Sponsor (Oct-Dec 1964)

PROBING THE CURRENTS AND UNDERCURRENTS OF BROADCAST ADVERTISING Mohammed goes to the mountain A characteristic that could never be attributed to air media selling, in general, is inflexibility. It may have been a little slow in bending with the times, but bend it has, and in time. Right now there's some heavy thinking going in spot tv ranks about the advisability of engaging in a bit of ratecard bending. The principals in the contemplated exercise are one of the top tv reps and the management of a tv station in the prairie Midwest. The bending they have in mind is related to a problem that confronts many a tv station at the moment: how to get moving those many unsold prime time 20s. The station and rep in question are about to experiment with what they think will solve some of the problem. The nub of their plan: offer advertisers the opportunity to place 30-second commercials in vacant chainbreaks at the 20-second rate. The reasoning behind the proposal: (1) as long as the networks allow piggybacks, agency creative people will think in terms of 30-second commercials, (b) the 30-second commercial has become the preponderant unit in tv, and network advertisers are loaded with them, (3) the 20-second commercial is not especially favored among agency copywriters, (4) stations might as well face these circumstances realistically and come up with economically facile ways of bringing the 30s into the spot fold. NBC-TV eases Saturday a.m. tab The head-to-head rating scramble that exists among the three tv networks Saturday mornings has already begun to affect the pricing. NBC-TV is taking the initiative in revising the Saturday a.m. ratecard. The prime objective: keep the Saturday morning business it's got from cancelling out or moving elsewhere. The gambit: divide the ratecard into three cycles and grant stipulated discounts to those advertisers who stay on from one cycle to another. Cycle I is September through December; cycle II is January through April; cycle III is May throught August. Advertisers who stay through the second cycle are entitled to a 10 percent discount. If they come in January and stay through the summer they're entitled to a 20 percent discount plus the 10 percent discount available for the second cycle. If an advertiser goes 52 weeks, he'll get a 10 percent discount, in addition to the 30 percent. The September-December period is the one that's loaded with toy manufacturers. NBC-TV figures that, if the inducement is potent enough, the toy people will becomes year-around advertisers, instead of flocking away after Christmas. Whitman loyal to spot radio The kingpin cigar makers, like General and Consolidated, have chosen to pass up spot radio this time for Christmas selling, but that's not so with a kingpin in the box-candy line. Whitman. The Whitman schedule, out of Gardner, will run from Dec. 12 through Dec. 24, which is par for the Whitman course in recent years. Another brand in the sweets field that's joined the national spot radio Christmas parade is Mission Pak (figs and dates). It's a first time nationally for the brand. The campaign's span: Dec. 7 to Dec. 22. $3 million kitty for 1965 The billings outlook for NBC-TV daytime during the forepart of 1965 was appreciably bolstered last week with the writing of about $3 million worth of business. The commitments: P. Lorillard (for Kent). $750,000; Simoniz ($700,000); United Fruit, $750,000; Armour, $350,000; Gillette (Right Guard), $300,000; McKesson & Robbins, $90,000. NBC-TV is virtually sold out in the afternoon, even though it's moving a new show. Moment of Truth, a Bob Maxwell soap opera, into the 2-2:30 p.m. slot Jan. 4. The week before that, in the same period, ABC-TV will have unveiled its own new serial. Flame in the Wind. Basics of B-M's spot umbrella Bristol-Myers' current negotiations for block spot deals in major tv markets may be the forerunner to a new concept in corporate planning. The concept starts off with the premise that the company knows how much money it will spend for tv spot in the top markets for the coming year. Next comes the assumption that a guaranteed annual block payment to a station will assure the -CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE November 23, 1964 23