Above the line (advertising)

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See Above the line for other meanings and uses of the phrase.

Above the line (ATL) is an advertising technique using mass media to promote brands. Major above-the-line techniques include TV and radio advertising, web and internet banner ads. This type of communication is conventional in nature and is considered impersonal to customers. It differs from BTL (Below the line), that believes in unconventional brand-building strategies, such as direct mail and printed media(usually involve no motion graphics). The ATL strategy makes use of current media: television, radio, and the Internet.

The term comes from accountancy and is to do with the way in which Procter and Gamble, one of the world’s biggest clients, were charged for their media in the 1950s and 1960s. Advertising agencies made so much commission from booking media for clients that the creative generation and actual production costs of making TV ads was free - hence above the line. Everything else they paid for and was therefore below the line.

Since then, models have changed. Clients are no longer charged for their media in that way so the term has changed.^{[citation needed]}

Loosely, above the line still means mass media. However the media landscape has shifted so dramatically that advertisers have reconsidered the definitions of mass media.

For example, the proliferation of TV channels means that there is a far smaller likelihood that millions of people will be watching the same commercial at the same time than that a similar number will walk past the same communication in a supermarket.

Increasingly, the skills learnt in below the line advertising such as specific targeting and specification of communication are being used in mass media, particularly the internet.