AVE – Advertising Value Equivalent: The measurement of a piece of editorial and the comparison of those dimensions against published advertising rates. Puts a dollar value to media relations activity
AVE PR Value: Unpaid for editorial has enhanced value as the reader / viewer sees it as being endorsed by the media in which it appears. The consumer views the piece through choice, and their attention to, and recall of the message is therefore considered to be greater than that paid to advertising. The industry agreed view, which reflects that difference, is that PR value is approximately 5 times greater than that achieved by ADVERTISING.
Advertising: The placing of a company's message, within various media on a paid-for basis, with the intention of widely 'advertising' that company's products or services.
Advertorial: A paid for feature that has the 'look and feel' of an editorial. Some publications may write the copy, others may let you provide it. The words 'promotion' or 'advertorial' on the article clearly identify it for the reader.
Byline: Name of the journalist or author of a piece of editorial, placed under the headline.
Circulation: Circulation refers to the number of copies distributed by a publication. Audited circulation figures are available for all major publications. Circulation should be clearly distinguished from readership.
Column cms: An often-used measurement of media relations success. A simple multiplication of the length of a piece of editorial times the number of columns.
Core message: More fundamental than a key message. Core messages are positioning words and phrases. They carry the subliminal thrust of an organisation’s intentions. All communication collateral will contain the core message.
Coverage: The coverage of a campaign is the total number of people within your target audience that may see your message. Sometimes referred to as Reach.
Crisis management: The handling of extraordinary events to best reflect a company's view while retaining politically correct relationships with the media.
Demographics: Data about the size and characteristics of a population or audience such as gender, age and income. Often defined as socio-economic groups such as ABC1, generally upmarket, or C2DE, generally down market.
DPS double page spread: Two pages of the same article running across the spine to create the visual impression of one continuous article.
Editorial: An expression of opinion using text and images in a publication to make an article, feature, story or short 'piece'.
Feature article: An article that goes into greater detail as opposed to spot reporting.
Investor relations: A communications campaign aimed at opening up dialogue between investors and a company.
Media Relations: A communications campaign aimed to fostering relationships with key journalists; creating dialogue between a company and media; identifying opportunities for editorial within targeted media and providing a reason and resource for media to talk positively about your company.
Media Type: National press, consumer magazines, regional and trade press, broadcast and the Internet are all types of media.
OTS – Opportunity to See / OTH – Opportunity to Hear: A calculation determining the number of times an individual is likely to see a marketing message. Advertising relies on a large number of messages to be seen, whereas a specific public relations campaign may only have one opportunity per publication. However, any number of PR messages within any number of publications can be calculated to produce an overall 'OTS'.
Press release or media release: A written statement issued to the media to either describe a product or service, or to state a position on an issue. The intention being that the media will use the press release wholly, or in part to create a story, and reproduce it as their own editorial. Often accompanied with graphics.
Proactive media/reactive media coverage: Editorial that appears as a direct result of the PR input as opposed to re-active PR where the editorial has appeared as a result of the publication's initiative.
Rate Card: The published cost of advertising in a particular media
Reach: The reach of a campaign is the total number of people within your target audience that may see your message.
Readership: The number of times a publication is shared with other individuals. The difference between readership and impressions can sometimes be confused.
ROP – Run of paper: An advertising package where there is no guarantee of position and thereby charged out at a lower rate.
Stakeholders (also called publics): People who are impacted by the activities of your company. Stakeholders can range from staff to shareholders; Government officials to environmental groups; consumers to industry associations.
Target Audience: This is the group of people you are trying to reach with your message. Can be defined by socio-economic groups, and/or any number of other criteria that defines the people you are trying to reach. Also referred to as 'target market'.
Target Publications: Newspapers and magazines whose readership profile best matches a company's target market.
USP – Unique Selling Proposition: The characteristics that are unique to your product or business, and can be used to differentiate your business, product or service from the competition.
