Marketing Communications Slangs

By Florence Okafor

The marketing communication world has long been a hotbed of extremely creative language coining, which translates into communication slang sayings that definitely stick in the mind. There are heaps of Marketing/PR slangs that are so original and have garnered mass usage among practitioners.

These acronyms help to maximize space in writing and save a lot of time. In other words, they are ways of expressing an entire statement in few words or letters. Time is of the essence, so memorizing acronyms is a common way the practitioners express themselves AQAP (as quickly as possible).

Some of the widely used marketing communications slangs include:

FMCG                  – Fast Moving Consumer Goods

TA                        – Target Audience

USP                      – Unique Selling Point/proposition

BTL                      – Below the Line

TVC                     – Television commercial

POS                     – Point of Sale

CSDS                   – Carbonated Soft Drinks

ASAP                   – as soon as possible

PUBS                   – Publications

HITS                    – media coverage

MoU                     – Memorandum of Understanding

OAP                     – On Air Personality

SME                     – Small Medium Enterprise

FYA                     – For Your Information

OPP                     – opportunity, as in an opportunity to get media coverage

Journo                  – a reporter (journalist)

Pitch                     – note to inform/gauge interest

Running/ran           – article appeared

Traction                – interest/coverage

Out of the box       – think beyond the obvious

Open the kimono   – reveal more details

Hack                     - PR’s response to “flack,” often used to describe a poor journalist or reporting job

OOH                    – Out of Home advertising/bill boards

Prezo                    – a PowerPoint presentation

Release                 – a news announcement (as opposed to a product release)

Launch                 – the public marketing announcement of a G/A product (G/A = generally available)

B-roll                  – “highlights” video of something we want to promote (company, person, event), often                                    used to show broadcast outlets the potential for a story and/or provide them with footage                               for the story

Ed Cals               – editorial calendars (predetermined story topics by media outlets)

Boilerplate           – short description of a company, most often used at the end of a press release

Evergreen           – story/pitch angle that won’t fade over time, could be pitched/published at any time (as                                    opposed to news that is only relevant during a certain period of time)

In-house             – a “corporate” job where one conducts PR inside a business, as opposed to an agency                                     job where one services several clients at once

Flack                - although defined as “a publicist or promoter,” it is also a derogatory reference – often used by journalists       – to describe a bad PR executive

What slang terms do you use in your profession that others might not understand without explanation?