I know I’m way behind the curve on this, but I learnt a new bit of advertising shorthand this week.
IRL.
“In Real Life”. But you all knew that.
It isn’t even remotely new. People have been using it online for decades. But at some point advertisers seem to have adopted it as a fashionable way of describing things that happen in the actual physical world.
Events. Experiences. Activations. Posters. Pop-ups. Things you can touch, visit, walk past or trip over.
All IRL now, apparently.
How to Maximise Your Digital Reach.
A guide to getting 4x more attention in your local marketing.
Maybe I’m showing my age, but this stuff slightly bothers me. Not IRL specifically. It’s only three letters and I’ve managed to learn them without much trouble.
It’s the assumption that everyone already knows.
Marketing and advertising are absolutely stuffed with acronyms, abbreviations and phrases that make perfect sense once somebody has explained them to you.
We seem to communicate in a sort of professional IYKYK.
Fine if the aim is to show other people in the room that YK. Less useful if the aim is to communicate.
After more than 25 years I still regularly encounter terms that make me think I’ve missed a meeting. How do these codes become the language? Who is deciding that from now on we only use IRL?
What’s also slightly ridiculous is that a lot of this shorthand only earns its keep when you’re typing it. IRL takes about as long to say as “in real life”. EOD saves nothing over “end of day”. OOH is only quicker than “out of home” if you actually say “ooh” (which you surely wouldn’t).
B2B and QR (Quick Response BTW) fair enough, they’re quicker. But I’m always going to say FFS in full.
Maybe it’s healthy. Language changes. New channels need new terminology and younger people are perfectly entitled to invent things without checking with me first.
But good communication should make people feel included in an idea, not slightly stupid for having to ask what the initials mean. Especially in marketing, where clarity is quite important.
So, abbreviate away when it helps. Just don’t turn perfectly clear language into an initiation test.
IYKYK.
Unfortunately.
Four takes. One email.
Get our monthly pick of local marketing insights, straight to your inbox.
Let's talk.
FREE DISCOVERY CALL
see how we can maximise your marketing.
