Every year, the American Dialect Society chooses their word of the year, the one that’s wiggled its way into everybody’s conversations. “Tweet” was 2009’s word. In many cases, the word of the year and the long list of word “nominees,” are frequently uttered, almost overused, in the advertising industry. As a pop culture influencer, the ad industry projects many of these words at the consumer. The simple reason why - they think it will make the brand or product they are advertising look cool and innovative. But beyond the objectives of inserting choice catchy copy into ads, it is the people within the industry that promote those words before they become mainstream enough to hit the general population. Some words are lauded for their fresh take on an old concept and some are despised for their blind ignorance of previous words that did a fine job of explaining things.
 
Now that we’re well into 2010, I decided to keep my eyes open for words that stood out thus far. In my online and offline readings, from new media blogs to standard industry rags, I’ve been seeing one word in particular, frequently popping up. Aggregate. I myself have been using it for a year or two, in describing blog aggregators, but I’ve never seen it used this commonly and across such a broad range of topics. Its textbook description per Merriam-Webster is, “taking all units as a whole” or “combination of a collection.” Its use is fairly diverse, with references to everything from construction to Buddhism to material sciences. Next stops, advertising and pop-culture?
 

 
As a verb, which is often how it’s used, it means to bring together or to unite. So for instance, you could say you’re “aggregating a devoted audience.” But why not just say accumulate, assemble or combine when referring to the actions you’re taking regarding the “collection” or “whole enchilada,” as I like to call it. I’ll tell you why - the scholarly opinion is that aggregate is unique from its synonyms because it literally means, “to collect together” at once, not like “accumulation,” which occurs over time.
 
Although aggregate may not be 2010’s word of the year, or even make it outside the agency walls, I think it’s still a worthy contender and a great descriptor for what’s happening in the realm of consumer acquisition. Now read the aggregate of my memos on the blog!