Radio showmanship (Jan-Dec 1943)

bread the finest in nutrition value and to use its advertising as a wartime service to Southern housewives. In addition to being enriched, Southern Bread now contains Vitamin D. It was to tell the public of the advantages of this Enriched Extra Value Bread that Columbia launched its big double barrel advertising campaign through radio and newspapers this fall. In this campaign commercials were largely devoted to Government activities, and were strongly tied-up with the Food Fights for Freedom campaign. How comprehensive was this campaign to carry the story of Southern Bread into millions of southern homes? It extended over 27 radio stations (19 of which were on Class A time), and into 87 newspapers! It is interesting to note that the Radio Director of the Office of War Information wrote the Columbia president to personally thank him for making this patriotic contribution to the war effort. Having determined upon the media through which to create dealer and consumer good will and preference, Columbia's next problem was that of the selection of its radio sales vehicle. Columbia has learned from long experience that a good program broadcast at a good time is cheapest in the long run because it reaches the most people and it thus gives the advertiser more for his radio dollars! In the selection of the program, the advertiser must first of all decide upon the audience he wants to reach. Columbia needed a program to appeal to women, because the people who buy its breads and cakes are in the main, women. In slacks or skirts, America's homemakers are still the buyers, and more than ever are doing the budgeting, buying and brand-name remembering for America's manless families. Modern Romances, a transcribed series with mass appeal to reach the mass market, the great middle class market comprising more than 80 per cent of the families, was Columbia's answer. Quarter-hour dramatizations of stories appearing in the magazine of the same name were broadcast three times weekly for a 13-week period over 27 stations. Unlike the usual daytime serial, each one of these dramatizations is complete in one episode. Having selected its media and its program, Columbia did not drop the matter there. There's more to merchandising a product than that! To Columbia's way of thinking, it is as important to sell a show to its potential audience as it is to present big-time entertainment. The more you make listeners aware of the program, that is, the more the program is sold, the better the results both in terms of the size of the listening audience, and in actual sales. Today, since gas rationing has caused people to spend more time at home, this practice is especially productive. Because Modern Romances is a bigtime program with topnotch actors, Columbia gave it the benefit of a big-time build-up to attract the large audience it deserved. Starting two weeks before the first program went on the air, every one of the 27 stations in a five-state area carried 15-second chain breaks and 60second dramatized announcements giving a preview of the programs that were to follow. In addition, every week for the first eight weeks, advertisements appeared on the radio pages of the newspapers in the cities in which the programs were heard to help attract listeners. It all adds up to a graphic illustration of the original thesis. Success in the baking industry depends to a high degree upon adequate merchandising with dealer and consumer. With Columbia, radio is an integral part of that policy. 402 RADIO SH OWMANSH I P