If I had a pound for every time I’d encountered any of the following words or phrases in a press release, I’d be well on my way buying my own place in London by now. ‘Dynamic’, ‘exciting’, ‘groundbreaking’, ‘maximising’, ‘market leader’ - and my all time favourite… ‘innovative’.

According to the dictionary, being innovative is about “producing something like nothing done or experienced or created before”. Which I find kind of ironic given that the word seems to crop up in just about every other press release I get sent.  It’s like whoever is writing a release just plonks the word in when they can’t think what else to put there. Very “innovative”!

And in the past month alone, I must have been contacted by the “market leaders” of at least five different email marketing specialist companies. I’m no mathematician, but that doesn’t quite seem to add up.

The other thing that gets me about press releases is the quotes.  For a start, everybody is “delighted” to have been appointed, to have hired somebody, to have launched a new product or to have worked on a pitch. Yes, I’m sure you all are delighted, but are you honestly telling me that people talk like this:

“I am delighted to be joining such a fantastic, market leading, innovative and forward thinking company at this exciting, dynamic and truly groundbreaking time”

Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating a bit. But honestly, some of the releases I read are so sugary, I could probably dip them in my tea and pass on the granulated stuff altogether. It would be much more useful, and interesting, if these quotes actually said something about what you’re going to be doing in your new role, or why you’re so “delighted” to be joining in the first place.

So if there are any marketers reading this who know they’ll be sending me press releases, much as I will be “delighted” to receive them maybe you could think about toning down the puff and putting in some real “added value”?  (See what I did there…)