Sponsor (Oct-Dec 1964)

clidracter licensing ABC's Pleshette CBS's Benson NBC's Lunenfeld some instances, the world) through tv related merchandise in stores shop-windows and counters, plus ads in other media. And the tv networks, with a full roster of merchandise-ripe programs and characters, are ready. Each has at least one superior candidate for this season's big splash: • NBC-TV's is Daniel Boone, as portrayed by that familiar Westerner. Fess Parker, and already winner of an all-out welcome from licensed manufacturers (see Sponsor, July 6, p. 16). This promotion will be a hot one, possibly a controversial one and certainly one to watch. A full month before the show went on the air Sept. 24, some 14,000 dozen Daniel Boone tee shirts had already been sold. With 36 licensees signed and a comparable number in the works, Norman Lunenfeld, manager of merchandising, NBC Enterprises, sees "every indication of enormous success ahead." • CBS considers western merchandising at an ebb, will be banking (literally) on that redoubtable and profitable hoyden. My Fair Lady, the show CBS bankrolled on Broadway and that is now in national distribution as a movie. A "very extensive" group of products will be bearing the Fair Lady ligature, most of them intended for adults: Schrafft's chocolates. Lady Arrow blouses, Hanes stockings. Forthcoming are dresses, raincoats, costume jewelry. Murray Benson, director of licensing, CBS Films (a division of CBS Inc.), reports that his department has bettered its record every year for the last five "by a substantial margin," is currently enjoying "the best year we've ever had." (Last year, CBS Inc, itself, admitted that merchandising income had trebled in five years' time.) • ABC, deeply entrenched with a long and profitable Combat merchandising line, has another sure-fire winner on the line with its new program. The Addams Family. More than 60 different items will tie in with this wise (sales-wise) entrant that straddles both the expected vogue for "monster" merchandising and the perennially profitable area of just plain fun. Eugene Pleshette, ABC vice president-merchandising, notes that character licensing is intended to promote and is therefore "an important ancillary to network programing." As for The Addams Family, he puts a friendly finger squarely on their funny bone when he says "They think they're normal." Even moderate success for each of these three big entrants will mean that the networks collectively should more than match the $200 million that they probably added last year to the exclusive (but hardly limited) field of merchandising. Other companies that share the field with the networks include: Walt Disney, Jac Agency, Licensing Corp. of America, Music Corp. of America. Screen Gems and Western Merchandising Corp. (see chart). In combination, these nine leading merchandisers undoubtedly activate retail sales that measure in the hundreds of millions of dollars no small feat considering the field's modest price range: from 5 cents for bubble gum (with trading cards enclosed) to $25 (for fine art books, some clothing). The Sponsor's Gain As mentioned, tv sponsors stand to gain extra exposure through merchandising. The chain may seem circuitous: By seeing a sweatshirt on a counter (or a teenage boy), the consumer is visibly reminded of the tv show that inspired it; in turn, he may think of the advertiser that supports the show. But if he doesn't think that far, he presumably is encouraged to watch the program. Failing even that, it's believed he is at least encouraged to watch television. Thus, results are cumulative (and, of course, immeasurable. Yet, the theory remains that the greater the over-all tv audience, the greater are 28 SPONSOR