Sponsor (Apr-June 1959)

As many agencies switch personnel, SPONSOR ASKS; What radio/tv manpower is needed Agency operations are tightening up, with executive changes, job shifts. Here admen tell the type of radio/tv personnel in demand Lance Lindquist, <•/'• & asso. dir. of ii imlii) \mi.. WcCann-Erickson, Inc., N.Y. To get a clear picture of the type of manpower and talent most needed in a modern advertising agency's tv/ radio department, it is useful to examine such a department's proper function. In terms of networks, packagers, talent agencies and film companies, it is the middle ground of understanding between the needs and desires of clients and the potential of the supplier. It is an amalgam of the talents of many kinds of experience in the television and radio fields. The small agency must combine many skills and much diverse experience into a few people; the large agency, especially one which moves in the production field, can permit people to specialize more deeply and more truly. Basically, however, both large and small shops must achieve the same important ingredient of perspective. There is no easily defined starting square, as in a parlor game; there is no college training course that is a magic kc\ for everyone. Experience Agency-clientproductionmedia perspective in an\ one of the various kinds "I operations that makes up the broadi asting business can be useful ; but the agenc) field ran boasl thai some of its most successful t\ executives and it r ? 1 1 . — t able creative people came through agency ranks, with a minimum of outside expei ience. The ingredient most needed is perspective. It is not enough to know thai a producer * altitude can some times be inimical to a clients best interests; it is important to know \\h\ he takes the attitude. It is easier to convince a network of some needed change in the lead-in to a program if we have an understanding of the network's economical and philosophical motives for the scheduling. The apparent foibles of individual station operation are more clearlv understood by an agency man who was in station operation. As television's costs have increased, so have its complexities. With a three-network, multi-station situation, competition makes it more important than ever before that effective, expert programing be the rule. Talent, skills and perspective from all the related fields are needed. Robert J. "Bud" Stefan, v.p. in charge, BBDO, Hollywood The type of tv, radio manpower most needed by advertising agencies today is ideally a broadcasting composite. At least this is true in the Hollywood office of BBDO, where our main functions are the supervision of programs originating in Hollvwood and commercials selected to be produced here. In our New York office, the requirements differ because ihev are also involved in other vital areas of radio and television apart from production itself. When television began to revolutionize broadcast advertising, a solid radio background was no longer enough. A decade ago agency management, to properly service an account, sou-bl young men from television stations because the tv station was the onlv source of qualified tv personnel. Shortlv after, film produced especially for television became a tremendous Factor, and management again went outside this time to film studio liu specialists. \\ iih the advance ol film programs and him commercials, the agency production supervisoi on some of the I. n ■ • . • r aci ounts foi M sponsible for both live and film pi duction — each method with its own peculiar specification. Moreover, today we have video tape with its own amazing qualities. Fortunately, at BBDO-Hollywood the overwhelming majority of our people came to us from all the various fields represented. Assignments Personnel experienced in every phase of broadcast are carefullv made with consideration given to individual experience. However, it is rare indeed today to question whether a program is on film, on live or on tape. It is simply on tv. To say that we now onlv interview a person with tv station experience, with a few years of film production, with a background in video tape, with a thorough knowledge of radio, with seasoning in an advertising agency and still young in years, would be obviousl) idiotic. Certainly, however, a young man should have a solid background at the very least in one of the above methods of broadcasting production, with the ability to quickl) learn and adapt to the others. A reallv good writer writes for radio, feature motion pictures, telefilms, or live tv. There is no substitute for good writing. There is no substitute for good production, nor is there a substitute for good supervision. It's absolutely true that the advertising agenc) today must expect a lot of it radio iv manpower, but a client spending today's huge sums of money is certainly entitled to it. Walter Selden, senior producer, tv department, SSC&B, Veui Yuri; 1 11 a commercial film studio or live at a network, there i onlv out basic in a successful advertising agency, and that's business: real insight into ,11 SPONSOR n XI 959