Sponsor (Oct-Dec 1964)

travel turns to tv a major travel presentation for potential users of tv in this field. Significantly, tliere's evidence tliat many of television's new-found dollars come from former newspaper appropriations. Observing on that, Roger Bumstead, vice president and media director at the Kelly Nason advertising agency, says: "While newspaper advertising still commands the lion's share of travel promotion dollars, steady indicators are pointing clearly toward a slow but decisive change in the media patterns of the leaders in America's $30 billion travel industry." That industry currently contributes nearly $80 million in national advertising revenue to newspapers each year, an increase of 25 percent over 1958, Bumstead points out. In contrast, the growth of tv advertising by travel companies is startling. Using 1958 spot and network television as a base, 1963 shows a gain of 170 percent. In dollars that means only $16 million, but the trend towards greater use of tv is clearly there, Bumstead says. Magazines, too, have growing accounts in travel advertising, up 73 percent to $40 million last year. While the improvement is impressive, it's clearly not as great as television's. Neither complete nor historical records exist on radio advertising expenditures, but seven travel organizations appeared among the Radio Advertising Bureau's list of "the top 50 spot users in 1963." These seven companies spent $12 million. One was American Express, whose radio budget exceeded $1,250,000. All the others were airlines. "Elmo Roper recently reported that newspapers have slipped and become the nation's secondary medium for news," Bumstead observes. "It may well be that newspapers are also gradually being eased from their dominant position as the major vehicle for travel advertising. "The volume of travel advertising in newspapers has remained comparatively unchanged since 1961, even if you make allowances for last year's strikes of New York and Cleveland newspapers," says the agency media director. "Early reports on major market lineage so far this year indicate that 1964 might now show a decline." The fact that tv's gain has sometimes been newspaper's loss is evident from percentage changes in airline ad expenditures for both media from 1962 to 1963 (see table V). Since the travel industry as a whole has prospered and travel advertising as a whole has increased, it is no surprise that all media should benefit to some degree. However, the chart shows that, in cases where the necessary figures for comparison were available, tv's share of budget either improved more than newspapers' or improved when newspapers' share of budget did not. Percentage changes in airline expenditures from 1962 to 1963, compiled by TvB, are as follows: TWA: spot tv allocations up 99 percent, newspaper allocations down 1 0 percent; Pan American: spot tv dollars up 33 percent, newspaper dollars down 8 percent; Eastern Air Lines: spot tv up 750 percent, newspaper up 4 percent, to name a few (Be cause of market structure, most travel advertisers use only spot tv.) Even though the past two years showed a marked enthusiasm for tv among travel advertisers, definite signs of interest in tv occurred as early as the 1956-1961 period. In those five years, air travel advertising on tv increased 106 percent; bus tv advertising increased 116 percent; rail tv advertising decreased 15 percent. The mushrooming interest in tv at the present time can be attributed in some degree to the newspaper strikes in Cleveland and New York in the winter of 1962-63. At least, it was during that period that several giants in the airline industry tried tv for the first time — and liked it. These airlines include Eastern, Northeast, United, National and "With tv we're reaching a selective audience of businessmen, travelers and vacationers," says an official of the Hertz company. Best comment on the Jamaica Tourist Board commercial came from a competing ad agency: "It made me want to go to Jamaica." 34 SPONSOR