ABC
Audit Bureau of Circulation. An American organisation that conducts audits of magazine and newspaper circulation numbers.

Ad Clicks
Number of times users click on a banner ad.

Ad Click Rate
Sometimes referred to as "click-through," this is the percentage of ad views that resulted in an ad click.

Ad Views (Impressions)
Number of times a banner ad is downloaded and presumably seen by visitors. If the same ad appears on multiple pages simultaneously, this statistic may understate the number of ad impressions, due to browser caching. Corresponds to net impressions in traditional media. There is currently no way of knowing if an ad was actually loaded. Most servers record an ad as served even if it was not.

AIDA
Attention, Interest, Desire, Action. This is a traditional model of the purpose and flow of marketing
communications and direct sales efforts:
1. Create attention,
2. Generate interest,
3. Develop desire,
4. Initiate action.

Accordion Insert
An ad insert that has been folded like an accordion. I.e. /\/\/\/

Account Executive
The advertising agency employee who is responsible for maintaining the relationship between the agency and the client.

Adjacency
A local television commercial spot that is purchased in a time period that usually is adjacent to a network program.

Advertising Allowance
Money a manufacturer gives to another member of the distribution channel (wholesaler, distributor, sales representative, affiliate, value-added reseller, retailer, etc.) for the purpose of advertising the manufacturer's product, service or brand.

Advertising Medium
The entire range of all advertising vehicles of a particular type. For example, television is an advertising medium, newspapers is another, etc. (Plural: Advertising Media)

Advertising Speciality
A product (such as a T-shirt, baseball cap, pen, paper weight, etc.) displaying a logo or other promotional image. Sometimes jocularly (or occasionally disparagingly) referred to as "trinkets and trash." (Synonym: Branded Merchandise.)

Advertising Substantiation
A (US) Federal Trade Commission regulatory program that requires advertisements to provide documented support of the claims made in advertisements.

Advertising Vehicle
The specific entity into which an advertisement is placed.

Advertising
Sponsored mass communications.

Advertorial
A print or Web advertisement designed to look like a news story. The television or radio equivalent is known as an "infomercial".

Advocacy Advertising
Advertising that promotes a political view, social cause, controversial issue or other point of view rather than a product, service or organisation.

Agate Line
A measure of newspaper advertising size. Equal to one column wide and one fourteenth of an inch deep.

Agency of Record
An advertising agency that has been officially designated as having responsibility for coordinating the promotion of one or more of an advertiser's products and/or services.

Art Director
The advertising agency employee responsible for creating artwork and layouts for advertisements.

Audience Accumulation
The number of people, households, or organisations exposed to a single media vehicle over a designated period of time.

Audience Composition
An analysis of an audience based on characteristics relevant to an advertiser.

Audience Duplication
People, households, or organisations that read, view, or hear an advertisement or other marketing communication vehicle more than once, whether through a single media vehicle or a combination of media vehicles.

Audience
All people, households, or organisations that read, view, or hear a particular marketing communication vehicle.

Audit Bureau of Circulation
(Abbreviation: ABC) An organisation that conducts audits of magazine and newspaper circulation numbers.

B

Backbone
A high-speed line or series of connections that forms a large pathway within a network. The term is relative to the size of network it is serving. A backbone in a small network would probably be much smaller than many non-backbone lines in a large network.

Back Matter
(Also called "end matter"). Items placed after the main body of a document. Examples of back matter include appendices and indices.

Backgrounder
A document containing background information about a product, company, service or event.

Bandwidth
How much information (text, images, video, sound) can be sent through a connection. Usually measured in bits-per-second. A full page of text is about 16,000 bits. A fast modem can move approximately 15,000 bits in one second. Full-motion, full-screen video requires about 10,000,000 bits-per-second, depending upon compression. (See also: 56K, bit, modem, T-1)

Banner Ad
Static or animated advertisement that typically – although not necessarily – appears near the top of a Web page. The term generally denotes a particular ad format (industry standard: 468 x 60 pixels) rather than placement on the page.

Bingo Card
A card inserted into a publication that allows readers to request information from one or more of a group of companies listed on the card.

Bleed
Ads, illustrations or photographic images printed so as to run to the edge of the page (after trimming if the page is trimmed).

Blind Ad
An advertisement that does not identify the advertiser, but provides a box number for replies.

Blocking Chart
A graph of a planned media schedule.

Blow-In Card
A printed card "blown" into a publication and, therefore, loose rather than bound to the publication.

Blueline Proof
A one-colour print typically used as a final check (other than to check colours) of the film that will be used to create a print piece.

