Sponsor (Oct-Dec 1964)

PROBING THE CURRENTS AND UNDERCURRENTS OF BROADCAST ADVERTISING best availabilities at good efficiencies — that is, efficiencies below the CPMs that Bristol-Myers had been able to obtain lately for its stable of products. The agency negotiator for Bristol-Myers, knowing what the corporate spot needs for the coming year will be, sets up a framework of spots, in prime time, daytime and fringe time, if the desired framework is accessible, the station gets the deal guaranteeing it so many dollars over the year, portioned out quarterly. The corporate fund of spots then becomes available, as and when required, to Buffcrin, Excedrin, Vitalis, Score, Ipana. Ban, Grove's 4-Way, etc. It is logical to assume that the Bristol-Myers approach will be closely observed by such other massive tv spot buyers as P&G, Colgate and General Foods. Network pull: young vs. old The tv networks can get a fairly penetrative picture of how they stand with the various age types from the latest ARB national ratings. If they take the top 25 rated programs and break them out as to homes, persons, men, women, teens and children, they'll get a popularity cross-section as follows: BRACKET Homes Persons Men Women Teens Children ABC-TV 11 11 9 9 14 12 CBS-TV 11 11 n 12 9 10 NBC-TV 3 3 5 4 2 3 TOTAL 25 25 25 25 25 25 Commentary: (I) The top three programs on ABC-TV favored by the teenagers were Bewitched, Patty Duke and My Three Sons. (2) Even though NBC-TV is regarded as the more adult male-oriented network, it has three series that have a particularly strong pull for the youngest set, namely Bonanza, Disney and Flipper. The programs that registered best with the adult males were Bonanza, Disney, The Virginian, NCAA Football. L&M's lift for spot television A bright spot in a dull week for national spot tv sales: Liggett & Myers will use spot tv (along with spot radio) for the introduction of Masterpiece pipe tabacco. The campaign's commercial footnote: Eva Gabor has the "spokeswoman" role. Meanwhile, Hunt Foods made the week even duller by asking tv stations on the Wesson Oil list to agree to a hiatus for the whole month of December. The schedule would be reactivated Jan. 4. The request posed a dilemma for stations: if they turned it down, they took a chance of not having the business in January. Other year-end cutbacks that preceded Hunt Foods': Chescbrough-Pond's Vaseline hair tonic and Colgate's Cashmere line. Colgate emphasized its cutback by advising stations that it would not accept makegoods during the remainder of any schedules; the miss-outs would have to be treated as credits. Low incomers prefer news to movies Some factors about movies-vs.-news average ratings that may come as a surprise to you: (1) the low income group prefers news over movies, (2) news is getting a better viewing break in C and D counties than in the more heavily populated areas, (3) the upper income level cares least for news but almost as much for movies as the middle-income bracket. You'll find all this in the following computed analysis which Nielsen did for Sponsor Scope, using the 1964 JanuaryFebruary period as a base: DEMOGRAPHICS A counties B counties C counties D counties Low income Middle income Upper income 1-2 families 3-4 families 5 plus families Note: The average percentage for movie viewing was 18.3 and for news 13.9. More product bows for radio Spot radio was brought in on a couple of new products, namely Underwood Chicken Spread (William Underwood & Co.) and Tapper Keg (Reynolds Metals). K&E Boston is placing the chicken spread schedule, to run five weeks, starting Jan. 11. Lennen & Newell is doing the buying for the aluminum keg, which is in the test market stage. As for the keg's uses: it contains a gallon of draft beer; it's available at retail stores, with a deposit for the keg. It adds another competitor to the beer container market. MOVIES NEWS 20.1 11.7 18.2 14.9 16.9 16.1 15.5 15.0 13.7 15.5 20.5 14.0 19,2 12.1 12.8 15.1 20.9 13.7 21.8 12.3 24 SPONSOR