What words are buzzing in 2023?

New year, new buzzwords. In marketing, media and communication there are always plenty of new buzzwords being thrown around, probably not effecting your daily operations. But now and then a new - or old - buzzword is nice to know more about.

Gamevertising

As online gaming continues to soar worldwide, so too do efforts to reach out to gamers. In-game advertising or gamevertising is predicted to grow, not only in numbers, but also in creative solutions. Apart from “traditional” advertising in games, how can marketers embed messages, without annoying gamers and interfering with the actual game? Embedded marketing is sure to grow.

UGC - user generated content

Acronyms are frequent in this summary, and UGC is one of them, albeit not so new. It stands for User Generated Content, which basically means content created by users of different digital platforms, as opposed to content created by companies or media outlets. Some may argue that blogs are the OG UGC, but with the rise of Tik Tok and Instagram Stories, it’s become almost synonymous with short video content created by ordinary people.

Tik Tok - SEO

And speaking of TikTok… the next step for marketers and content producers should be to create a SEO-strategy for Tik Tok. Why? Well, more and more young users are actually using Tik Tok rather than Google as a search engine to find relevant content. So, if you haven't SEO-optimized your TikTok-content, you might be missing out on a lot of views!

EVP - employer value proposition

In the growing employer branding circle, EVP is at its core. It means Employer Value Proposition, which is basically what you as an employer can offer your employee - from salary to culture. Having an EVP-strategy is crucial when it comes to both recruiting as well as retaining talent. And according to experts, incorporating your EVP in your overall communication strategy or HR-strategy is the way to go.

Newsjacking

Newsjacking, coined by David Meerman Scot in 2011, was named one of the words of the year by Oxford Dictionaries in 2017, so it’s an old friend in the media landscape. But newsjacking has seen an uprise in popularity since social media has grown. It means taking advantage of current news stories, and injecting your brand or company into it in order to get publicity. A bit like reactive PR or action based marketing. When done well, it can generate lots of attention at a low cost, thanks to the rise in search traffic for the original story. And in the SoMe-world, newsjacking is a new constant, with companies piggybacking on trending content on a daily basis.

VOD, TVOD or AVOD?

The world of streaming has almost killed traditional broadcasting TV, and some might say that the Covid pandemic is at fault. Others may say that cord-cutting is the way of the future, especially given that content from streaming-services seems to get better engagement. Regardless of whether TV survives or not, here is a mini-guide to the different streaming services:

OTT = over the top (online only)
VOD = video on demand (online, cable and satellite services)
HVOD = hybrid video on demand
SVOD = subscription video on demand
TVOD = transactional video on demand
AVOD = advertising based video on demand

MaaS - Marketing as as service

(If you google MaaS, you might get hits on Mobility as a Service, just to complicate things…) Marketing as a Service can be seen as an outsourced solution for your marketing department. If your inhouse marketing team doesn't have time for campaigns or are falling short in a given discipline or platform, an outside company can be the solution. With MaaS, companies will provide you with all you need, from strategy to production to distribution to measuring.

Humaning

A few years ago, food company Mondelez received a lot of badwill when they launched the idea that they wanted to “stop marketing and start humaning”, and yet the buzzword is still around. The Urban Dictionary describes humaning as the opposite of trolling - being human and kind. And the trend towards more human and authentic marketing is not going anywhere. So even if you believe humaning to be corporate bullshit, there might be something there to get inspired by. Especially in “these times.”

Hannah Sjöström, digital strategist, Spoon
hannah.sjostrom@spoon.se