Top internet slangs you didn’t know existed!

Top internet slangs you didn’t know existed!

FOMO, FOBO, FOJI and other slangs millennials use. Upgrade your vocab, you peeps!

As if there wasn’t already enough to learn in order to master the art of speaking English, there exists an informal language of its own within this tricky tongue – The language of Slangs!

Here is the list of our favorite slangs you can start using in your chats or convos to make a connection with millennials and Gen Z. This is not a trend, it’s a culture and the guys at Oxford Dictionary must be cringing – add them to the next year’s addition or keep mum.

FOBO

Fear of better options / Fear of being offline.

FOMO

Fear of missing out.

FOJI

Fear of joining in.

WOKE

Urban Dictionary defines "woke" as being aware, and "knowing what's going on in the community." It also mentions its specific ties to racism and social injustice.

TFW

TFW is an abbreviation for “that feeling when” as in “TFW you have a hot cup of coffee in a quiet house.”

BROMO

When your 'bros' (friends) protect you from missing out.

JOMO

The joy of missing out.

Kiki

To kiki has a double meaning: either to celebrate, or to share gossip. For example -“Let’s Have a Kiki”

TBH

This is an acronym for to be honest. Often, it's used for emphasis while admitting something about yourself. For example – “I really love Arjun Rampal, TBH “

Bae

The internet argues that this phrase is an acronym for “before anyone else” another way of describing that special someone.

G.O.A.T.

G.O.A.T. is an acronym for ‘greatest of all time’. Commonly referenced in sports, the term is traced back to boxer Muhammad Ali. Used in a sentence - “When it comes to cricket, Dhoni is the G.O.A.T.”

AF

AF simply stands for “as f*ck" and comes in handy as a way of emphasizing something.

Wig

"Wig" is a phrase used to refer to something that is amazing. It refers to the idea that what you saw was so amazing, and incited so much shock in you, that your wig flew off. For example – “Bieber posts a photo. Reply: "Wig!"

Lewk

"Lewk" is a variation of "look," a signature physical trait, or a specially and carefully constructed outfit or appearance. "Did you see Saif’s Duryodhana lewk in the trailer?"

SALTY

Salty: To be "salty" is to be annoyed, upset, or bitter, usually about something minor. For example - "You look really salty right now. Kya hua?" reply - “I’m mad salty right now at Varun."

Belfie

A "belfie" is a "butt selfie," which is exactly what it sounds like. A lot of people on social media like to take these when their backend is looking particularly good, with or without clothing.

Adulting

Millennials needed to create a verb that described any and all duties associated with being a bona fide grown-up. For example - "I can't believe I just spent this much time with my CA." Reply "That's adulting for ya, babes"

FB/LB

If you use Instagram and follow celebrities, you have surely seen a few "FB!" and "LB" messages in their comments sections. No, FB doesn't mean Facebook. It actually means "follow back," while LB means "like back."

Peeps

Peeps is slang for friends. An example of peeps are the people that someone hangs out with all the time.

Whoja Vu

Whoja Vu is a feeling that you have met someone before when you are actually meeting that person for the first time.

ICYMI

this slang is an abbreviation of ‘in case you missed it’.

Snoozefeed

To scroll your newsfeed instead of getting out of bed – SNOOZEFEED

Zumping

Dumping someone over a zoom call – Zumping!!

Doomscrolling

Reading one articles and posts one after another – side effects of the lockdown. Now have a word to describe just that.

ZADDY

Zaddy is a man of a certain age that oozes sex appeal in his experience, and the swag is a killer.

A zaddy is not a MILF, although the terms do combine the same two elements: hotness and age. Often, zaddys have grey or silver hair, considered hot property and the fan base is across age groups.

SUH

Wussup is kinda outdated and brash. This is a combination of the word “sup” and “huh,” making you sound confused and interested at the same time.

Savage

Celebrity feuds are often described as “savage.” “Did you see the GIF of Salman khan rolling his eyes at Vivek Oberoi? Savage.”

Like fashion or pop music or cuisine, slangs are a great way to get a sense of another period and era. However over time, slangs either die out from lack of application as groups move on to new words and terminologies, or they may become so popular that they are absorbed into the common language.

