“These Are Awful!”: Sir Martin Sorrell Shares His Thoughts On New Dictionary Words

“These Are Awful!”: Sir Martin Sorrell Shares His Thoughts On New Dictionary Words

never short of an opinion, former WPP boss Sir Martin Sorrell has shared his thoughts on the latest marketing-focused words added to the Merriam-Webster dictionary in a hilarious but insightful clip.

Sorrell – who pointed out the words would not have been added to “the really good dictionaries” – was at his cutting best when discussing the words, which included “on-brand,” “tweetstorm” and “buzzy.”

“These are awful, awful words,” he suggested. “On-brand? That’s not a word, it’s hyphenated.”

But there was one word which he showed an interest in.

“Influencer? That’s important. We use influencers in our day-to-day content operations at MediaMonks and indeed in our programmatic operations at Mightyhive,” he said.

“We come into contact and are using influencers to a significant degree, so I think it’s a very interesting part of our new business.”

Rather than spending too long dwelling on the Merriam-Webster’s choices, Sorrell told us what would be in the Sir Martin dictionary.

“None of these words are really important words. The important words are ‘purely digital’, ‘the Holy Trinity’ and ‘faster, better, cheaper’,” he said.

“That’s what’s really important and should be added to all dictionaries.”




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    1. Speaking of the importance of accurate language, it’s telling Sorrell refers to “using” influencers. This phrasing does not lend itself to building long-term, mutually rewarding relationships between brand & influencer.

dictionary influencer sir martin sorrell

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