Sponsor (Oct-Dec 1964)

tivc, Draddy explains, unless you want to resort to the very general final goal — to move goods. "Beyond that," he says, "all objectives are a series of objectives." Some of the more prevalent ones: to introduce a new product, to trumpet an "old" product that's newly improved or revised, to open new markets or increase distribution, to counteract strong competition, to build an active consumer interest in a specific ad campaign, to provide salesmen with a door-opener, to win greater display or supermarket shelf space, to heighten corporate prestige, perhaps even to commemorate a product or company anniversary. An interesting story of objectives Minute Maid used tv spots for contest . . . lies in the Champion Spark Plug promotion of several years ago. They'd had the idea of holding a contest several years before they ever undertook it, waiting until they felt the contest would coincide with their market needs — and, of course, deliver expected results. So says R.D. Kudner, Champion's advertising manager. In 1962, both advertiser and ''■^i¥^ saying viewers had "nothing to buy . . ." agency (J. Walter Thompson of Djtroit) figured the time was ripe. Champion wanted to perk up dealer interest in their line. The idea was to get consumers to ask dealers about Champion spark plugs — "to clear the way for any conversation between them." So they keyed their contest to the consumer, but offered a duplicate series of prizes to dealers, too. In this corner: ■ Who are the people that enter contests? From the advertising point of view, they're just about the pick of the crop — multi-childrened, urbanliving, home-and-car-owning young marrieds that comprise a high stratum of the buying public. That's the report of Martin J. Landis, executive vice president (and the "L") of D. L. Blair, contest-planning firm. (The "D" of D. L. Blair is Cy Draddy — see adjacent article. The Blair is "just something we thought of.") Landis recently revealed results of a survey their firm has taken of nearly 2400 atrandom individuals who'd actually entered either a contest or sweepstake. About 25 percent had entered two or three contests during the previous year, and a comparable number had been entering them for 1015 years. If contests represent daydreams, these people were trying repeatedly to make them come true. And they reported submitting from two to five entries for each competition. Of the total sample, 1220 people had entered contests (84 percent of whom were women) and 1170 had entered sweepstakes (53.4 percent women). Although the ladies clearly led the way, note that there was a beefy 46.6 percent of men among the sweepstake entrants. Divided into those who had entered contests (skill) vs. those who had entered sweepstakes (chance), they proved to have differing — and firm — attitudes about the two formats. In particular, the contest group had a strong tendency to shy away from anything that smacked of gambling. And since nearly half the sweepstake group was composed of men (with only a slight 16 percent of males entering contests), it seemed clear that the boys were more willing to take a chance — "draw the lucky number and let it go at that." Both groups corroborated their attitudes when it came to matching word associations. Contest entrants, for example, were clearly disposed towards showing skills and making an effort. They much preferred composing a jingle to letting the outcome depend on a risky drawing. In matching phrases, they linked together words like "jingle" with "requires intelligence" and "high chance of winning." But asked about sweepstakes, these same people picked words like "gambling" and "is morally wrong." Nevertheless, they had their practical point of view, too. Asked to cite an "excellent"' promotion form, the greatest number of these contest entrants — 35 percent — m. chose sweepstakes, even over such alternatives as 25-word statements (24.6 percent), jingles (23.3 percent) or word games (10.1 percent). Sweepstake entrants showed greater loyalty to the format they had participated in. They reported that they liked games of chance. They said, yes, they'd take the trouble to mail in a box top — or even to obtain their entry form at a store. But they doubted they'd ask for the form if it weren't on display and easily accessible. And they appeared pretty determined not to solve any puzzles, do any versewriting or, certainly, to sit down and complete in 25 words a statement 36 SPONSOR