Sponsor (Oct-Dec 1964)

Life Insurance Institute is supported by 179 life insurance companies representing more than 90 percent of the business.) No doubt the institute's decision to use tv — and the fact that it has continued to use it — has sparked interest in the medium among member companies. "We wanted to create a sense of excitement inside and outside the industry," says Donald Barns, vice president of the institute. "Several ideas were weighed. One of the ideas involved people discussing the services that their agents had performed; another revolved around the agent himself. It was at this point that the institute and its agency (J. Walter Thompson) realized that no one could be said to look like the "typical" insurance agent. By using tv, however, the camera itself served as the agent with the viewer, in effect, playing the leading role. This helped him see various situations through the eyes of an agent calHng on clients — i.e. from a professional point of view. The institute's introduction to tv came as a participating sponsor of CBS election coverage in 1962. This schedule was for one week, beginning with pre-election shows and continuing through post-election wrap-up. To test the resuhs, the institute did some market research. Its agency set up a bcfore-and-after study of the fall tv debut and the simultaneous print campaign. In the first phase 600 males (heads of randomly selected telephone households in six markets) were interviewed to obtain their attitudes about life insurance and agents. The second phase consisted of 1200 interviews among heads-of-families in the same markets, including questions about ad awareness. Of the men interviewed, 70 percent said they had seen at least one of the tv commercials or print ads and 26 percent said they could recite at least part of the advertising theme. No shift of attitudes was expected from such a short campaign, but in almost every case more favorable attitudes were expressed among those who saw the advertising than among those who didn't. The percentage of men who indicated a willingness to listen to an insurance agent rose from 53 Prudential Life Insurance Co. of America is the longest continuous sponsor (for seven years) of a network television current affairs program— "The Twentieth Century" shown on CBS. percent to 58 percent; to discuss coverage, from 46 percent to 54 percent; to consider buying, from 16 percent to 23 percent. As a result, the institute's assertive decision to continue using tv came as no surprise. The commercials were shifted into a six-week spot schedule and in 1963 appeared on several network specials. This year the institute spent $2 million to buy one-fifth of CBSTV's convention-election package. Institute spots appeared during the Republican and Democratic conventions and during four tv profiles of the candidates. Pre-election coverage, election returns and postelection reports are also included in the package. Current broadcast activities of life insurance companies are as follows: • Confederation Life is concentrating on a radio-newspaper mix. "This year's campaign has a new look," says David Pogson, advertising supervisor. "With our entry Miracles take time MFA Insurance Companies, says director of advertising W. Judd Wyatt, uses a radio network "about as big as the CBS and NBC radio networks — 200 stations." If it needs further help, it likely gets it from the 73 tv stations on which MFA Insurance also buys time. And radio has produced its "miracles." On a recent nighttime talk show carried by WHAS Louisville, for example, one listener phoned emcee Milton Metz to ask a question; What, exactly, do the "MFA" initials stand for? Metz pretended he wasn't quite sure. But listeners were, and the station was deluged with replies. Ultimately the program became a veritable "party line." In fact, two long-lapsed friendships with sponsor executives (cited in references to MFA Insurance) were renewed on the air, with the executives, in turn, calling in to say thank you. Stan Grieve of KLIK Jefferson City, Mo., heard the show as he drove to his cabin, also called in to say that his outlet, too, carried MFA commercials. Out-of-staters became involved just to renew old Kentucky ties. MFA Insurance Companies showed great delight at the sudden, unplanned and unexpected show of loyalty. "But," it advised its agents, "you can't expect miracles from just two weeks of radio advertising." The company had been sponsoring the WHAS talk show for all of eight months. What do the initials mean? Missouri Farmers Assn. Insurance Companies. November 2, 1964 33