The Line
As mentioned above, the line was born out of an accounting definition in terms of above the line (capital expenditure) or below the line (current expenditure). Colloquially, ATL means mass media. However the media landscape has shifted so dramatically that advertisers have reconsidered their definition of mass media.
For some marketers the "line" divides the realm of "Awareness or Attention focused marketing" and that of "Interest + Desire focused marketing". Since audience numbers in the Interest and Desire phase of the AIDA sales model narrow down to a fraction of the Awareness audience, the line could be drawn right below the awareness set of activities.
It could also be argued this is a reverse definition, i.e. the Line came before the above definition did. The Line more likely refers to the profit line of the agency, with above the line activities being more profitable (or at least profitable) for advertising agencies, and below the line activities of little value to agencies since they didn't involve large budgets and hefty kickbacks from media buying houses.
Read more about this topic: Below The Line (advertising)
Famous quotes containing the word line:
“If you’re anxious for to shine in the high esthetic line as a man
of culture rare,
You must get up all the germs of the transcendental terms, and plant
them everywhere.
You must lie upon the daisies and discourse in novel phrases of your
complicated state of mind,
The meaning doesn’t matter if it’s only idle chatter of a
transcendental kind.”
—Sir William Schwenck Gilbert (1836–1911)
“Anybody who’s been through a divorce will tell you that at one point ... they’ve thought murder. The line between thinking murder and doing murder isn’t that major.”
—Oliver Stone (b. 1946)