What the Hell is... Onsert?

An onsert is a standard marketing piece commonly used with newspapers and magazines, and recently applied to direct mail. It is a separate advertisement that is attached to a page of a publication or a customer mailing, and usually is in the form of a takeaway product, like a compact disc, magnet, or small booklet.

Onserts have recently been used to explore the field of scented advertising with newspaper companies like Gannett considering pages or stickers imprinted with smells. 

A derivative product of the onsert is the "onstatement," where advertisements are included on an invoice or account statement from a corporation with no distinction between the content.

Origin: Onserts were developed, and named in contrast to the insert (where a marketing piece is included within a publication). Early uses of onserts were the ubiquitous AOL membership CDs or the sticker covering the masthead of your USA Today.