Sponsor (Oct-Dec 1964)

marketing objectives are interrelated. For example, people with camon tlagcd lucky numbers in a recent "Instant Sweepstakes" for Armour's Dial soap could find out at once if they were winners by taking their coupons to the sink and washing off the water-solvent ink — a prime situation for also trying Dial soap. Shot in the arm In short, then, a good contest sells an idea as well as a product. And, like a doctor's innoculation, it can have important results, providing the right serum is used. Says one advertising manager who exacts anonymity as the price for his frankness: "What I — and others like me — predicted a long time ago has come to pass. Although we're spending an awful lot of money on tv, we're not identified anymore with the programs we sponsor. How can we be? There are too many other sponsors in there sharing the same program with us! A participation in tv has become like an insert in a magazine — it stands alone, without any help whatsoever from the vehicle that carries it. Unless, of course, you can figure out a way of interrelating the two or drawing extra attention to them." And that's where contests come in. Consider these tv examples: Clairol, /«c. recently ran a sweepstakes directly related to their tv advertising. In fact, it was called "ClairoFs daytime television sweepstakes" and its purpose was to make beauty salon owners aware of the gigantic tv effort Clairol makes on their behalf. "We figured," says a spokesman for the Clairol agency, Foote, Cone & Belding, "that women sitting under hair dryers with nothing to do might just as well give Clairol some thought." So they were asked to match identifying captions with Clairol's daytime television shows. Entrants were offered $5000 in cash as first prize to buy their favorite dream: "Win whatever prize comes into yoin head." The myriads of replies, which "ran all over the lot," proved that the girls were in there trying. Fittingly, winners were announced on daytime television. Fritos corn chips, through Dancer-Fitzgerald-Sample, used a contest to emphasize their association with Mr. Novak the NBC-TV nighttimer in which they were a participating sponsor. The sweepstakes was called "Find Mr. Novak," featured Novak-star James Franciscus in advertising and utilized point-of-purchase material that toed the same theme-line. First prize was a three-week coast-to-coast tour for four people. Several months after the end of the competition, Frito-Lay Corp. conducted surveys to see if the contest had done its job. This time, they were the most-cited sponsor of Mr. Novak. Mission accomplished. Liggett & Myers has conducted Tea for tv Tetley uses television contest to increase already large share-of-market in Philadelphia Gimmick mailing went to food trade members to illustrate how easily Tetley tea cartons can be packed up for special store displays. ■ A contest on tv only was Tetley Tea's answer to an unusual marketing problem. The problem: How to increase sales in Philadelphia when you already have a gigantic 32 percent share of that market? Tetley and its agency, Ogilvy, Benson & Mather, took their problem to the people, and did so via tv — plus a meticulously developed merchandising-contest scheme. Here's how it worked: Media selection, as noted, restricted activity to video only. The agency placed "an extensive number of spots" on CBS-owned WCAUTV Philadelphia and then virtually took over a local, live women's daytime program on the same station, called "Tv 10 Around Town." Program hostess Nancy Beebe and station personnel met with local Tetley representatives to help coordinate efforts. For its part, the tea sponsor (a division of Beech-Nut Life Savers, Inc.) determined to promote the contest exclusively on "Tv 10 Around Town" over a four-week period. (That period, incidentally, included a week of Republican National Convention preemptions.) For her part. Miss Beebe carefully explained contest rules on the air and sometimes even enlisted the help of her guests for the day. (One of them, visiting celebrity Arthur Godfrey, commented, "I used to sell that stuff — it's great. And what's more, I want some!" Contest rules were simple — and productive. Housewives were invited to enter lucky drawings by sending in either a Tetley label or facsimile. And every entrant won something, for each received a handsome iced tea spoon. Every week, there were drawings for an iced tea set — eight glasses and a matching ice tub, all packed in a portable serving rack. At the end of the four-week promotion, there was a grand-prize drawing for a silver tea service. For its part, the station promotion department backed up the contest with special projects of its own: The total tv schedule was promoted through a mailing to individual Tetley salesmen, telling them of the advertiser's efforts on their behalf. 34 SPONSOR