Today we're looking at an article about Facebook from the New York Times. As you may have heard, Facebook is making more and more money by selling ads on its site. In this article, we learn of a company finding success selling fish oil through Facebook. The words and idioms we'll focus on are highlighted in blue:
The idea was to come up with a big, sweeping campaign to market MegaRed, a premium alternative to fish oil pills, to users of the social network. Each ad had to be so compelling that it would get people to stop scrolling through their news feeds ...
But from where Mr. Rodrigues sat, as the guy who would write the checks for the proposed campaign, the Facebook people seemed to be missing an essential point.
The advantage of advertising on the world’s largest social network was that it could do something television ads could not: Using sophisticated analytics, it could help him find people who were already buying fish oil or other products that suggested they were concerned about the health of their hearts, and perhaps persuade them to switch to his brand.
At the meeting, the company’s ad strategists were saying they wanted him to spend money to show ads to every American woman 45 and older on Facebook. Finally, with some exasperation, Mr. Rodrigues — the marketing director for vitamins, minerals and supplements at Reckitt Benckiser, the company that owns MegaRed — blurted out what he’d been thinking. For that kind of broad blitz, he said, “I can go to television at a quarter the price.”
Now let's look at the highlighted words and phrases:
compelling - attracting interest; very interesting and appealing
missing [the] point - not understanding the problem; focusing on the wrong thing
exasperation - annoyance; intense irritation
to blurt out - to say suddenly or without thinking; to say something sensitive that nobody is expecting you to say
blitz - an advertising campaign (often a large one). Note: this is from the military, meaning a campaign in which bombs are dropped from airplanes
I hope you enjoyed this short Business English lesson! If you're looking for more Business English, please check out the new app Business English Negotiations for iPhone and iPad: http://bit.ly/UNaSCQ
