What does "Inspo" actually mean?

Hashtags rarely make it into the vernacular. Usually it's the other way around. #Inspo, however, is such a hashtag. Used as a hashtag, the short term confidently means "Guys, let me inspire you!". And that's exactly what Instagram, Pinterest and Co. are mainly used for in our industry. The word is derived from "inspirational," which means to inspire or be inspired. We like to do this most of all from stars. It doesn't matter if they are social media stars, design stars, movie stars or football stars - they are all our guiding stars and we like to help ourselves to them. Most of those who draw inspiration from them probably don't have as much budget as these celebrities and successful people, but that doesn't seem to matter. We still look to them for inspiration. Why is that, anyway?

Life is full of inspirations

An attempt at an explanation: Maybe it's the need to get a bit of their fame or to feel that brief moment of fame for themselves. Or maybe it's the desire to be special and discover or even think "out-of-the-box" ideas. Especially the latter is more of a constraint than a need in our industry. It starts with the briefing and moves into countless creative sessions. Unfortunately, when we consume the end products of such sessions on posters, in TV commercials and online advertising, we have to ask ourselves why this compulsion always leads to such banal results. Here it is advisable to perhaps get one's inspo "inside-the-box". We numerous normal people have already experienced many more moments in our biography and our everyday life that could serve as inspiration than the few famous people whose lives are probably quite boring and controlled by others. Perhaps this would also result in something more exciting.

But at the moment, we're behaving like the stars on social media. The industry exclusively shows there their edited, in camera published super ideas like the Kardashians and their imitators: their perfect faces, houses, yachts and kids. And because they fear their posts will be meaningless, they use #Inspo.

* Benno Maggi is co-founder and CEO of Partner & Partner. He has been eavesdropping on the industry for over 30 years, discovering words and terms for us that can either be used for small talk, pomposity, excitement, playing Scrabble, or just because.