Business screen magazine (1938)

SALES RESULTS WITH PICTURES Johns-Manville uses extensive film program "YoL ARE INVITED to attend a showing of the talking motion picture. Heal and Its Control . Thus, simplv. begins a promotional folder describing one of the Johns-Manville Company's latest film releases. Amply and richly illustrated with film "blow-ups" and descriptive data which have "sold many an educational institution, club, and other organization, the folder typifies the thoroughness and sincerity of J. M.'s motion picture eiforts. The Johns-Manville Company — whose history has been a series of marketing successes — is one of this country's oldest users of industrial films. Along with International Harvester and the Ford Motor Company they have contributed many important improvements and inno\ations in industrial film production and exploitation procedures. "We were among the first organizations which used films to spread a knowledge of our operations," a J. M. executive recently told Business Screen, ".^bout twenty years ago we produced a picture on asbestos, showing the process of extracting the mineral — demonstrating, too. many of its unusual properties. Distributed by the Bureau of Mines, Asbestos has been shown in numberless schools and colleges throughout the countr\ . with occasional revisions from time to time. This film still maintains its position as one of the most popular films on the Bureau of Mines" list. A new \ersion is being prepared this vear to take its place." The Johns-Manville Company has alw ays — since its adoption of the motion picture medium in the early silent days — been a sincere believer in well-planned "industrials. " With the advent of sound. compan\ ofiBcials decided to put the new medium to work with greater energv than before. More films were to be used, more subjects were to be treated. The company definitely decided its films must "tell the stories of its many products to ever wider and more diversified audiences." And the interim between the release of its first silent An interview nith one of America's ace merchandisers brings forth some significant and interesting data on industrial films. This is the first of a series of intimate interrieus uilh successful film users, to be presented in future issues of Business Screen. — The Editor. film, .4sbestos, and the latest J. M. film. Beneath the Surface, does indeed show remarkable progress. >0 SEPARATE FILM DIVISION The company, despite its many clearly-defined departments, found it best to keep motion pictures directlv in the .Advertising and Sales Promotion departments. It prefers to consider motion pictures as an advertising weapon — "an extremelv important weapon." Its film campaigns come under the jurisdiction of H. M. Shackelford, Sales Promotion Manager, with production problems in the hands of E. A. Phoenix, .'\ssistant Sales Promotion Manager in charge of Industrial Materials. Mr. Phoenix, who is responsible for the films in their final form, works doselv with the producers. Those films, howexer, which feature the company's building materials are personally supervised bv Mr. Shackelford. The story script is written to sell the product — such as home-insulation. Professional talent only is secured. The production must be thoroughly "Hollywood" in its technical quality, and to this end production facilities must be of the finest obtainable. SALES AND PI BLICITY-FILMS EQUALLY l.MPORT.ANT Johns-Manville does not confine its films to set tvpes. The films are rather designed to meet such specific needs as mav arise — be they sales-promotional, publicity, or institutional in nature. A definite sales problem was brought to light by the comparatively new Transite pipe — a composition of asbestos and cement. The new pipe was to be introduced to members of i\ater commissions. in both large and small towns — to men w ith widely varying degrees of technical knowledge. Inder the Surface was made. The film, it is said, "offers a far more comprehensi\ e exhibition of the qualities of Transite than any field demonstration could possibly undertake, and offers it in the comfort of the ( prospect's I office. After the picture is run off, there is usually a period for questions. Dramatic in its presentations, it has been found to sw^av man\ skeptics; questions and answers clear away slight misunderstandings that may have arisen previous to the showing." Last years film, The House that Ann Built, was made to help solve sales problems which involved the consumer prospect. It is a story calculated to please grown and juvenile audiences alike . . . tells how Ann Stone effects a reconciliation between her mother — who desires a new home — and her father — sentimentally attached to the homestead. Johns-Manville building material makes the new home out of the old one, in a really convincing renovation. More than a hundred thousand people, it is estimated, have viewed this film. Its running time is about 35 minutes, and the company has been using forty 10mm. prints, six 35mm. Like The House that Ann Built, When Winter Comes was slanted toward the consumer prospect . . . contains much interesting material, an enlivening story, with unobtrusive publicity brought down to a minimum footage. A demonstration — this time featuring the value of insulation for keeping out the cold — plays an important "role in the picture. Twentv-fi\'e prints in circulation ha\"e "done a good job toward publicizing insulation material". The ever-popular humorous treatment is resorted to in Those Hot Summer Days, a counterpart of the above-mentioned film. It. too. has been instrumental in selling many consumer prospects on Rock \^ ool Home Insulation. I Continued on Page 55 1 Heat rays melt ice in /-l/'s "Heat &. Its Control" .onvection en rrenls illustrated by shadowgraph 23