Blurb
1. Boilerplate language.
2. A short piece of text, usually no more than a single short paragraph, describing a company, person, product, service, or event.
The blurb is used inside a larger marketing communication vehicle.
For example, an event program may include company blurbs describing the sponsors of the event.

Body Copy
The main text of any marketing communications vehicle.

Boilerplate
Prewritten, standardised copy used whenever a particular marketing communication requirement arises. It may be written to adhere to legal or company standards. It may also be used to eliminate the need for original writing when a specific communication requirement is likely to arise frequently.

Boutique Agency
An ad agency that focuses on just one or a few services. It might, for example, just produce videos.

Brand Manager
The manager responsible for the marketing and advertising of a brand.

Brand Name
A brand identifier that can be spelled and spoken.

Branding
The process of establishing the elements of a brand, including its name, identifying symbols and related marketing messages.

Brand
Any name, symbol or other identifier used individually or in combination to identify the goods and/or services of a seller and differentiate them, on any tangible or intangible basis, from similar goods and/or services of competitors.

Broadsheet
A standard-size newspaper.

Broadside
A single folded sheet of paper with printing on one or both sides that opens up to a single, large advertisement.

Browser Caching
To speed surfing, browsers store recently used pages on a user's disk. If a site is revisited, browsers display pages from the disk instead of requesting them from the server. As a result, servers under-count the number of times a page is viewed.

Bucktag
An attachment that provides routing instructions for the associated material.

Bulk Mailing
The mailing of a large number of identical marketing communication pieces at a reduced rate. (The quantity and other specifications required to qualify for bulk mail rates varies among different countries' post offices.)

Buried Ad
An ad surrounded by other ads, thereby tending to be less likely to be seen by the reader.

Bus Card / CARD DECK ADVERTISING
An index card-sized advertisement bundled with other ads targeting the same audience and bulk-mailed at considerable savings when compared to the cost of a similar undertaking by each individual advertiser.

Business Reply Card (BRC)
A card distributed with an advertising piece. The card is pre-printed with the address of the advertiser or its fulfilment house. Return postage is prepaid by the advertiser. The recipient uses it to respond to an offer (which may simply be an offer to provide more information) made by the advertiser.

Buying Service
A company primarily engaged in buying media space or time for advertising purposes.

C

CGI – Common Gateway Interface
An interface-creation scripting program that allows Web pages to made on the fly based on information from buttons, checkboxes, text input, etc.

CPM - Cost Per Thousand ("M" is the Roman numeral for 1,000.)
This is used when quoting costs of a number of different media: 1,000s of banner ad impressions on the Web; 1,000s of viewers for a television commercial; 1,000s of readers for a print ad; etc.
A Web site that charges $15,000 per banner and guarantees 600,000 impressions has a CPM of $25 ($15,000 divided by 600).

Call to Action
A statement, usually at the end of a marketing piece, encouraging the reader/viewer/listener to take the action that is the objective of the piece. This action may be buying the company's product or service, or simply taking the next step in the sales cycle, such as arranging a product demonstration.

Callout
A line of text beside, above or below a photograph or illustration. It typically highlights a detail in the graphic, verbalises the analogy implied by the graphic or emphasises the message delivered through the graphic.

Car Card
An advertisement placed in public transit (bus, subway, trolley, etc.)

Card Deck
A collection of postcard-size advertisements, each promoting a different product, service, brand, organisation or event, distributed as a group. The postcard is usually pre-addressed, and often postage-paid, to be mailed back to the advertiser to request more information, place an order, register for an event, etc. Card decks are often an advertising service of magazine publishers, but may also be an independent service.

Card Rate
The rate for advertising as appears on the media outlet's rate card. Discounts against this rate may be available depending upon volume purchased and current supply and demand.

Centre Spread
An advertisement appearing as a single printed sheet running across both facing pages at the centre of a publication. This is considered favourable placement both because it is a single, unbroken sheet flowing across two
pages and because the publication tends to naturally fall open at the centre spread.

Cheshire Label
Paper specially designed to allow name and address labels to be mechanically affixed to individual mailing pieces, thus allowing the process to be automated.

Classified Advertising
Print or Web advertising that is classified by product or service offered.

Click-Through Rate
The number of times a Web page ad is clicked on as a percentage of the number of times the ad is displayed.

Click-Through
This is a Web term. A click-through is counted if a viewer clicks on a Web page ad, thereby triggering the link assigned to it.

Closing Date
The final date by which artwork, video or audio material must be received by the media outlet for it to appear in the desired issue or time slot.

Co-op
The joint funding (e.g., by retailers and manufacturers) of marketing communications activity.

