As both recipient and writer of PR and other marketing copy for many years, there are certain words and phrases that – as the popular saying goes – really grind my gears. Words that make me wince when I read or hear them, words that are like fingernails being dragged down a blackboard. I know this is a personal judgement but I also know that I am not alone, and writers and PR professionals have to think very carefully if they don’t want too many of their readers to squirm or, worse still, laugh out loud.
So shallow it is almost empty
At the very top of my own ‘hitlist’, and seemingly at the top of many, is the word ‘Innovation’. This is not a bad word, in fact it’s a great word, but its relentless misuse and overuse has reduced its value to almost nothing. It has become like the word ‘legend’ in sports. Nowadays it feels like every other athlete is a described as a legend, whereas not that long ago, all of the sporting legends could have sat around a dinner table, Muhammad Ali and his dozen or so mates. The language has become so shallow it is almost empty, and those who boast about ‘innovation’ are in the line of fire today.
Innovation is true disruption
In a very small number of cases, the use of the word ‘innovation’ is richly deserved. Karl Benz was an innovator, and John Logie Baird. However, in the vast majority of cases, the description is not worthy.
An innovation is something authentically new – a true disruptor, something that transforms the way players play games or operators conduct business. To use a couple more corporate catchphrases, an innovation is something that ‘pushes the envelope’ or ‘shifts the paradigm’.
An almost unmanageable addiction
Excessive use has diminished its power. So many press releases and marketing statements now contain the word ‘innovation’ that the word itself has become devalued. The intended audience no longer believe it, viewing it as lazy. I have read that there 70,000 published books on the subject of innovation and that a search on Google delivers almost two million hits. Its use has become almost an unmanageable addiction. And the real problem with all of this is the dishonesty of it all, the insult to the intelligence of the customer audience that is meant to be impressed.
A software update isn’t an innovation, a ‘me-too’ or reskin or line extension isn’t an innovation. Those who really and truly innovate go down in history and are remembered forever. If, as an industry, we can count them on our fingers then we are doing well. And if your organisation creates a valuable innovation once, in its history, then it will be a remarkable place.
Two Charlies, Blaise & Tim
Many historians believe that the first form of roulette was created by French mathematician, Blaise Pascal, in the 1650s. Charles Babbage designed the first computer in 1822, Fey produced the first slot machine in 1894 and Tim Berners-Lee unleashed the internet in 1983. The work of this quartet represents the full skeleton of the online gaming industry – and playing cards aside, the land-based sector too. This collective work ended 40 years ago and yet these four ingredients remain at the core of absolutely everything we do. The two Charlies, Blaise and Tim are the innovators and the rest of us are in their wake.
Be proud to be an ‘evolutionary’
None of this means that failing to innovate means failing at all. Far from it. The collateral benefits created by occasional innovations are substantial. Innovations spawn entire industries that last centuries, requiring ongoing and frequently brilliant evolution and diversification. To be an ‘evolutionary’ is a wonderful thing, a fantastic achievement. Karl Benz may have invented the motor car, but Henry Ford was first to deliver it to a mass audience by establishing mass production.
The gaming industry is a fantastic example
And the gaming industry is a fantastic example of this wonderful journey. Blaise Pascal’s 350-year-old roulette might still be recognisable in almost every casino on the planet and Charles Fey’s slot design has been at the heart of every worthwhile slot release for 120+ years, but the creativity and ambition of so may ‘evolutionaries’ continues to amaze and excite players the world over.
According to Nadia Zhexembayeva, founder of US think tank The Reinvention Academy, the word ‘innovation’ might speak to external stakeholders, but it is time to stop. Whatever term you choose, make it about your audience and not you or your PR department. That way, genuine innovation might actually stand a chance of enjoying maximum impact.
