your industry and those outside of it. You may find that you have a higher tolerance for the use of jargon by some professions (e.g., physicians and scientists) than you do for the use of jargon in advertising and marketing. That is because those other professions have a more standardized, consistent and documented use of vocabulary than our industry does.

Express your thoughts simply and elegantly, with the words targeted so that your client can easily understand. Not only will you communicate better with you clients, you will be a better at helping your clients communicate with their customers.