The Media Word of the Year

I was once called to account on a public platform by the great Ray Snoddy for something I had predicted on stage at the Edinburgh TV Festival over 10 years before I still bear the scarsI have though noticed a couple of new trends One is industry pros casting their predictions for the decade Unless you39re either a hugely bigbrained and have invented a time machine or b so arrogant that the fear of being challenged let alone being proved wrong simply never occurs to you these are to be avoided at all costsThe second trend I39ve noticed is the everpresent quotword of the yearquot Now this I can deal withSeveral people and organizations have already come up with their media word of the year for example the ANA over in the US declared personalization as its word of the year on December 4 2019 amp8212 a tad ironically as two days earlier Gartner had issued a report that stated quotBy 2025 80 percent of marketers who have invested in personalization will abandon their effortsquotMind you the ANA is still deserving of praise Choosing personalization makes a lot of sense retrospectively especially if a respected consultancy has just two days before indicated that however strong the concept it does rather depend on data excellence to deliver to itWriting for Campaign Ian Darby went with honesty as the byword for strategic thinking in 2020 It39s a quality that has been in short supply as the media and adtech industries make it their mission to explain technological issues in a way that is long on confusion and short on honest explanationIn relation to honesty in branding I can do no better than quote Darby who quoted Jim Carroll chair of the Creative Strategy Awards at Cannes quotIn the age of transparency brands need to be prepared to recognize their flaws and failings amp8212 indeed sometimes to celebrate them This entails being positive and proactive around issues that were hitherto regarded as unappealing and unattractive It means telling the truthquotIt39s a challenge for some brands amp8212 and notably some of our favorite platformsID COMMS decided on simplify as its word of 2020 making a point We could all do with remembering simple principles and applying them to our evermore complicated worldAs they were in the mood to hand out awards ID COMMS made Bob Hoffman of The Ad Contrarian their media man of the yearI39m a huge admirer of Bob39s and am a loyal reader of his blog but there must be some media practitioners out there who can mount a challenge Where are the thought leaders the provocateurs the treeshakers the challengers of convention in the media agency or vendor worldsWe need more Bobs In fact we need a media Bob Even a secondhand Bob will do it for usAnd so the Cog Blog39s word of 2020 is amp8212 drumroll please trustWe could all do with agencies regaining the trust of their clients and consumers feeling that they can trust the media they consume At the moment trust is in short supplySimple honest and trustworthy is the way to go in 2020 applied personally of course It will never catch onClick the social buttons to share this story with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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The Media Word of the Year

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Brian Jacobs

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