Coated Stock
Paper that has been coated so that it has a smooth and glossy finish.

Collateral
Any material describing a product, service and/or company that is used to support sales and marketing efforts. The material can be electronic (such as a CD-ROM) or printed.

Contra
A service (such as advertising time or space) that is exchanged for another service (such as printing, accounting, or any other service) rather than for cash.

Controlled Circulation
Free distribution of a magazine or other publication to a list of people, households or organisations restricted by some defining characteristic such as occupation, industry, hobby, etc.

Copy Testing
Research that measures responses to marketing communication copy in a test environment to evaluate the copy's effectiveness in fulfilling the intended objectives.

Copy/Contact
A copywriter who works for or is contracted by an advertising agency but who works directly with the client rather than through an account executive.

Copyright
The legal ownership that protects literary, music, or artistic work.

Copywriter
A professional writer who produces text for marketing communications material.

Copy
The spoken or written words in a marketing communications vehicle.

Cost Per Thousand
Generally abbreviated as "CPM". ("M" is the Roman numeral for 1,000.)
This is used when quoting costs of a number of different media: 1,000s of banner ad impressions on the Web; 1,000s of viewers for a television commercial; 1,000s of readers for a print ad; etc.

Creative Director
The advertising agency employee responsible for supervising the work of all people involved in the creative aspects of producing advertising, including art directors, graphic designers, copywriters, etc.

Creative
Activities involved in the creation of marketing materials. It may include copywriting, design, photography, illustration, music composition, etc.

Cross-Selling
Encouraging existing customers to buy other products and services (as opposed to buying more of what they bought before).

Cyberspace
Coined by author William Gibson in his 1984 novel "Neuromancer," cyberspace is now used to describe all of the information available through computer networks.

D

Database Marketing
The extensive use of data stored in electronic databases to better target marketing communications and more finely tune marketing messages for individual prospects at specific points in their lives and buying cycles.
The information stored in the databases can come from internal sources (order entry systems, sales lead tracking systems, retail checkout scanners, accounts receivable systems, etc.) or outside sources such as third-party market research databases.

De-Dupe
Eliminate any duplicate ("dupe") listings in a mail, telephone, e-mail list. This is not a trivial exercise since the listings may not be perfect duplicates. For example, one may carry a first initial while another carries full first and middle names; one may contain an old address while another contains the new one; etc.

Decoy
A name in a mail, telephone or e-mail list placed solely for the purpose of tracking the use of the list to ensure that the list purchaser or renter does not break the sales or rental contract. The decoy person, household or organisation either works for the list owner/broker or otherwise agrees to help by reporting any misuse.
A similar term, "dummy", is a fictitious name included for this purpose. The process of including decoys or dummies is called "seeding" or "salting".

Demographics
Statistics denoting the personal and socio-economic characteristics of a particular segment of the market. The statistics cover characteristics such as age, gender, income level, nationality, and religion.

Direct Mail
Mailed advertising that is addressed to specific individuals rather than being dropped un-addressed and en masse to a whole geographic area.

Direct Marketing
The targeting of marketing communications directly to individuals (typically a large number at a time) rather than through mass media.

Domain Name
A name identifying one or more IP addresses. Domain names are used in URLs to identify specific pages. For example, in the URL http://www.praetorius.fr/index.html, the domain name is praetorius.fr. As the Internet is based on IP addresses, not domain names, every Web server requires a Domain Name System (DNS) server to translate domain names into IP addresses.
Widely used top-level domains in the US include .com (commercial), .edu (educational), .net (network operations), .gov (US government), .mil (US military) and .org (organisation). Other, two-letter domains represent countries, such as .uk for the United Kingdom.

Double Truck
Print advertising that uses any two full side-by-side pages (not necessarily the centre ones, see "centre spread") in a publication.

Drive Times
A radio term for the morning and evening rush hour time slots. These are considered prime times for radio listeners.

Dummy
A mock-up of a print piece showing placement in and the nature of the marketing communication vehicle.
ALSO: A fictitious name in a mail, telephone or e-mail list placed solely for the purpose of tracking the use of the list to ensure that the list purchaser or renter does not break the sales or rental contract.
A similar term, "decoy", is a real name included for this purpose. The decoy person, household or organisation either works for the list owner/broker or otherwise agrees to help by reporting any misuse.
The process of including decoys or dummies is called "seeding" or "salting".

Dupe
A duplicate listing of the same person, household or organisation in a mail, telephone or e-mail list. The listing may not be a complete duplicate to be considered a dupe. For example, one may carry a first initial while another carries full first and middle names; one may contain an old address while another contains the new one; etc.

