MarComedy: Don’t make me laugh

Merriam-Webster is conducting a search to find the Word of the Year for 2006. Previous winners include ‘integrity’ (2005), ‘blog’ (2004) and ‘democracy’ (2003). In previous years, M-W has reviewed the millions of searches conducted on their database and selected a word of the year from the most frequently looked-up words.

This year, they are asking their users to submit words that sum up the year that was 2006. My early favourites are ’sectarian’, ‘quagmire’ and ‘truthiness’. But I thought it would be interesting to see if we could come up with a PR/Marketing word of the year. To get things started, I’ve stolen much of the following list from Ed Lee’s excellent Social Media Jargon Buster bingo game (hope you don’t mind).

• Transparency
• Trackback
• Engagement
• Conversation
• Authenticity
• Mash-up
• Content
• Measurement

Since this is an industry known for its way with words, I think it’s only fair to not limit contestants to single words. Phrases, compound words, made up words (see ‘impactful’) are all fair game. Entries will be judged on their inventiveness and the quality (creativity) of the justification. The winner will be feted in an upcoming post (if someone has a good idea for a prize, I’m all ears).

Tags: Word of the Year, Marketing, Communications, Public Relations, Language