Sponsor (Oct-Dec 1964)

The filming of shoppers for use on local tv shows gave the campaign ,i per onal touch and was considered "one of the major factors contributing to the success of the promotion." considered scrapping the whole promotion. The association, which represents most of the North CaroUna city's downtown merchants and four major shopping centers in the area, had invested healthy budgets in newspaper and radio advertising. The reaction of local customers had become so resistant that "sales days" were at least disappointing, if not downright flops, according to an association spokesman. At a meeting of the group in August, Richard Barron — assistant to President Harold Essex of WSJS-TV — asked the advertisers to give the "Bargain Days" sales promotion one more chance, and offered to organize and carry out a complete promotion on WSJS radio and television at little or no cost. Barron pointed out that "Bargain Days" were something that the people of Winston-Salem and the surrounding areas had looked forward to each year and that a failure to rekindle interest and excitement in the promotion would be a disservice to the community. The retail organization gave Barron the go-ahead and he promptly organized and ran a radio and television promotion that cost the association exactly $614. The promotion was spread over a three-week period during which time the radio Representatives of the Reynolda Manor Shopping Center congratulate Reese Felts, WSJS promotion director, for his role in the most successful "Bargain Days" sale the marchants ever had. Fire truck in background was one of attention-getting features used in promotion. and tv stations estimate donating about $10,000 in time and talent. The impact of the campaign was felt on the very first day of "Bargain Days," according to the association. "On opening day we had more sales excitement and more women fighting to get to our specials than anytime in our history," says Neil Bedinger, a member of the downtown store group. Total volume increased an average of 20 percent with many stores reporting increases as high as 50 percent. The four shopping centers which had joined in this combined advertising and promotion campaign for the first time were impressed with the results. Said Sidney Shapiro of Thruway Shopping Center: "At last we're on the right track. We had more cars, more people and more business for the three-day sales period than we ever had before." One of the stores in the shopping center — Stanley's Shoes — had more customers than it could handle and had to turn people away. The key to the promotion, according to Dick Barron, who supervised the plan, was suspense and saturation. "We used a teaser campaign to whet consumer appetites," says Barron. "We called it our Operation BDACTW-S (Bargain Days Are Coming To Winston-Salem) and we received a lot of comment. With teaser spots on local radio and tv programs, we really had people in the Piedmont area wondering what BDACTW-S really meant." The stations' follow-up to the teaser campaign was to provide entertainment at all the shopping centers and downtown stores, starring WSJS air talent which continued from "pre-bargain" sale through the final days of the sale. The campaign's success was good news to the stations as well as the advertisers. "Not only were we able to provide an excellent community service for our audience," says Harold Essex, president of WSJS, "but we were able to deliver a convincing example of what radio and television together could do for some very skeptical retailers who were the main recipients of the campaign's success. ♦ 48 SPONSOR