Duplicate Elimination
Elimination of any duplicate listings in a mail, telephone, e-mail list. This is not a trivial exercise since the listings may not be perfect duplicates. For example, one may carry a first initial while another carries full first and middle names; one may contain an old address while another contains the new one; etc.

E

End Matter
Also called "back matter". Items placed after the main body of a document are known as end matter. Examples of end matter include appendices and indices.

Envelope Stuffer
An advertising piece included in an envelope used primarily to deliver other business correspondence such as invoices, letters, etc.

F

Fact Sheet
A document containing factual information about a product, service, company or event, without high-pressure sales or flowery language.
By definition, a fact sheet is printed on a single sheet. Printing may be on one or both sides and the sheet may be large and folded to create multiple pages. However, a fact sheet is typically one single or double-sided page and rarely folds into more than two single or double-sided pages.

Fill-In
Information inserted into a form letter to personalise it. Examples may include the recipient's name, address or information about past purchases.

Flighting
The scheduling of advertising over time such that the amount of advertising varies according to a predetermined pattern, usually including some periods without any advertising.

Focus Group Discussion
A qualitative market research technique. The researcher or research organisation assembles a group of individuals who are representative of a target market. A moderator focuses discussions on a series of topics of interest to the research sponsor. If the target market consists of distinct segments, multiple focus groups, each consisting solely of representatives of a single segment, may be assembled to focus on reactions of that segment without the risk of influence by members of other segments.

Four Colour
Artwork reproduced in full colour.

Fractional Ad
An ad that occupies less than a full page in a publication.

Freelancer
A self-employed service provider.

Frequency
The number of times that an individual or household sees a particular marketing message within a given timeframe.

Front Matter
Introductory and organisational material that comes before the main content of a document. Examples of front matter include: title page, table of contents, copyright material, publication data, etc.

Fulfilment Piece
Any marketing material that is sent in response to a reader, viewer or listener's request for more information.

G

Gross Exposures
Each time a Web server sends a file to a browser, it is recorded in the server log file as a "hit." Hits are generated for every element of a requested page (including graphics, text and interactive items). If a page containing two graphics is viewed by a user, three hits will be recorded – one for the page itself and one for each graphic. Webmasters use hits to measure their server's workload. Because page designs vary greatly, hits are a poor guide for traffic measurement.

Gutter
In bound documents, the gutter is the margin space closest to the binding.

H

Hiatus
A period of time during which advertising is not run.

Hickey
In printing, a spot or imperfection in the printing, due to dirt on the film, flakes in the ink, or any other cause.

Hit
"Hit" is an ambiguous Web term.
It is often used to mean one person viewing one Web page. Using this definition, one person looking at 10 pages on a site would register 10 hits. (A more accurate and more common term for this is "page views".)
Occasionally "hits" is taken to mean the number of visits to a site. I.e. if one person comes to a site once, but looks at 10 pages during that visit, it would, under this use of the word, be counted as one hit.
(A more accurate and commonly used term for this is "visit".)
The official definition of "hits" is the number of objects, of any type, downloaded to Web browsers. Thus, if a Web page has 10 graphical elements and one Java program then, if the viewer waits for all of the elements to load, it would count as 12 hits – 1 for the page itself, one for the Java program and 10 for the graphics.
Each time a Web server sends a file to a browser, it is recorded in the server log file as a "hit". Hits are generated for every element of a requested page (including graphics, text and interactive items). If a page containing two graphics is viewed by a user, three hits will be recorded – one for the page itself and one for each graphic. Webmasters use hits to measure their server's workload. Because page designs vary greatly, hits are a poor guide for traffic measurement.

Horizontal Publication
A business publication targeted at individuals who share common interests, responsibilities or positions, regardless of the industry in which they work.

Host
An Internet host used to be a single machine connected to the Internet (which meant it had a unique IP address). As a host it made certain services available to other machines on the network. The advent of virtual hosting changed that and a single physical host can now actually comprise several virtual hosts.

House Agency
An advertising agency that is owned and operated by the advertiser.

House List
A mail, telephone or e-mail list compiled and therefore owned by a company rather than being purchased or rented from a third party. (A list bought with a contract that allows unlimited use would, after purchase, become part of the purchaser's house list.)

House Organ
A company-published newsletter or magazine.

HTML
HyperText Markup Language is a coding language used to make hypertext documents for use on the Web. HTML resembles old-fashioned typesetting code, where a block of text is surrounded by codes that indicate how it should appear. HTML allows text to be "linked" to another file on the Internet.

