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The following is a list of selected advertising terms with definitions drawn from authoritative sources or based upon general acceptance. In many instances, this glossary does not confine itself to a definition of the terms, but indicates the practices connected with them as well.
Account Executive: That member of the agency staff who is the liaison between advertiser and agency, presenting the advertiser’s problems to the agency, and the agency’s recommendations and proposed advertisements to the advertiser. Is responsible for keeping in close touch with the advertiser’s needs and plans, and for seeing that approved plans are carried out by the agency.
Adjacency: A program or time period, which immediately precedes or follows a scheduled program on a single radio or television station.
Advertising Specialty: An inexpensive gift bearing the advertiser’s name and trademark, given without cost to a selected list.
Affidavit: The sworn statement of a television or radio station that a commercial appeared as stated on invoice.
Agate Line: A unit measurement of publication advertising space, one column wide (no matter what the column width) and one-fourteenth of an inch deep.
Aided Recall: A research technique that uses prompting questions or materials to aid a respondent’s memory of the original exposure situation as "Have you seen this ad before?" In contrast to unaided recall: "Which ad impressed you most in this magazine?"
Animation: Can refer to animated cartoons or to animated objects, such as packages or marionettes. May be limited animation on silent films only, or regular animation with a sound track.
Answer Print (TV): A composite print of the sound, music and optical leading to a Master Print, from which duplicates are made for distribution to stations.
Approach (Outdoor): The distance measured along the line of travel from the point where the poster first becomes fully visible to a point where the copy ceases to be readable. (There is long approach, short approach and flash approach.)
Area of Dominant Influence (ADI): A classification of the American Research Bureau showing the exclusive geographical area consisting of all counties in which the Home Market Stations receive a preponderance of total viewing hours. Used in deciding what territories to include in a market. Especially important in TV scheduling.
Billboard: (1) Popular name for an outdoor sign. Term not now generally used in the industry. (2) The television presentation of the name of a program sponsor plus a slogan, used at the start or close of a program, usually 8 seconds.
Black and White: An ad printed in one color only, usually black, on white paper. Most newspapers are printed in black and white.
Bleed: To print and trim an advertisement so that its edges run over the edges of the outdoor board or page of a publication, leaving no margin.
Block: (1) A set of consecutive time periods on the air, or a strip of the same time on several days. (2) Wood or metal base on which the printing plate is mounted. (3) British term for photoengraving or electrotype.
Boards (Outdoor): Term for poster panels and painted bulletins originating in the period when theatrical and circus posters were displayed on board fences.
Body Copy: Main text of advertisement, in contrast to headlines and name plate.
Body Type: The type commonly used for reading matter, as distinguished from display type used in the headlines of advertisements. Usually type 14 points in size or smaller.
Bulk Mailing: A quantity of third-class mail that must be delivered to the post office in bundles, assorted by state and city.
Caption: The heading of an advertisement; the descriptive matter accompanying an illustration.
Center Spread: The space occupied by an advertisement on the two facing center pages of a publication.
Checking Copy: A copy of a publication sent to an advertiser or to his agency so that he may see that his advertisement appeared as specified.
Circulation: Refers to the number of people a medium reaches. (1) In publication advertising prime circulation is that paid for by the reader, in contrast to pass-along circulation. (2) In outdoor and transportation advertising people who have a reasonable opportunity to observe display. (3) In TV usually referred to as audience.
Closing Date/Closing Hour: (1) The day or hour when all copy and plates must be in the medium’s hands if the advertisement is to appear in a given issue. The closing time is specified by the medium. (2) The last hour or day that a radio program or announcement may be submitted for approval to a station or network management to be included in the station’s schedule.
Coated Paper: A paper to which a coating has been applied, giving it a smooth, hard finish, suitable for the reproduction of fine halftones.
Column-Inch: A unit of measure in a periodical one inch deep and one column wide, whatever the width of the column.
Consumer Advertising: Advertising directed to those people who will personally use the product, in contrast to trade advertising, industrial advertising or professional advertising.
Contract Year: The period of time, in space contracts, running for one year beginning with the insertion of the first advertisement under that contract. It is usually specified that the first advertisement shall appear within 30 days of the signing of the contract.
Controlled Circulation: (1) The circulation of business publications containing at least 25 percent editorial matter, regularly issued at least quarterly, circulated free or mainly free, and addressed to individuals within a particular business industry, or profession selected as to job title, function or other characteristic relevant to the interests of the advertisers. The term is no longer used by the Business Publications Audit; qualified circulation is preferred. (2) Circulation of free suburban shopping papers to pre-selected areas or homes.
Copy: (1) The text of an advertisement. (2) Matter for a composition to set. (3) Illustrations for an engraver to reproduce. (4) Any material to be used in the production of a publication.
