Definition

Content created specifically to flatter influential people or brands in hopes they'll share it with their audiences. Shameless flattery disguised as journalism or analysis.

Example Usage

We published '50 Marketing Gurus You Must Follow' as ego bait—half of them retweeted it within an hour.

Origin

Content marketing and blogger outreach strategies, 2000s

Source: Content marketing and digital PR terminology

Related Terms

Beginner

Storytelling

The corporate rebranding of "making stuff up to sell things," now elevated to an art form at marketing conferences worldwide. Every brand now has a story, even if that story is just "we sell soap" wrapped in 3,000 words of emotional manipulation.

📣 Marketing / Advertising
Intermediate

Growth Hacking

A Silicon Valley term for marketing on a budget, dressed up to sound like you're breaking into a mainframe. In practice, it usually means spamming people on LinkedIn and calling it a strategy.

📣 Marketing / Advertising🚀 Startup / VC
Advanced

incrementality

The measure of whether your marketing actually caused additional sales or just took credit for purchases that would've happened anyway. It's the uncomfortable question that keeps attribution models honest and marketers defensive.

📣 Marketing / Advertising
Intermediate

UGC

User Generated Content, which is a polite way of saying you're using your customers' photos and videos instead of paying for a professional shoot. It's the marketing equivalent of asking someone to bring a dish to a dinner party you're hosting.

📣 Marketing / Advertising
Beginner

brand ambassador

Someone hired to represent and promote a brand through their networks and platforms, embodying the company's values and identity. They're paid friends who enthusiastically recommend your product to anyone who'll listen.

📣 Marketing / Advertising
Intermediate

merchandising

The art and science of promoting product sales through strategic in-store presentation, placement, and marketing activities—basically making stuff look so good you forget you don't need it. This retail wizardry combines psychology, aesthetics, and logistics to maximize revenue per square foot while creating an irresistible shopping experience. When done well, you walk in for milk and leave with a cart full of impulse purchases.

📣 Marketing / Advertising

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viral coefficient

The number of new users each existing user generates through referrals, where anything above 1.0 means exponential growt...