Hypertext
Any text that that can be clicked on or selected by a user and which causes another document to be retrieved and displayed.

I

Image Advertising
Rather than promoting a product or service's specific attributes, image advertising promotes an overall perception of a company, product or service. Image advertising is generally used to position a product relative to the competition. For example, to create an image of it as a luxury product.

Impression
On the Web, an impression is counted when an ad is displayed once. If an ad has had 10 impressions that could be 10 times to the same person (likely on different pages of a site) or it could be 10 different people each seeing the ad once – or any combination that totals 10. In other media, an impression is counted when the ad is seen once by one person.

Industrial Advertising
Advertising of industrial goods and services.

Infomercial
A television or radio commercial designed to look like a documentary or news story. The print or Web equivalent is known as an "advertorial".

Insertion Order
An advertiser's authorisation (often through the advertiser's ad agency) for a publisher to run an ad in a specific issue at the agreed upon rate.

Insertion
A single placement of an ad in a publication.

Integrated Marketing Communication
The use of a mix of all appropriate marketing communication disciplines, media and vehicles in a well-coordinated campaign to achieve a unified objective or set of objectives.

Internet
A collection of approximately 60,000 independent, inter-connected networks that use the TCP/IP protocols and that evolved from ARPANet of the late '60s and early '70s.

Island Display
A point-of-purchase display away from competitive products, typically in the middle or at the end of an aisle.

IP address
Internet Protocol address. Every system connected to the Internet has a unique IP address, which consists of a number in the format A.B.C.D where each of the four sections is a decimal number from 0 to 255. Most people use Domain Names instead and the resolution between Domain Names and IP addresses is handled by the network and the Domain Name Servers. With virtual hosting, a single machine can act like multiple machines (with multiple domain names and IP addresses).

IRC
A worldwide, multi-user chat system which allows people to convene on "channels" via Internet Relay Chat (IRC) clients. Communication takes place in real time, either in groups or privately.

ISDN
Integrated Services Digital Network is a digital network that moves up to 128,000 bits-per-second (BPS) over a regular phone line at nearly the same cost as a normal phone call.

J

No entry found for this letter

K

Kerning
Adjusting the space between the letters within a word (as opposed to the space between words).

L

Leading (Pronounced "ledding".)
The amount of space that appears between the lines within a paragraph (as opposed to the space between paragraphs) in a printed document.

Leave-Behind
Any item that a sales person leaves with the prospective customer after a sales call. The leave-behind is intended to jog the prospect's memory about the sales call and the product or service being sold.

Lettershop
A firm that undertakes the production and mailing of sales letters and other marketing communication vehicles on other organisations' behalf rather than its own.

Lifetime Value
The net present value of all future purchases expected from a customer. ("Net present value" means that future sales are discounted to take into account the fact that a dollar received tomorrow is worth less than a dollar received today.)

Link
An electronic connection between two Web sites (also called "hot link").

List Broker
A company or individual that sells or rents mail, telephone or e-mail lists. The lists may have been assembled by the broker or, more likely, by a third-party organisation that uses the broker as its sales agent.

List Rental
Rather than being purchased, mail, telephone and e-mail lists are often rented for one-time use or a limited number of uses. Mailing, calling or e-mailing people on the list more than the specified number of times is a breach of contract. (If someone on the list responds to the initial campaign, the list renter is then considered to "own" that name and can then conduct unlimited communications with the person or organisation.)

Listserv
The most widespread of mail lists. Listervs started on BITNET and are now common on the Internet.

Logo Merchandise
A product (such as a T-shirt, baseball cap, pen, paperweight, etc.) displaying a logo or other promotional image. Sometimes jocularly (or occasionally disparagingly) referred to as "trinkets and trash." (Synonym: Advertising Speciality.)

Logotype
A company or brand name rendered in a specific graphical style and colour. This differs from a logo, which is usually an icon representing the company or brand.

Logo
A graphic element used to identify a company, product, service, or brand. The logo is typically trademarked to protect it from use by other companies.

M

Marketing Communications
All strategies, tactics, and activities involved in getting the desired marketing messages to intended target markets, regardless of the media used.

Mass Marketing
The distribution of marketing communications through mass media that, while often offering access to audiences with some common characteristics due to a shared interest in the content of the media vehicle, do not offer the ability to communicate with a specific individual, household or organisation.

Mechanical
Copy and graphics pasted onto a rigid board backing for reproduction by a printer.

Media Kit
A package of information distributed by a media outlet to sell its advertising space. The kit typically includes information about the media vehicle, advertising rates, information about the audience it can deliver, mechanical specifications for ads, closing dates, etc.