Cover: The front of a publication is known as the first cover; the inside of the front cover is the second cover; the inside of the back cover is the third cover; the outside of the back cover is the fourth cover. Extra rates are charged for cover positions.
Coverage: (1) The portion of an area, community, or group that may be reached by an advertising medium.
C.P.M. Cost Per Thousand: Used in comparing media cost. Can mean cost per thousand readers, or viewers or prospects. Must be specified.
Cropping: Trimming part of an illustration to enable the reproduction to fit into a specific space. Cropping is done either to eliminate nonessential background in an illustration or to change the proportions of the illustration to the desired length and width.
Cumes: The number of unduplicated people and/or homes reached by a given schedule over a given time period. In TB, this is usually four weeks. An abbreviation for cumulative audience.
Customer Profile: A composite estimate of the demographic characteristics of the people who are to buy a brand and the purchase patterns they will produce.
Demographic Characteristics: A broad term that refers to the various social and economic characteristics of a group of households, or a group of individuals. Refers to characteristics such as the number of members of a household, age of head of household, occupation of head of household, education of household members, type of employment, ownership of home, and annual household income.
Depths of Columns: The dimension of a column space measured from top of the page to the bottom in either agate lines or inches.
Display: (1) Attention-attracting quality. (2) Display type is size larger than 14 point, Italics, boldface and sometimes capitals are used for display; so are hand-drawn letters and script. (3) Display space in newspapers usually is not sold in units of less than 14 column lines; there is no such minimum requirement for undisplayed classified advertisements. (4) Window display, interior display, and counter display are different methods of Point-of-Purchase advertising. (5) Open display puts the goods where they can be actually handled and examined by the customer; closed display has the goods in cases and under glass.
Double-Page Spread: Two facing pages used for a single, unbroken advertisement. Also called double-spread and double-truck, or center-spread if at the center of a publication.
Drive time: See Prime Time (Radio)
Dubs (TV): Duplicate tapes, made from a Master print, sent to different stations for broadcast.
Early Fringe: The time period preceding prime time. (Usually, 4:30-7:30 p.m., except in Central Time Zone where it extends from 3:30 to 6:30p.m.)
Effective Circulation (Outdoor): The number of people who have a reasonable physical opportunity to see a poster. It is defined as one-half the pedestrians, one-half the automobiles, and one-fourth of surface public transportation passengers passing a poster.
Four-Color Process: The photoengraving process for reproducing color illustrations by a set of plates, one of which prints all the yellow, another the blues, a third the reds, the fourth the blacks (sequence variable). The plates are referred to as process plates.
Frequency: The number of waves per second that a transmitter radiates measured in kilohertz (kHz) and megahertz (MHz). The FCC assigns to each television and radio station the frequency on which it may operate, to prevent interference with other stations. In media exposure, the number times an individual or household is exposed to a medium within a given period of time. In statistics, the number of times each element appears in each step of a distribution scale.
Fringe Time (TV): The hours directly before and after Prime Time. May be further specified as Early Fringe or Late Fringe.
Full Showing: (1) in an outdoor poster schedule, a 100-intensity showing. Posters in a 100-intensity showing vary from market to market.
Gross Rating Points (GRP): The number of rating points a program bearing a commercial has on each station in an area, multiplied by the number of times it is run within a specified period, such as per week. See rating point.
Halftone: A photoengraving plate, photographed though a glass screen (in the camera) that serves to break up the reproduction of the subject into dots and thus makes possible the printing of half-tone values, as of photographs. Screens vary form 45 to 300 lines to the inch. The most common are 120- and 133-line screens for use in magazines; 65-to 85-line screen for use in newspapers.
Insertion Order: Instructions form an advertiser authorizing a publisher to print an advertisement of specified size on a given date at an agreed rate; accompanied or followed by the copy for the advertisement.
Inserts: (1) in letters or packages, an enclosure usually in the form of a little slip bearing an advertisement. (2) In periodicals, a page printed by the advertiser, or for him, and forwarded to the publisher, who binds it up in the publication. Usually in colors and on heavier stock (if the publisher permits).
Line: A unit for measuring space; fourteen lines to a column inch.
Listening Area: The geographic area in which a station’s transmitting signal can be heard clearly. The area in which transmission is static-free and consistent is called the primary listening area.
Logotype or Logo: A trademark or trade name embodied in the form of a distinctive lettering or design. Example: Coca-Cola.
Makegood: (1) Print; An advertisement which is run without charge in lieu of a prior one which publisher agrees was poorly run. A print advertisement run in lieu of a scheduled one which did not appear. (2) TV, radio; A commercial run by agreement wit advertiser in place of one that did not run, or was improperly scheduled. All subject to negotiation between advertiser (or agency) and medium.
Mandatory Copy: Copy that is required, by law to appear on the advertising of certain products such as liquor, beer, cigarettes. Also refers to information that, by law must be on labels of certain products and services, i.e., Member FDIC.
