By Ida Vallo Morris
Social Media & Content Manager
From Advertainment to Zero-Party Data, it can be hard to keep up with all the buzzwords in the media and marketing world. What’s the Buzzword is our ongoing series that’s designed to give you a quick and easy explanation of the terms that are on everyone’s minds.
Media and Marketing Buzzwords
Advertainment
Advertainment is just what it sounds like: the interconnectedness of advertising and entertainment. Usually referring to multi-media campaigns, Advertainment includes television, movies, online media, video games, music, and more, that use advertising to promote products or brands.
Two examples: when everyone on your favorite crime drama drives GMC vehicles, or Redbull’s sponsorship of a record-breaking space jump. Advertainment helps brands and advertisers cut through the clutter and reach a wide range of consumers, including those who are used to skipping past TV and other commercials.
Closed-Loop Marketing
Closed-loop marketing happens when the sales team shares details with the marketing team about what happens to the leads they receive. This information gives the marketing team a holistic view of their strategy and is crucial for determining which of their lead-generation efforts are working and which are not. It helps brands and marketers operate as efficiently and effectively as possible, and to deliver sales strategy that has proven successful.
GenZennial
The term GenZennial refers to people born between 1992 and 2000—they bridge the Gen Z and Millennial generations. The GenZennial demographic is a niche audience that has more in common with each other than they do with people in the highest and lowest ranges of their respective demos. Identifying and analyzing this microgeneration is valuable to brands and marketers because they’re ultra-savvy consumers with spending power.
Gamification
The idea of ‘Gamification’ is nothing new, but recently its definition has changed. It refers to game-related elements that are integrated into a service or software, like a website, an app, or an online community, to encourage desired actions, engagement, and loyalty. Think education apps that make learning feel more like a game and less like homework, and even corporate compliance training videos that feature a game-based approach. The benefits to incorporating gamification are increased engagement and completion rates, as well as enhanced learning.
Growth Hacking
The term ‘Growth Hacking’ peaked in 2015 and, like it or hate it, it’s back. It describes bootstrap marketing strategies used by early startups and new businesses that are looking for massive growth in a short time on a shoestring budget. These creative, low-cost tactics often include guerilla and viral marketing, SEO, social media, and content marketing. Growth Hacking is valuable to a specific niche of businesses and brands, as the point is to get tons of traffic and visitors, quickly, and to turn as many of those as you can into customers.
Micro-Moment
A Micro-Moment is an intent-driven action, usually on your smartphone, where you purposefully use your phone to learn, confirm, discover, or buy something. It’s different from using your phone to check email, text your friends, or browse social media. They’re important to brands and marketers because people are used to using their phones to get what they want immediately, and Micro-Moments are moments in which decisions are made.
SoLoMo
SoLoMo stands for Social + Local + Mobile. It’s a marketing strategy—connecting with people on their social platforms, with local messaging, sent to their mobile device. It’s a product of the abundance of smartphones, specifically their geo-location technology. It’s important to brands and marketers because SoLoMo allows for micro-targeting, with more accurate local search engine results than what's possible on a PC.
Zero-Party Data
Zero-Party Data is data that consumers willingly and intentionally share with brands. It comes from gated content, contests, surveys, questionnaires, and more, not by tracking pixels, cookies, or device IDs. It’s highly coveted by brands and marketers because it helps build stronger relationships with consumers, resulting in more personalized campaigns.
