#6: Andy Morley, CMO APAC, Uber & Uber Eats

“The marketing term I wish we’d stop using is frequency. I long for a moment when we can evolve to attention,” says Morley.

The marketing chief shared this ambition to transition to attention during the first South by Southwest back in 2023, backing attention metrics as the next contrarian marketing practice applied to the rough and tumble of media planning and channel budget allocation. But he admits work to employ attention remains manual as the systematic processes for employing attention in buying and planning continue to be built.

“If people aren't thinking about using this as the centre point for their planning, then they're missing a huge opportunity because it will help you start to navigate towards the channels that are going to make the biggest impact – particularly at the top and middle of your funnel – much better than any of the previous metrics. It's not perfect but it's much better than what we've been working with,” Morley said at SxSW.

#5: Michelle Klein, chief customer and marketing officer, IAG

 “‘Agile’. It’s one of the most overused, and least understood, words in business,” argues Klein. “Moving fast isn’t agile. True agility is about focus, discipline, collaboration, and knowing when to sprint – and when to stop.”

#9: Angela Greenwood, CMO, Youi

Meanwhile, the marketing term Greenwood wishes we’d stop using is brand versus performance.

“It’s a false dichotomy that holds us back from understanding and valuing the totality of the jobs to be done,” she comments.

#7: Brent Smart, CMO, Telstra

In a similar vein, Smart’s pet terminology peeve is performance marketing. “It makes it sound like it is the only thing that performs and that brand doesn’t,” he says.

#4: Jo Boundy, CMO, Commonwealth Bank

Then there’s those other generic phrases and words that have come to define marketing which our CMOs bemoan. Take authentic.

“Authenticity is critical to build trust, connection, credibility, and resilience. But it gets thrown around so often – authentic brand, authentic experience, authentic storytelling – that it is starting to lose its meaning and become very, well, inauthentic,” says Boundy.

#3: Susan Coghill, CMO, Tourism Australia

Coghill is similarly frustrated by a generic term being used too frequently.

“A term I think should be used more judiciously and more precisely, rather than stop using altogether, is strategic. It is so overused and misused, it often lacks meaning,” argues Coghill. “It can seem more like mandatory corporate speak rather than a word that connotes choicefulness, which is at the heart of strategy.”

#10: Joanne Smith, chief innovation, brand and communications officer, Blackmores Group

Having just spent the last three years building an innovation pipeline to now represent 20 per cent of Blackmores’ total revenues, Smith knows a thing or two about what it takes to unlock growth. But it’s also resulted in her least favourite marketing term: Growth hacking.

“I think this term is overused and can be misinterpreted as a shortcut to success,” says Smith. “Sustainable growth comes from sound strategy that includes understanding customer needs, building strong relationships, and delivering consistent value, and it emphasises the importance of long-term, ethical marketing practices and the outcomes we aim to achieve.”

#2: Jenni Dill, CMO, The Arnott’s Group

For Dill, the most standout FMCG marketing leader of the year in this year’s CMO Awards, there are three buzzwords she’d like marketers to avoid.

“My top three terms to stop using are: Above the line/below the line, omnichannel and putting AI into absolutely everything to make it seem smarter or better,” she says.

#1: Lara Thom, global CMO, Guzman y Gomez

For Thom, the term to toss also has to be omnichannel.

“My team knows we’re not here to run ads. We’re here to drive sales. That means every channel, every creative, and every touchpoint is measured, evaluated and optimised,” Thom told judges in her CMO Awards submission. “We’ve built the capability to monitor and pivot at speed, fuelled by real-time insights. It’s why GYG doesn’t just exist on emerging platforms – we lead them.”

#8: Sarah Myers, GM audiences and marketing, REA Group

Then there’s that old dichotomy between traditional and digital marketing we’re still holding onto. For Myers, it’s the pesky marketing term she wishes would finally be put to bed.

“Digital marketing as a catchall: It masks the diversity of strategies and channels involved,” says Myers.