2017 Marketing Word Of The Year: 'AI'

The “Marketing Word of the Year” for 2017 is actually an acronym: AI.

That’s the word from the Association of National Advertisers, which just released the 2017 winner of an annual member survey ranking the most influential word and/or terms of the past year in marketing.

“It’s not just the marketing word of the year. It’s the transformative phenomenon that’s going to reshape the world as we now know it,” said one anonymous ANA member, providing a verbatim response to the online survey conducted the week of Nov. 27. In total, 403 ANA members responded.

“Automation, machine learning, cognitive … if we aren’t thinking about using it, employing it already, or at the very least talking about it, we’re missing out on some incredible ‘on the cusp,’ opportunities,” said another.

Other verbatims included:

  • “2017 was the year that AI moved from being this weird, misunderstood term on the periphery of marketing consciousness to this weird, somewhat understood term spiraling closer to the epicenter of marketing, on an unavoidable collision course with our daily lives and jobs.”

  • “Seems to be something many marketers talk about this year, but not many understand the implications for marketing.”

  • “AI has gone from something to think about to real-world development and implementation.”

Runners-up for the 2017 word of the year included “transparency” (the 2016 Marketing Word of the Year), “content marketing” (the 2015 Marketing Word of the Year), and “influencer.” “Programmatic” was the 2014 Marketing Word of the Year, the first year the ANA conducted the survey.

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