The Hindu Business Line : A book on media lingo

BEGINNING with AA, average audience, and ending with `zone edition,' which is about a newspaper's specific area of circulation, Jim Surmanek offers "the definitive resource for media planning, buying, and research" in Advertising Media A to Z, published by McGraw-Hill (www.books.mcgraw-hill.com) . "I have wanted to write a book about brain surgery, but I know nothing about the subject," confesses the author in the intro. "The same goes for rocket science, anthropology, and a host of other subjects. So I continue to stick with what I've been involved in for most of my career: media." The book is a dictionary, encyclopaedia and training manual rolled into one, assures the author, and so a "handy reference" that can be "a sure cure for insomnia."

Thus, APX is ad page exposure and CM is much in the news, the cable modem, that is. If you are bored with disposable income, try EBI for "effective buying income" that is used in "the bulk measurement of market potential." New Age is not 21st Century onwards but "a radio programming format of soft instrumental music, also known as fusion," and PUR is not a shortened cat noise but people using radio. Similarly, PUT is for people using TV, expressed as a "percentage of people within a defined demographic group viewing TV at a particular time." HUT is a related measure using `homes' instead of people.

To solve the unemployment problem, we may promote the `sandwich board' culture, where two signs are "hung from the shoulders of an individual, thereby sandwiching the person between the signs." If it is a question of `answer print,' the answer is that it is "an almost-finished print of a television commercial that contains all of the optical effects, titles, and so forth but is not ready for airing until it is corrected for such things as colour and quality." Vertical rotation is not some aerobic movement but "the scheduling of commercials across many time periods throughout the course of a day, week, or month with the intention of reaching as many different people as possible."

At the end of many definitions, the author has given mathematical formulas. For instance, cost/audience x 1,000 = CPM (not the name of a political party, but cost per thousand). "Media planners use CPM analyses to determine the relative cost-efficiency of alternative media forms." To convert CPM to CPP (cost per point), the formula is (CPM x market population expressed in thousands)/ 100. Jim urges the serious professional "to work out the math at least once to fully understand the definition. An advanced degree in mathematics is not needed."

Check if you know that OTO is not a Keralite's way of hailing an auto, but one-time-only, that is, a commercial or programme that airs only once. And BRC is not an SMS bark, but business reply card. GRP has nothing common with GDP except that G is for gross; it is almost synonymous with TRP, target rating point. Ads need listeners, so TSL is relevant, because it is the time spent listening. UCE is actually useless, because it is unsolicited commercial e-mail, better known by its other name, spam.

Ask around in the ad agency if they know the abbreviations AMOL, CPC, DK, VEIL and O&O. Among terms you can bandy around are: attosecond, bump rate, daypart mix, flexies, load factor, passalong readers, seamless media, and strip programming.

A book that can keep you awake, contrary to the author's claims.

BookMark@thehindu.co.in

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