Media Plan
A plan that provides clear definitions of the types of media, specific media vehicles and media scheduling within a media campaign. The plan may be for a specific campaign or for all campaigns within a year. In addition, it may be a plan for a single product or service or for the whole company or division.

Media Release
Information written by an organisation and distributed to media outlets with the hope that they will incorporate the information into their news or other services. (The term is often used interchangeably with press release, however a media release implies a wider distribution – to all media outlets – than a press release.)

Merge/Purge
The process of merging two or more mail, telephone, or e-mail lists and eliminating any duplicate listings. The latter is not a trivial exercise since the listings may not be perfect duplicates. For example, one may carry a first initial while another carries full first and middle names; one may contain an old address while another contains the new one; etc.

Minority Marketing
Marketing that specifically addresses minority groups (not necessarily visible minorities) within a larger population.

N

Narrowcasting
The use of broadcast media to target very narrow interests (such as a cable channel dedicated exclusively to trout fishing).

Nesting
Embedding one enclosure inside another before inserting it into an envelope.

News Release
News information written by an organisation and distributed to media outlets, with the hope that they will use it as the basis of a written news story. (The term is essentially synonymous with "Press Release".)

Newsgroup
A discussion group on Usenet devoted to talking about a specific topic.

O

Opt-In E-mail
An Opt-In e-mail marketing campaign sends bulk e-mail messages, but only to lists of people who asked to join the list. Some jurisdictions have made "spamming" – the mass mailing of unsolicited e-mail – illegal. In those jurisdictions, opt-in e-mail is the only legal form of bulk e-mail marketing.

P

Page
All Web sites are a collection of electronic "pages." Each Web page is a document formatted in HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) that contains text, images or media objects such as RealAudio player files, QuickTime videos or Java applets. The "home page" is typically a visitor's first point of entry and features a site index. Pages can be static or dynamically generated. All frames and frame parent documents are counted as pages.

Page Views
Number of times a user requests a page that may contain a particular ad. Indicative of the number of times an ad was potentially seen, or "gross impressions." Page views may overstate ad impressions if users choose to turn off graphics (often done to speed browsing).

Paid Circulation
Distribution of a magazine or other publication to people, households or organisations that have paid a subscription fee. While the content of the publication tends to attract an audience with some common characteristics, the publication does not restrict readership based on those characteristics (see Controlled Circulation).

Penetration
The percentage of a market that a medium or an individual media vehicle reaches. Alternatively, the percentage of the market that a particular marketing message reaches, regardless of the media vehicles used.

Personalization
The automated customisation of a marketing communication vehicle (using any medium) for the individual who will see it. This can be as trivial as inserting the individual's name or as complex as producing a unique presentation of the vehicle for each recipient based on his or her needs, tastes or stated preferences.

Piggyback
An advertisement (print or electronic) that is included with an advertisement for another product. Each part of the ad can typically also be run on its own.

Plug
A free and positive mention of a company, product, service and/or event in any media vehicle.

Position Charge
An additional fee, usually a percentage of the basic charge, charged to an advertiser that wants to specify where its ad will appear in a publication.

Positioning
Defining, within the minds of the market, a brand (corporate, product, or service) relative to the competition. It is the latter part of the definition –– i.e., relative to the competition – that separates positioning from other marketing communications messages.

Postal Walk
A geographical area defined by the post office based on letter carrier routes. When using the post office to distribute un-addressed mail, a postal walk is usually the narrowest level of specification you can use to geographically target distribution. However if, for example, a postal walk contains both single family residences and apartment buildings you can usually choose to have the piece be delivered to just one type of residence.

Press Kit
A package of various marketing communication vehicles, usually housed in presentation a folder, used to provide general background on the company and its products and services. The press kit typically contains a profile of the company (often called a "backgrounder") or an event, relevant press releases, product/services brochures, profiles and photographs of the key executives or, in the case of an event, key organisers.
It is so named because it is distributed primarily to the press as background information for a story they are writing or to try to encourage them to write a story about the company and/or event. The press kit, or a portion of it, may, however, also be given to industry analysts who want information on the company or to prospects and customers as part of the sales process.

Press Release
News information written by an organisation and distributed to the press, with the hope that they will use it as the basis of a written news story. (The term is often used interchangeably with "media release," however a media release implies a wider distribution – to all media outlets – than a press release. "Press Release" and "News Release" are virtually synonymous.)

Press Tour
Often broader than a tour of just the press, it is a series of interviews held in the offices of publication editors, industry analysts and/or other industry influencers rather than in the sponsor's office.

