Our readers aren’t happy with lots of out of home buzzwords to judge from comments on 3 Phrases Billboard Insider Wants to Retire.

MilkMoney’s Founder/CEO Sam Keywanfar doesn’t like “industry standard.”

I’d like to see the phrase “industry standard” go away. It’s often used to explain why things take longer than they should and that’s a weak argument. If we want to compete with other advertising verticals that can deliver immediate results to advertisers we need to do better. We can’t hide behind this phrase, because the truth is many can deliver faster. Faster turn around times for RFP’s, approvals, plans, printing, installs, POP photos, etc. we do it at MilkMoney every day!

Mahlmann Media President Glyn Williams doesn’t like “vendor”.

The word I’d like to ban is “vendor.” I’ve said this for years, even when I was on the agency side – vendor has such a transactional use and doesn’t implore the level of partnership media owners/operators need to have with clients and agencies. I offer any number of better words: media operator, owner, media partner… media rep even. A vendor is a guy selling a hot dog at Wrigley or someone who painted some pottery and selling it at a craft fair. And there’s nothing wrong with that at all for what it is but it’s not the nature of the relationship between buyers and sellers. At least not where it should be. We’re not selling hot dogs or cheap pottery and at Kevin Gleason point we’re not selling boards. We’re selling media, impressions, spots, Opportunities for clients to connect with their audience.

Stott Outdoor General Manager Jim Moravec wishes “partner” would go away.

The term I hear frequently the past year that I do not like at all is “Partner”. As in we would like to partner with you to meet your advertising objectives. Also “Partnering” used to describe a business relationship between buyer and seller. I do not need “partners”, I need advertisers and/or customers.

Outselling’s Bob Wolfe is tired of “media channels”, “monopole” and “portal”

Here’s some of the terminology that really “grinds my fears.”

1. Media Channels. So when did we get away from calling Outdoor Advertising media and or a medium ? Instead, we are now a media channel? When did we insist on trying to make everything sound so broadcasty. This goes to my point that instead of amplifying the fact that we are not broadcast or online (we are better) we continually try to find ways to be a part of something (broadcast) that is dying out through fragmentation, streaming, DVR etc. Remember the OAAA campaign a million years ago..”Outdoor Advertising-It’s not a Medium, it’s a Large? Now that message, in my opinion, nailed it.
2. Monopole. Yes it was a fancy term about 30 years ago when you were converting that old stick-built sign over to a single pole structure but, in my opinion, if you have to use this term to describe your sign opportunity, something is wrong.
3. Portal. I know, it’s never going to go away and I’m just venting here but I HATE when people ask me to log in and interact with a Portal as it just screams no personal engagement ever. It basically is telling me, “No Bob, we don’t ever want to talk to anyone and we never want to give any constructive feedback to anything therefore just put you opportunity here and if we think we may be interested, we will let you know through this portal thus never ever having to actually speak to you or anyone.”

There—I feel better now!

Steve McNeeley of Tantara Partners assembles a whole string of buzzwords he’d like to see vanish.

Maybe you could reach out to me and touch base so we could ideate and have a dialogue about synergies and best practices that are in your wheelhouse and have the bandwidth to be a disruptor and move the needle…plus are agile and leverage cloud based strategies to achieve digital transformation…you can loop in colleagues to collaborate or take off line to do a deep dive…feel free to ruminate with those up the ladder and then circle back…also we need to facilitate brainstorming hyper acronyms…when do you have some downtime to get on the calendar with my assistant?

Andrea Messimer Henley is tired of “traditional.”

Traditional.  Sets us back.  It’s dated.  Drop traditional, use out of home media, or online and offline media.

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