What’s The Most Over-Used Buzzword in Advertising?

June 22, 2022

There’s plenty of talk these days about the demise of cookies – from the impact on martech stacks, to data onboarding and budget re-allocations. But this topic is not quite the most overused buzzword in advertising, at least according to a new report [download page] from Mediaocean. Instead that dubious distinction goes to the term “transparency.”

For the report, Mediaocean – via TechValidate – surveyed 638 respondents representing brands, agencies, media companies, measurement firms, tech platforms, and other marketing industry constituents. Respondents were presented with a short list of buzzwords and asked to identify the one they felt is most overused.

About 1 in 4 (24% of) respondents chose “Transparency” as their most overused buzzword. This is a key topic from marketers that’s used in several areas, but most often appears to be applied to concerns in programmatic advertising and media partnerships.

Following “Transparency” was “Cookieless” / “Privacy-safe” for reasons mentioned above, cited by 21% share of respondents. Also getting a fair share of votes was “Future-proof” (17%), ahead of “Algorithm” (12%). In an environment where “Cookieless” is a buzzword, it’s not surprising to see “First-party”/”Second-party”/”Third-party”/”Zero-party” data also getting the pick from 11% of respondents. Finally, some 11% of respondents are mostly tired of hearing the term “brand purpose” being bandied around.

Most Impactful MarTech Innovation for Advertising

It may not come as a surprise that respondents to the survey consider measurement improvements centered on non-cookie methods to be the marketing technology innovation they believe will be most impactful for their advertising this year, with 26% saying as such. By comparison, 22% share said that improvements in integrated media planning and execution would be their top innovation, while 16% pointed to improved ad opportunities in emerging channels and 13% to artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML).

The last time this survey was conducted, in Q4 2021, when multiple answers were permitted, converged TV measurement/planning was third on the list. However this time around, when only a single choice was allowed, converged TV fell to second-last on the list.

Meanwhile, as for emerging cookieless identity solutions, 11% of respondents said they were confident in their viability, while half (50%) are somewhat confident. The remainder are either not confident (23%), worried/rather concerned (5%), or have no idea what’s going on (11%).

For more, download the report here.

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