Prime Time
The most heavily watched television times (e.g. in North America: 8:00 - 11:00 PM, except in the Central Time zone where it is 7:00 - 10:00 PM)

Promotion
All marketing activities designed primarily to persuade members of a target audience to take a specific action.

Psychographics
Statistics denoting the attitudes and lifestyles of a particular segment of the market.

Pub-Set
Ads designed and produced for the advertiser by the publication in which they will appear.

Public Relations
Mass-communications for which, unlike advertising, there is no direct payment from the originating organisation to the media carrying the information. The vehicle is typically a news story picked up by one of the news media, but also includes company-controlled activities and vehicles such as annual reports, lobbying, special events, and so on.
The purpose is to communicate information about the organisation and/or its products and services to audiences that may go beyond prospective customers, to include any other group that the organisation wishes to influence, such as investors or governments.

Publicity
Mass-communications for which, unlike advertising, there is usually no direct payment from the originating organisation to a mass media outlet. The purpose is to build awareness of and/or foster a desired attitude toward a particular company, product and/or service.

Pulled Quote
A quotation or statement that is separated (such as by placing it inside a box) from the rest of a document (brochure, article, white paper, etc). The quote or statement provides a very positive statement that emphasises a point in the rest of the document. The quote may be a repetition of one used in the document or it may not appear anywhere else in the document.

Q

No entry found for this letter

R

Rate Card
A list of the standard rates for a publication, radio station/network, television station/network, Web site or other advertising vehicle.

Rating Point
One percent of all households viewing (television) or listeners listening to (radio) a particular station at a particular time.

Reach
The number of individuals or households within a specific target audience that see a particular marketing message. It can be stated as a percentage of the target audience.

RealAudio
A commercial software program that plays audio on demand, without waiting for long file transfers.

Recognition
The ability of an individual to recall an ad or campaign when seeing or hearing it again or upon having it described to him or her.

Registration Marks
Small crosshairs on film used to align individual colour separations or layers of film negatives when printed.

Registration
The precise alignment of different films or printing plates (colour separations) to produce a final printed image

Remnant Space
Unsold space in a print publication or unsold banner impressions on a Web site. Remnant space is typically sold at a discount to the publication or site's rate card.

Response Rate
Percentage of responses received from a direct marketing campaign (typically the percentage of recipients who responded to a mailing).

Rich Media
On the Web, the term "rich media" differentiates an ad from those created solely with static graphics or simple animations. A rich media ad can include fill-in forms, more complex animations, sound and other devices to capture attention and stimulate interaction.

Run of Paper
An ad that can be placed anywhere in a publication at the discretion of the publisher, not the advertiser.

Run of Schedule
A commercial that can be run at any time at the discretion of the station, not the advertiser. However, the advertiser might be able to restrict the commercial to running within certain time periods, such as anytime Monday to Friday, 10:00am to 4:00pm.

S

SIC
Standard Industrial Classification. An extensive hierarchical structure of codes defined by the U.S. Department of Commerce to categorise companies based on their industries.

Saddle Stitch
A publication binding method using staples in the fold of the pages.

Sales Promotion
All forms of paid communication that are attributed to a sponsor but are not advertising or selling. It includes, among other things, "cents off" coupons, samples, point-of-purchase materials, demonstrations, etc.

Salting
Placing names in a mail, telephone or e-mail list solely for the purpose of tracking the use of the list to ensure that the list purchaser or renter does not break the sales or rental contract. (Synonym: "Seeding"). A name so placed is called a "decoy" (a real name) or a "dummy" (a fictitious name).

Seasonal Rating Adjustment
An adjustment to rating numbers to reflect seasonal differences in viewership/listenership. Factors that may be compensated for include weather, holidays, etc.

Seeding
Placing names in a mail, telephone or e-mail list solely for the purpose of tracking the use of the list to ensure that the list purchaser or renter does not break the sales or rental contract. (Synonym: "Salting").
A name so placed is called a "decoy" (a real name) or a "dummy" (a fictitious name).

Segmentation
Market segmentation is the process of dividing the market into groups such that individuals/businesses within each group share common characteristics.
The purpose of segmentation is to prioritise segments of the market to improve marketing profitability and to provide a means to choose the most appropriate communication media and messages for each unique market segment.

Self-Mailer
An advertising piece that is sent by mail, but which does not require an envelope. The addressing and postal payment information is printed on the outside of the piece.

Separation
The separating of a full-colour image into the primary printing colours in positive or negative form. By overlaying the separations in the printing process, using the correct primary colour for each, the result is a full colour reproduction of the original.

Server
A machine that makes services available to client programs on a network. A file server makes files available.

