Learning Agency Lingo, Delucchi Style

Slang, acronyms and jargon—every creative or digital agency has them. At Delucchi Plus, we call them “Delucchi-isms.” These jargony buzzwords can often leave a newcomer feeling out-of-the know and very confused. As a public service, we would like to help some of our agency rookies with a blog to address our cheeky, quirky and sometimes bizarre lingo. If you want to roll with the Delucchi tribe, here are some terms to have under your belt.

Ping: In its traditional use, “ping” means to send a packet to a computer and wait for its return (or, Packet INternet Groper). In the agency setting, “ping” is synonymous to “send.” You may “ping” someone a slack or email and, if you’re lucky, they will “ping” right back.

• Delucchi Best Practices:“Ping” can stand on its own as a verb or noun without any other descriptor. To avoid looking like a noob, refrain from saying “I ‘pinged’ her/him an email” or “can you ‘ping’ me a slack?”

Brain-Dump: Sometimes spelled “braindump” or “brain-dump.” This Delucchi-ism refers to a complete transfer of knowledge about a particular subject from your brain to some other storage medium, like a piece of paper, a white board or a colleague’s brain. A braindump is often jumbled and hasty, as the subject is usually trying to “dump” all the contents of his/her brain in an attempt to free space and focus on another project.

Quick and Dirty: Frequently used by Senior PR Account Manager, Brittanie, “quick and dirty” often refers to your first attempt at an assignment, when you have 500 other deadlines to meet. Something done quick and dirty is never client-facing and is often the result of a makeshift brain-dump.

Pow-Wow: Coined by Native American communities, the word pow-wow (or powwow) originally derives from the Narragansett word powwaw, meaning “spiritual leader.” At Delucchi however, Account Executives like Natalie, use the term to refer to short, desk-side chats about anything from client feedback to the latest Instagram update.

Pregame: At Delucchi Plus, you will “pregame” an approaching event to make sure that everyone is on the same page. Pregame is not to be confused with a “pop-wow” as the gathering of a “pow-wow” is typically a shorter duration of 10-15 minutes where a pregame has no set end time. 

Fire Drill: This one might go without explaining and if you have ever worked in an agency, you are all too familiar with the sudden “fire drills” that can occur. Drop everything you’re doing, gather your team for a pow-wow and brain dump everything you can because an urgent project request has just come in!