Mechanical: An assembly of pictures and proofs of type, pasted in a desired arrangement (Usually on a piece of cardboard), to be copied by a camera for making into a printing plate, Also called mechanical layout.
Medium: (1) The vehicle that carries the advertisement, as television, radio, newspaper, magazine, outdoor sign, car card, direct mail, and so on. (2) the tool and methods used by an artist in illustrations as pen and ink, pencil, wash, photography.
Offset-Lithography: A printing process in which the design is "offset" from the metal sheet to a rubber blanket, which then transfers the image to the printing paper giving soft reproduction effect.
One-Time Rate: The rate paid by an advertiser who uses less space than is necessary to earn a time or rate discount, when such discounts are offered. Same as Transient Rate, Basic Rate and Open Rate.
Photostat: A photographic reproduction of black and white printed material. Less expensive than a velox; however, cannot be used for reproduction wit photographs or continuous-tone material.
Plate: The metal or plastic from which impressions are made by a printing operation.
Position (Newspaper): Where in paper, on what page, and on what part of page the ad appears.
Production: (1) The conversion of an advertising idea into an advertisement, mainly by a printing process. (2) The building, organization, and presentation of a television or radio program.
Preferred Position: A special desired position in a magazine or newspaper for which the advertiser must pay a premium. Otherwise the advertisement appears in a run-of-paper (ROP) position; that is, wherever the publisher chooses to place it.
Prime Time: A continuous period of not less than three hours per broadcast day as designated by the station as reaching peak audiences. In television, usually 8:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m.
Prime Time (Radio): The time of the day when most people are going to and from work (usually 7-8:30 a.m. and 4:30 –6:30 p.m. depending upon the city). Called drive time.
Proof: (1) An inked impression of composed type or of a plate for inspection or for filing. (2) In engraving and etching, an impression taken to show the condition of the illustration at any state of the work.
Rate Card: A card giving the space rates of a publication, circulation data, and data on mechanical requirements and closing dates.
Rating Point: (1) The percentage of TV households a TV station reaches with a program, compared with the total of all TV households in that area. The percentage varies with the time of the day. A station may have a 10 rating between 6 and 6:30 p.m., and a 20 rating between 9 and 9:30 p.m. (a real hit!). (2) In the case of radio, the percentage of people who listen to a station at a certain time.
Reach: The total audience a medium actually covers.
Rotation (Broadcasting): A technique of moving commercials into different day-parts to expose all categories of viewers and listeners.
Rotary Plan (Outdoor): A program whereby movable bulletins are moved from one fixed location to another one in the market at regular intervals. The locations are viewed and approved in advance by the advertiser.
Script (TV): A description of the video, along with the accompanying audio, used in preparing a storyboard, or in lieu of it.
Silk Screen: A printing process in which a stenciled design is applied to a screen of silk or organdy. A squeegee forces paint or ink through the mesh of screen to the paper directly beneath.
Snipe: A copy strip added over a poster advertisement – such as a dealer’s name, special sale price or another message.
Space Discount: Given by a publisher for the lineage an advertiser uses. (Compare Time discount.)
Spot (TV and Radio): (1) Media use; purchase of time from an independent station, in contrast to purchase from a network. When purchased by a national advertiser, it is, strictly speaking, national spot but is referred to as just spot. When purchased by a local advertiser, it is, strictly speaking, local spot but is referred to as local TV or local radio. (2) Creative use; the text of a short announcement.
Spread: (1) Two facing pages, a double-page advertisement. (2) Type matter set full measure across a page, not in columns. (3) Stretching any part of a broadcast to fill the full allotted time of the program.
Storyboard: Series of drawings used to present a proposed commercial. Consists of illustrations of key action (video), accompanied by the audio part to go with it. Used for getting advertiser approval; also as a guide in production.
Supplements (Newspaper): Loose inserts carried in a newspaper. Printed by advertiser. Must carry "supplement" and newspaper logotype to meet newspaper postal requirements.
Tear Sheets: Copies of advertisements torn from newspapers.
Time Discount: A discount given to an advertiser for the frequency or regularity with which he inserts his advertisements. Distinguished from quantity discount, for amount of space used.
Traffic Count: In outdoor advertising, the number of pedestrians and vehicles passing a panel during a specific time period.
Traffic Flow Map (Outdoor): An outline map of a market’s streets scaled to indicate the relative densities of traffic.
Ultra High Frequency. UHF: Television channels 14-83, operating on frequencies from 470 Mc to 890 Mc.
Very High Frequency. VHF: The frequency on the electromagnetic spectrum assigned to television channels 2-13, inclusive. See Ultra high frequency.
Video: The visual portion of TV television broadcast.
Voice-over: The voice of a TV commercial announcer or actor or singer recorded off camera. Costs less than if delivered
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