Shelf Talker
A small promotional sign or card that sits on the shelf where a product is displayed.

Short Rate
A fee paid by an advertiser if it fails to buy the contracted volume of media space or time. The fee is charged because the advertiser received a reduced rate based on the contracted volume.

Skew
Weighting advertising activity towards a particular market segment.

Social Marketing
Marketing that attempts to induce social change.

Spamming
The use of e-mail systems to send large volumes of unsolicited e-mail to lists of e-mail addresses compiled without the recipients' consent. Spamming is generally viewed negatively and is illegal in some jurisdictions.

Split Run Test
Two or more different versions of an ad that are run in different copies of the same publication (i.e. in the same issue of one publication, person "A" sees one version of the ad while person "B" sees another) to test the relative effectiveness of each version.

Spot Colour
Colour used to emphasise an area of an otherwise black-and-white print piece.

Spot Television/Radio
Commercial time bought in specific geographic markets, to run on individual stations or small geographic groupings of stations, rather than on a full network.

Spread
Advertising that runs across two contiguous pages of a publication.

Sticky
"Sticky" sites are those where the visitors stay for an extended period of time. For instance, a banking site that offers a financial calculator is stickier than on that doesn't because visitors do not have to leave to find a resource they need.

Storyboard
A series of (usually rough) illustrations that depict the flow and appearance of a planned television commercial or other live-action or animated production.

Stuffer
An advertising enclosure that is included in another medium, such as in a newspaper, invoice mailings, merchandise packages, etc.

T

T-1
A high-speed (1.54 megabits/second) network connection.

T-3
An even higher speed (45 megabits/second) Internet connection.

TCP
Transmission Control Protocol works with IP to ensure that packets travel safely on the Internet.

Tabloid
A newspaper approximately half the size of a standard newspaper.

Tag Line
A line of copy used on an ad or in a commercial that captures the theme of the advertisement or broader campaign and is placed prominently within it.

Teaser
Copy printed on the outside of a direct mail envelope to encourage the recipient to open, read and act on the piece.

Telemarketing
The use of telephones for selling. Telemarketing can be either outbound (the seller calls the prospective customer) or inbound (the prospect calls the seller, such as calling a toll-free number in response to an ad).

Testimonial
A statement made by a customer endorsing a product, service or company. A testimonial may be a single customer quote or it may be integrated into other marketing material such as a case study about the customer's use of a company's product or service.

Tracking Study
Research on the effectiveness of advertising. A tracking study measures the effect that an ad or ad campaign has on brand and/or company awareness, top-of-mind and aided recall, interest, attitude and purchase intentions.

Trade Advertising
Advertising directed at distribution channels (wholesalers, distributors, sales representatives, affiliates, added-value resellers, retailers, etc.) rather than end-consumers.

Trademark
Legal protection given to a brand name and/or logo.

Typography
The style, arrangement and appearance of the copy in the final version of marketing material. Typography is a design element chosen both for aesthetics and readability. By setting a tone, it reinforces the marketing message.

U

Unaided Recall
The ability to recall information about an advertisement, product, service or brand without any prompting. The level of unaided recall in recipients of marketing communications is used as one measure of communication effectiveness.

Unique Users
The number of different individuals who visit a site within a specific time period. To identify unique users, Web sites rely on some form of user registration or identification system.

Universe
All people who are prospects for a specific product or service.

V

Valid Hits
A further refinement of hits, valid hits are hits that deliver all information to a user. Excludes hits such as redirects, error messages and computer-generated hits.

Vertical Publication
A business publication targeted at a single industry.

Viral Marketing
A marketing technique whereby Web site visitors or e-mail recipients are encouraged to pass along the company's marketing message to friends, colleagues and/or family, thereby creating exponential growth in the message's reach.

Visits
A sequence of requests made by one user at one site. If a visitor does not request any new information for a period of time, known as the "time-out" period, then the next request by the visitor is considered a new visit. To enable comparisons among sites, I/PRO uses a 30-minute time-out.

W

Wait Order
An order (or a request since the advertising contract may not obligate the publisher to honour the request) to hold an advertisement to a later date.

White Paper
A document written in essay style that provides an in-depth discussion of an issue, technology, trend, product or process. White papers are predominantly informational rather than promotional.

White Space
Blank area on a page. (Despite the name, it may be a solid colour rather than white.)

X

No entry found for this letter

Y

No entry found for this letter

Z

Zapping
The use of a television remote control to switch channels in order to avoid watching commercials.

Zipping
Fast-forwarding through commercials when playing back a pre-recorded program on a VCR.

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