This is how the urban language evolves over time – as new vocabularies are added to the dictionary, old ones disappear. Use them in your content or campaigns – maybe you can make a better connect with Millennials and Gen Z.

The new 4Ps of Marketing to connect with Millennials and Gen Z

The new 4Ps of Marketing to connect with Millennials and Gen Z

So, in our MBA marketing classes, we were taught about the 5Ps of marketing – Product, Price, Promotion, Place and People. They’ve been around forever; everyone knows them and they work. This format was introduced by Philip Kotler – Marketing demigod – and has been adopted by Marketers for over 50 years.

But is it outdated? Is it still relevant? Just like a 4:3 video format, mini DV tapes, CDs and muscle cars, this formula of thought bucketing is not relevant with millennials and Gen Z. See

The new present of the 4 Ps of marketing

Here are the refreshed Ps – originally suggested Sean Macdonald – Global Chief Digital officer McCann Worldgroup.

Purpose

These are higher consciousness aspects of your brand and if you want to make a connection with them, you need to reflect and project your brand values. If it resonates with them, they will consider your products endorsed with inner validation.

We all resonated with Sonu Sood helping migrants during the lockdown. If individuals can touch hearts, marketing activities too.

A noteworthy campaign is ‘UnitedByVote’ by United Colors of Benetton. As India kicked off multi-phase National Elections, United Colors of Benetton came up with a strong and massive social media campaign titled #UnitedByVote – an initiative towards celebrating democracy and shows the power that every citizen holds by having voting rights. The campaign brought together big Indian celebrities like Saif Ali Khan, Bhumi Pednakar and many more. LINK


Positioning

The mindset & thought process of millennials is experience-oriented and what this means is that you need to proclaim and live the culture and provide experiences. Positioning cannot be a hollow proclamation; it has to be visible.

Imagine if the Kala Ghoda festival was an idea curated by a corporate - for example - Indigo Airlines. Or FastTrac had patterns printed by local artists and upcoming illustrators and used their marketing muscle to make it a limited edition.

Over the last few years, Indian fashion brands and magazines are increasingly working with illustrators to create a new design vocabulary.

Adidas Originals’, for instance, launched their Holi collection in collaboration with Pharrell Williams in 2018. A host of young Indian independent illustrators were invited to create a set of different illustrations. Pratap Chalke made a vivid portrait of the American singer with shoelaces emerging from his Adidas jacket (), Mira Malhotra showed him surrounded by water guns, and Jasjyot Singh Hans sketched the hitmaker in his trademark hat.


Personalized

This is probably the most powerful P you can adopt. It is THE context through which you should rehash your marketing spend.

Everyone loves the 'personal touch' or communication personalized to them. Personalization has gone beyond cake shops and greeting cards, and evolved over time. And now, every marketer is trying to strike the balance between scale and cost. The word personalization has oozed out of the gifting domain, by engraving on devices, personalized videos, garments, statements, recommendations. Gen Z and Millennials love this experience!

Partnerships

In early 2000s, Armed Force personnel were loved by corporates because they brought in discipline and crush the competition mind set. Today, it is no longer a zero-sum-game. Alliances, joint activities & cross branding are the new corporate flavour. Unfortunately, not many in India are lapping this up except a quality few.

Imagine this!
Make my Trip partnering with OYO for creating a VR festival of all state tourism boards. Or Nike tying up with Bata for encouraging users to recycle old shoes.
Exciting, right?

The most relevant case study to consider is the recent PepsiCo- Airtel campaign during the pandemic that turned the internet upside down. PepsiCo India partnered with Airtel to offer upto 2 GB of data with the purchase of LAY’S, Kurkure, Uncle Chips and Doritos packs. If you observe, this co-branding pact is backed by two key consumer insights – increased consumption of data and people spending more time at home, leading to increased in-home consumption of food and beverages.


Hello Marketers – maybe it’s time to tweak the P formulae.

Gen Z and Millennials are elusive, hard to bucket and decipher but to get a hold over their thinking process, forget the old 5Ps and reinvent your framework with the new 4Ps – Purpose, Positioning, Personalized and Partnerships.