Breef Glossary

Welcome to the Breef Glossary — all the *lingo* you need to plan your roadmap. We know, in the marketing world, it feels like there's a new term being thrown around everyday. We've got you!
Know all the lingo? Consider the glossary your checklist.
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Cookie Inflation

The rise of CPMs as a result of Google's cookie phase-out.

Copywriting

If done right, it’s unforgettable. A goal-driven way of using smart + persuasive text to sell products. Using a carefully thought-out voice + tone, good copywriting can compel readers to take a specific action to drive conversion.

Cord-Cutting

The shift from consuming traditional cable TV to streaming. Those who make this shift are referred to as "Cord-Cutters" — most brands are shifting ad spend along with them.

Cost Per Acquisition (CPA)

The cost of acquiring a new customer or lead.

Cost Per Click (CPC)

The amount an advertiser pays for each click on their ad.

Creative Agency

A creative agency focuses on design, rather than marketing strategy, within the advertising and marketing world. A creative agency is likely to be tasked with creating or updating logos and responsible for a brand's visual cohesion.

Creative Direction

Bringing a vision to life. An area of brand development that determines the overall creative vision of a business or project. Through art, design + strategy, that creative vision manifests in logos, advertising campaigns, marketing materials, etc. Our dream job.

Customer Context

A deep, data-driven understanding of a customer at any given point of the customer journey. Integral to giving marketers the ability to deliver the right message(s), at the right time.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

Tools and strategies for managing customer data.

Customer Retention

Efforts to keep customers and encourage repeat business.

Customer Segment

A group of customers who share similar characteristics and needs. Identifying and understanding segments can help specify marketing and product offerings, upping customer satisfaction and revenue. Everyone is part of one!

DSP

Short for 'demand side platform' — a software that allows advertisers to buy and sell ad impressions with the help of automation.

Data Analytics

Not sexy, but needed. The analysis of raw and diverse data to gain meaningful insights in the form of trends, patterns + relationships.

Daypart

The act of separating a day into segments for the purpose of scheduling commercials or ads at appropriate times throughout the day. Most often used in TV advertising.

Digital Agency

A digital agency focuses more on strategy and technical development than the creative aspects of marketing. A full-service digital agency will also likely provide web design, eCommerce, etc.

Digital Marketing

Marketing efforts using digital channels like email, websites, and social media.

Digital Maturity

An organization's ability to quickly respond or react to opportunities in the market based on ever-shifting technology. The goal is to create value for consumers through new tech fast enough to have an advantage over competitors. (The rise of AI comes to mind!)

Direct Marketing

Marketing efforts aimed directly at specific consumers.

Display Advertising

Visual ads displayed on websites, apps, or social media.

Drip Campaign

Automated marketing messages sent over time.

Duopoly

Refers to two brands who dominate the market in a certain space, for example, Meta and X or Coca-Cola and Pepsi.

Dwell Time

The amount of time a user spends on a particular piece of content — high dwell time = more engaged users.

Earned Media

Any publicity or brand exposure that a brand did not pay for or create themselves.

Edutainment

Content intended to both entertain and educate — many revered CeraVe's recent Super Bowl campaign with Michael Cera as an incredibly well-executed piece of edutainment.

B2C

Marketing or sales directed at individual consumers.

Blanding

The opposite of brand differentiation, blanding is the phenomenon of brands adopting the same minimalist aesthetic across the market. Many feel blanding removes negative associations, attempting neutrality — the downside? It also removes brand personality.

Blockchain

Blockchain is technology that allows for a distributed and continually updated record of transactions. Blockchain has no single point of failure and cannot be controlled by any one entity. Bitcoin, for example, relies on blockchain.

Bounce Rate

The percentage of visitors who leave a website after viewing only one page.

Brand Equity

The value that comes from the perception of a brand name rather than the value of a product or service itself — i.e. the social value of a brand name.

Brand Heat

Akin to buzz or hype, generating brand heat refers to igniting strong interest in a brand — who doesn't want that?

Brand Identity

Any visual or verbal brand element that showcases the brand's desired image while telling a meaningful story. Essentially the tangible brand elements that create a business's identity: logo, brand mark, brand colors, type, etc.

Brand Safety

Brand safety encompasses the strategies and technologies used to make sure ads are placed only in contexts that would not harm the brand. Tools for this are often added to ad exchanges.