Vocabulary used by Professionals who work in Advertising

Here are some vocabulary words used by people who work in Advertising:

AAA

American Academy of Advertising. An association of educators, students, and former educators in advertising.

Accordion insert

An ad inserted in a magazine, folded with an accordion-style fold.

Ad copy

The printed text or spoken words in an advertisement.

Adnorm

A measure of readership averages for print publications over a two-year period, used as a baseline for comparing specific ads to an average

Advertising budget

Money set aside by the advertiser to pay for advertising. There are a variety of methods for determining the most desirable size of an advertising budget.

Advertising elasticity

The relationship between a change in advertising budget and the resulting change in product sales

Advertorial

An advertisement that has the appearance of a news article or editorial, in a print publication.

Airbrush

An artist's technique for creating a smooth gradation of color. It is often used to cover imperfections in a photograph, e.g., in a model's skin.

Art proof

The artwork for an ad, to be submitted for client approval.

Back to Back

Running more than one commercial, with one following immediately after another.

Body copy

The text of a print ad, not including the headline, logo, or subscript material.

Bulldog edition

An edition of a print publication that is available earlier than other editions. Usually, this is the early edition of a large circulation newspaper

Business-to-business advertising

Advertising directed to other businesses, rather than to consumers.

Claymation

An animation method that uses clay figurines

Color separation

A full-color ad normally is generated through printing of four separate colors: yellow, cyan, magenta, and black. The color separation consists of four separate screens; one for each of those four colors.

Cooperative (Co-op) program

A system by which ad costs are divided between two or more parties. Usually, such programs are offered by manufacturers to their wholesalers or retailers, as a means of encouraging those parties to advertise the product.

Creatives

The art directors and copywriters in an ad agency.

Dailies

Also called rushes, this refers to unedited film. These are called Dailies because the film typically is viewed from a single day's shooting, even if the final commercial or program will take many days or weeks of shooting.

Direct mail

Marketing communications delivered directly to a prospective purchaser via the U.S. Postal Service or a private delivery company.

Dummy

A copy (e.g., xerographic duplicate) of an ad, or even blank sheets of paper, provided to a printer or artist as an example of the size, color, or other aspect of the ad to be produced

End-user

The person who actually uses a product, whether or not they are the one who purchased the product.

Eighty-twenty rule

A rule-of-thumb that, for the typical product category, eighty percent of the products sold will be consumed by twenty percent of the customers.

Four-color process

A printing process that combines differing amounts of each of four colors (red, yellow, blue & black) to provide a full-color print.

Full-service agency

An agency that handles all aspects of the advertising process, including planning, design, production, and placement. Today, full-service generally suggests that the agency also handles other aspects of marketing communication, such as public relations, sales promotion, and direct marketing.

Guaranteed circulation

A media rate that comes with a guarantee that the publication will achieve a certain circulation

Hologram

A three-dimensional photograph or illustration, created with an optical process that uses lasers.

In-pack premium

A premium included in the packaging of another product (e.g., buy a can of shaving cream and get a free razor in the same package). The term Package enclosure is also used.

Industrial advertising

A form of business-to-business advertising (see above), this is advertising aimed at manufacturers. This advertising typically promotes parts, equipment, and raw materials used in the manufacturing process.

Jingle

A short song, usually mentioning a brand or product benefit, used in a commercial.

Kerning

Spacing between the letters of a word

Layout

A drawing that indicates the relative positions of the elements (e.g., headline, photo, logo, body copy, etc.) of an ad.

Linage

Refers to the size of an ad, based on the number of lines of type taken up by the ad.

Lithography

A printing method in which the printing and non-printing areas exist on the same plane, as opposed to a bi-leveled reproduction

Loss leader

A retail item advertised at an invitingly low price in order to attract customers for the purchase of other, more profitable merchandise.