January 6, 2005

“gets it”

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You “get it”.
She “gets it”.
They “get it”.
Of all the buzz­words currently doing the rounds, “gets it” is one of few that really.… ermmmm.… “gets it”.
I’m tal­king about lan­guage a lot these days, not sur­pri­sing.
Seth Godin has his “Free Prize”, I have “Smar­ter Con­ver­sa­tions”.

Non-Hughtrain: What mes­sage do you want to put out there?
Hugh­train: What lan­guage do you want to own?

Please bear in mind: not all lan­guage is verbal.

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9 Responses to ““gets it””

  1. Smar­ter Con­ver­sa­tions is a great concept.You knew that already.
    I’m con­fu­sed about what you mean by “owning” lan­guage.
    If you mean something like, take res­pon­si­bi­lity for the way you talk, Rock On.
    Hope­fully don’t mean Own in the way the agen­cies often do… like you can somehow claim domi­nion over the way peo­ple talk.
    Hugz, Johnnie

  2. hugh macleod says:

    Hmmm… how ’bout I leave you gues­sing, John­nie? ;-)

  3. Hamish says:

    I got it. What I need to do now is pass it on. Viral mar­ke­ting. (Some of the ter­mi­no­logy is a little, hmmm… off-putting.)
    But the old meme ideas do work well in this kind of con­ver­sa­tion. There used to be a show on the BBC in the 1970’s (I’m ancient and from the UK, though I do not live there any­more) called the “Old Grey Whistle Test” which was how you could tell (as a record industry per­son) if you would have a hit record or not. You pla­yed the record to a bunch of peo­ple that you would be han­ging around with, and if you heard them hum­ming or whist­ling it, then hey presto, you had pas­sed the old grey whi­tel test for it stic­king in people’s minds, and you were off.
    What is the modern equi­va­lent? Trackbacks?

  4. hugh macleod says:

    No, Hamish, “The A-List” ;-)

  5. rob burke says:

    I don’t get it!
    Sorry, couldn’t resist. Hugh, would you say that the expres­sion “gets it” gets it in a good way or a tired, “this is a win win synergy” sorta way?

  6. folby says:

    So is it innap­pro­priate of me to say things like “They just don’t fuc­king get it, and because of that, they will die.” when dis­cus­sing this new crazy strain of mar­ke­ting that I enjoy rea­ding about so much? If so, can you sug­gest another phrase?

  7. hugh macleod says:

    It “gets it” in a good way.
    For now ;-)

  8. John says:

    So, its… a popu­la­rity con­test? And the win­ner gets there by per­pe­tra­ting a lan­guage variant.
    I get it!

  9. Car­cas­ses and vultures

    When not wri­ting about the “new, happy, fun, grim meathook rea­li­ties of mar­ke­ting and adver­ti­sing,” Hugh Mac­leod at Gaping Void con­ti­nues to crank out a series of car­toons that are often illu­mi­na­ting, dis­tur­bing and just plain laugh out loud funny…