Sponsor (Nov 1946-Oct 1947)

TELEVISION AND SPONSOR I ( ontintud I velop a formula for selling through video. oe expects that sorcery will deliver advertising results in any medium without experimentation. "Test runs" are inexpensive now. And networks and stations have regularly established plans foi making the tests make sense. The American Broadcasting Company works with Richard Manville. in surveying the audience. The Columbia Broadcasting System, under the direction of Dr. Donald Horton, conducts "pan. s" on practically every show produced on \\ CBS TV formerly WCBU . Audience reactions are. therefore, available for study in developing an approach to getting that dollar, via pictures that fly through the air. (A typical panel being questioned by Dr. Horton is seen at the bottom of the page together with an excerpt from a program repoit. The real reason why so many leading sponsors and new sponsors have used the pictorial medium is none of the foregoing. Today television is a magic selling word, and the by-product of presenting a video program is promotion . . promotion that produces cash returns for savings large enough to pay off and justify being in the medium. Dual Purpose Pictures If the program is basically built of motion pictures then these very pictures have been found to be the best "entertainment" that a big corporation can offer its sales meetings. U. S. Rubber uses every motion picture taken for its video program for the sales promotion and has found that the pictures cost them 25 per cent of what they'd cost if they were especially taken for promotional use. The tag "shown in television" adds a news value that isn't available any other way. Any product that's "been shown on television" is more saleable. .Video is the only advertising medium which adds a "fashion appeal" to the products presented through it. In many cases (like Aquatogs) it's the keystone of a visual advertising campaign . . . and it works. How a sweater and wind breaker were given the "television touch" is shown in the Brooks Brothers show window on the bottom of the second page of this report. A window in a John David men's store on Fifth Avenue. York, stopped better than 7.000 pairs of eyes in one day. Every television window, even though all of them with receivers used in the displays have been static without any shows being seen on the face of the tubes, has been rated "tops" in their display appeal. Magic Ad-Word I only does television add an extra fillup to show windows and in-store displays but when the magic word of video is added to newspaper and magazine advertising, readership surveys indicate that it adds as high as 100 per cent readability the word alone well displayed adds at least 10 per cent in reading interest. Still Magnetic Despite the multiple false starts, air pictures are just as magnetic as they ever have been— when their by-products are used. Howevei there is no direct sale impact from the actual scanning of programs. That's because in Philadelphia there are a maximum of 100 sets in actual working order, in Chicago there are less than 500, in Los Angeles there's only a guess but the maximum is said to be less than 75. In Schenectady, home of General Electric, there are less than 200. Washington. D. C. has a few sets but 50 would be a high figure. Metropolitan New York has about 5,000 sets around town, with a maximum of 3,500 receivers in working order, many of which are located in veterans' hospitals. Even if any program had 100 per cent of the receivers in any area tuned to it. the sample would be so small, that "results" could be but a dream. That it's going to be a great selling medium, black and white or color, can't be questioned. There's nothing wrong with the medium that 100,000 receivers won't cure. PIED PIPER CONTESTS United from Pagi 29 publicity) at about five cents on the dollar, even though they're paying a little under four times that if the percentage of actual cash outlay alone is figured. That's because of the free air promotion, the station work on the selling, and the point-of-sale impression, which can't be estimated in cash. The only factor that can't be reported upon before the ABC Adventure Hour fanfare is sounded is the actual rating (listening) increase that will accrue to each of the programs. MBC promotion of its children's show line-up is simplicity itself. Mutual feels that it has the programs — Superman, Buck Rogers, Captain Midnight, Tom Mix, Hop Harngan, and The Adventures of the Sea Hound and expects that they'll grab the audience competitively without too much build-up. It's the Edgar Kobak 1 President of MBS theory that the right program requires promotion only before it hits the air. After it's made its microphonic bow, "the program," says Kobak, "must itself have what it takes to win an audience." MBS will start its 194(> 47 promotion with Hallowe'en. The feeling is that this holiday is one that permits the youngsters to let themselves go — with the approval of dad and mother. Masquerade parties are planned in most Mutual station cities, with awards for the best "Superman" costume as well as the best costumes for any or all the other characters who appear on the air at MBS kidtime. Wagons will tour the towns filled with Buck Rogers. Captain Midnights, and a host of other characters who will come to masked life for the evening. The idea is to take over the fun-day and make it a Mutual kid show rumpus. The general MBS moppet promotional plan started with plugs directly after the Gillette World Series broadcasts, with the idea that MBS hits its top audience during the games and that's the time to reach the short pants if not the petite female of the species. Mutual will follow this with a promotion built around a "typical American boy" and how he listens — to MBS kidshows. It's expected that the t.A.b. will serve as a focal point around which agencies, sponsors, and network will build a continuing appeal. Kid show promotion on the part of ABC and MBS will spark hundreds of like local promotions throughout the nation — they've gone to the juveniles to promote listening. That's where kid listening begins. 62 SPONSOR