Analysis Reveals One in Five Press Releases Contain Gobbledygook Phrases

LEXINGTON, Mass., Oct. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- An analysis of over 388,000 press releases distributed in North America from January 1, 2006, through September 30, 2006, reveals that more than 74,000 mentioned at least one gobbledygook phrase such as next generation, groundbreaking, industry standard, or cutting edge. The analysis was designed by David Meerman Scott, an evangelist for The New Rules of Marketing and PR and conducted using Factiva, a Dow Jones and Reuters Company.

The research shows the winner was "next generation," with 9,895 uses in press releases in 2006 through September 30. There were more than 5,000 uses of each of the following words and phrases: "flexible," "robust," "world class," "scalable," and "easy to use."

"I am sent hundreds of press releases a week and when I see these phrases my eyes glaze over," Scott says. "What, I ask myself, is this supposed to mean? What does this company actually do? Just saying your product is 'industry standard,' for example, means nothing unless some aspect of that standardization is important to your buyers."

Scott published The Gobbledygook Manifesto, which contains the full analysis as well as ideas for how public relations (PR) people can write more effectively. The Gobbledygook Manifesto and complete research compiled by Factiva is complimentary and available on Scott's blog: http://www.webinknow.com/2006/10/the_gobbledygoo.html

Gobbledygook Analysis Methodology

Words and phrases were selected by polling select PR people and journalists to get a list of gobbledygook phrases. Then, using Factiva, the press releases sent to North American newswires and other services from January 1, 2006, to September 30, 2006 were analyzed. Sources included were Business Wire, Canada NewsWire, CCNMatthews, Commweb.com, Market Wire, Moody's, PR Newswire, and Primezone Media Network. Just more than 388,000 press releases were generated in that period and just more than 74,000 press releases mentioned at least one of the gobbledygook phrases.

David Meerman Scott is an expert in online marketing and PR. He is currently working on a new book, The New Rules of Marketing and PR, to be published by Wiley in mid 2007. For more information, please visit Scott's site, http://www.davidmeermanscott.com/ , his blog, http://www.webinknow.com/ , and his Squidoo lens -- http://www.squidoo.com/Web_Content

For more information about Factiva and the company's text mining solutions, please visit http://www.factiva.com/