Pointless meetings exiled to Marketing Week’s Room 101

The votes are in and after much debate, pointless meetings, the fake war for talent and words that are made up for words that already exist have been exiled to Marketing Week’s Room 101.

In the second episode of our new series – this one recorded live at the Festival of Marketing: Transform – three marketing leaders highlighted their biggest bugbears. We’ve tallied up the live vote along with the results of the online poll and there is consensus across the board.

For Sophie Wheater, CMO of Giffgaff, it was a toss up between using sustainability as content and words that are made up when there is a perfectly good word that already exists. And it was the latter that got the vote, meaning words like ‘solutionise’, ‘decisioning’ and ‘learnings’ have been banished. “We have this beautiful English language. Why the hell are we making up crap buzzwords that actually just undermine whomever uses them?” she asked.

Colin Lewis, director of Retail Media Works and Marketing Week columnist, was ready to consign “brand bandwagoners” who jump on brand purpose, but it was the fake “war for talent” that got people voting. He made the point that there is a wealth of talent out there if brands would just look beyond the tiny age bracket of people with very specific digital skills. And it was this latter point, which people agreed with most strongly, which is why the fake war for talent has been dropped into Marketing Week’s Room 101.

Meanwhile, Alicia Grimes-Gibson, founder of AG+G Consultancy and board advisor to Ok Mentor, presented marketers with a choice between banishing the high-jacking of food trends and the rise of pointless meetings. By some margin – both at the live event and in the online poll – people wanted to get rid of pointless meetings. So your wish is our command.

For another chance to watch the show and hear the thoughts of Wheater, Lewis and Grimes-Gibson, watch the video below. And look out for episode three coming soon.