Reel and Slide (Mar-Dec 1918)

12 REEL and SLIDE Moving Pictures Take Their Place in the Export Business By E. J. Clary IN the rapid advancement of the motion picture screen as the servant of big business, there has been a tendency to overlook one of its greatest uses, though it cannot by any means be truthfully said that this use has been entirely overlooked. I refer to the adaptation of motion pictures in the export business. No matter how^ well the nifty American salesman may understand his product and his firm's policies, he usually can only talk foreign languages in a medicore fashion and too often he cannot get the foreign buyer's viewpoint at all. For this reason motion pictures are doing wonders and will do more wonders still in spreading American goods over the face of mother earth. In a suitcase projector, a tractor, piece of mill machinery or a printing press may be "carried" in one hand to Peru and be visually demonstrated before the eyes of a Lima publisher in the one universal "language" that all the world can understand, convincingly and interestingly. "Samples" That Can't Be Carried It is chiefly in the case of cumbersome products which are costly and risky to ship and almost as difficult to describe in words (especially in a strange tongue) that the motion picture steps in and aids the export salesman. This has been proven beyond any doubt in scores of cases since the war began and since the United States has become the huge supply house for Spanish countries to the South. To-day, the salesman with a portable projector in his baggage is a common sight in Rio and Buenos Aires, in Lima and Pernambuco, and in the farthest interior districts where human beings need and have the money to buy American goods. A Chicago printing press maker not long ago made motion pictures of each meritorious feature of his presses. He sought a market in South America. His advertising staff and sales manager studied the South American buyer, his foibles, his needs and his viewpoint. These films were built up on the result. The titles were prepared in Spanish. In one of them some interesting \dews of Chicago were interpolated to arouse interest. Four men sailed for South America accompanied by no printing presses, but armed with these films. It was, at that time, a novelty. They were able to get the attention of the Spanish business man, the printer and the publisher by offering to exhibit a film for him in his home. Often the salesmen were compelled to secure current from a hired automobile in order to show their pictures. The results achieved bv this sales method are well known. The films were so convincing and told their sales story so well that prospects became buyers. Reaching the World's Farmers The story of the printing press films is only one of many instances where motion pictures have served the export salesman. Before the war, one manufacturer of harvester machinery sent live salesmen into Russia equipped with motion pictures showing the cumbersome, but highly efficient, American tractor, baler and reaper in operation on the grain fields of Illinois. Titles in Russian made everything clear. The salesman had little to do but say, "look." This same company is making many new films of improved farm implements with which it will reach out to the farmers of the world. The titles will be duplicated in every language. Wherever grain grows and farmers exist these films will reach. In countries where illiteracy is rife and where the population is skeptical of the foreigner, the motion picture offers the very best opportunities possible. A more or less illiterate buyer will believe anything he actually sees, where he will discovmt what he hears. In cases where it is impossible to convey samples of export goods long distances, the motion picture will show effectively the merits of the merchandise comparable to a sight of the real article. An Iowa manufacturer of patent washing machines found a ready sale for his goods in Japan. He found many difficulties in the way of transporting samples, vet washing machines and their merits are not easy to describe in Japanese words. He hit upon the motion picture. His film depicted the operation of the machine in the essential details, pointing out their convenience, labor "saving devices and the results. The same films, incidentally, with English t'tle<; have been used effectively in door-to-door canvassing in the United States. Whether in Timbuctu or Manhattan, the average housewife cannot withstand the lure of seeing a real "movie" in her parlor. Thus, the salesman gets attention at once. Once in this frame of mind, selling becomes easy. It is especially the case in foreio'n lands, where the motion picture is less common. It is especially true with people of less :iiiiiiiiiiiiiaiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiuiiiiiiinii!3 Ad Slides — Good and Bad A Department of Criticism, Edited for Reel and Slide Magazine by Jonas Howard THE average advertising lantern slide is too wordy, and tries to tell too much. The result is they often convey nothing to the audience of value to the advertiser. Now, the most plausible reason for this no doubt lies in the fact that it is more of a job to say what you want to say in few words than it is in many. Perhaps the slide maker is partly to blame for this. He is inclined to accept "copy" without comment, reproducing the wants of the customer regardless of his own convictions in the matter. The question naturally arises, what, if anything, should the slide man have to jay about copy? Since his business is making slides, he should freely make his experience available to the customer. For, how many advertisers seriously consider the conditions under which lantern slides are seen. Lantern slides of themselves have no advertising value; only the exhibition of the, image before groups of people makes the slide of value -as a medium, and even though the slide gets widespread and continuous showings, just so much of it as the audience sees and grasps will be of benefit to the advertiser. Certain ad slides produced by the Erker Brothers Optical Company of St. Louis have come to the attention of this department recently. One of them is reproduced here. Note the wellbalanced character of this picture and its general tone. Without X. **.» C^'^\' / Blusts 2St2 mif?fewa^ ^* \ \ \ the trade name, it would carry the jeweler's message at once. It is graceful, suggestive, striking and modest all at once. It suggests action and tells a "story," which new ad slides are able to do. Yet, the trade name is apparent and forceful. This advertiser is getting all he pays for. For purely neighborhood exhibition, this is an ideal design. The idea of encircling the trade name, "Blust's," with the ring is a happy one. No eye could escape it even in a few seconds screen time. It is closely associated with the article being advertised and takes immediate advantage of the sketch which suggests diamond rings at a glance. That is about all a slide can do. If it does that well, it is a safe investment. This excellent ad slide would have been ruined if the regulation fancy border had been put around it. Its point of interest lies immediately where the eye alights first — in the center of the screen. understanding and vision, who will welcome the novelty of a picture— any kind of a picture — and who are nearly always "sold" on what they actually see with the eye. Scarcely any article produced in the United States fails to offer some opportunity for visualization. It is merely a matter of knowing the proper appeal to a particular race, their buying characteristics, their needs and their business methods. All this is coming to be realized rapidly, more rapidly than the average person has any idea of.