gimmick
an advertising trick
TRANSLATION
German translation: gimmick = die Werbegag, ausgefallene Idee, die Spielerei, der Kunstgriff (woerterbuch.info) --- GOOGLE INDEX gimmick: approximately 6,500,000 hits
STATISTICS
IN THE PRESS
Welsh Conservatives have labelled plans to pay teenagers who stay on at school £30 a week a GIMMICK.
(BBC News)
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No matter how skilful you are, you can't invent a product advantage that doesn't exist. And if you do, and it's just a GIMMICK, it's going to fall apart anyway.
- William Bernbach, legendary American advertising executive
(BBC News)
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No matter how skilful you are, you can't invent a product advantage that doesn't exist. And if you do, and it's just a GIMMICK, it's going to fall apart anyway.
- William Bernbach, legendary American advertising executive
Did you
know?
gimmick
noun
- an innovative stratagem or scheme employed especially to promote a project (an advertising gimmick)
- a significant feature that is obscured, misrepresented, or not readily evident (a catch)
- an innovative or unusual mechanical contrivance (a gadget)
- a small object whose name does not come readily to mind
(The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition)
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WORD ORIGIN
The exact origin of gimmick is unknown, although the Online Etymology Dictionary says it may stem from the word gimcrack, which is "a cheap and showy object of little or no use"
Furthermore, gimcrack may have evolved from the Middle English gibecrack, a small ornament.
While the American Heritage Dictionary lists several different definitions, the most common context is a feature or marketing device for drawing attention to something.
A gimmick can be of little or no value to the consumer, or it might provide a real benefit. In most cases though, describing a marketing strategy or a feature as a gimmick suggests that it's something one doesn't really need.
Despite the negative connotation, gimmicks play an important role in many marketing schemes, particularly when it comes to consumer products. A coffee cup warmer that plugs into the USB port of your computer, a laptop keyboard that you can roll up and take with you, a branding iron for burning your initials into a steak? For some people, these might be silly gimmicks; for others, something to put on this year's Christmas wish list!
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SYNONYMS
(strategy or scheme)
artifice, catch, contrivance, deceit, device, dodge, fake, feint, fixture, gadget, gambit, gizmo, imposture, jest, manoeuvre, means, method, ploy, ruse, shift, stratagem, stunt, trick
(a mechanical gadget)
contraption, dohickey, dojiggy, doodad, fandangle, gimcrack, gizmo, mechanism, thingamajig, whatchamacallit, widget
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SMUGGLE OWAD INTO YOUR CONVERSATION TODAY
say something like:
"Consumers are becoming more and more sceptical about gimmicks in internet advertising."
noun
- an innovative stratagem or scheme employed especially to promote a project (an advertising gimmick)
- a significant feature that is obscured, misrepresented, or not readily evident (a catch)
- an innovative or unusual mechanical contrivance (a gadget)
- a small object whose name does not come readily to mind
(The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition)
---
WORD ORIGIN
The exact origin of gimmick is unknown, although the Online Etymology Dictionary says it may stem from the word gimcrack, which is "a cheap and showy object of little or no use"
Furthermore, gimcrack may have evolved from the Middle English gibecrack, a small ornament.
While the American Heritage Dictionary lists several different definitions, the most common context is a feature or marketing device for drawing attention to something.
A gimmick can be of little or no value to the consumer, or it might provide a real benefit. In most cases though, describing a marketing strategy or a feature as a gimmick suggests that it's something one doesn't really need.
Despite the negative connotation, gimmicks play an important role in many marketing schemes, particularly when it comes to consumer products. A coffee cup warmer that plugs into the USB port of your computer, a laptop keyboard that you can roll up and take with you, a branding iron for burning your initials into a steak? For some people, these might be silly gimmicks; for others, something to put on this year's Christmas wish list!
---
SYNONYMS
(strategy or scheme)
artifice, catch, contrivance, deceit, device, dodge, fake, feint, fixture, gadget, gambit, gizmo, imposture, jest, manoeuvre, means, method, ploy, ruse, shift, stratagem, stunt, trick
(a mechanical gadget)
contraption, dohickey, dojiggy, doodad, fandangle, gimcrack, gizmo, mechanism, thingamajig, whatchamacallit, widget
---
SMUGGLE OWAD INTO YOUR CONVERSATION TODAY
say something like:
"Consumers are becoming more and more sceptical about gimmicks in internet advertising."
