Sponsor (July-Dec 1949)

ii i| ii in advertising duce enough direct-mail sales to justify its rates. Frequently what is a straight PI deal on one station is broadcast by another station under a regular rate card contract, but with special cancellation clauses. As soon as direct-mail sales fall below a certain figure, in conies the cancellation. Thus, the Literary Guild may buy Hi Jinx on the NBC flagship station WNBC for a minimum contract and "gamble" on producing enough direct sales of memberships to the Guild under the maximum cost-per-member, but everyone involved in the contract knew that as soon as WNBC's audience had been bookmilked dry, Jinx Falkenburg and Tex McCrary would have to find new sponsors— and they did, despite a really topnotch selling job for the Guild. This is PI advertising with rate-card blessing. It isn't loved by anyone in broadcasting, and there are very few agencies equipped to watch all the stations on the list for a campaign such as this, so that memberships are sold at the right cost. Has PI advertising any place on the air? The National Association of Broadcasters officially says "no" and does its best to discourage it. It does not discourage the buying of time for direct-mail selling, even though it realizes that it's Pl'ing by firms that can afford to do it with cash. Even newspapers with the toughest of advertising-acceptance rules, such as The New York Times, have of late added "shopping sections" that are really directmail selling sections. Thus, a great metropolitan newspaper recognizes PI advertising, for if an advertisement doesn't produce enough direct sales in a section like this, it isn't run again. 4 JULY 1949 There is one outstanding difference between printed advertising that is run only if it produces direct sales to pay off, and broadcast advertising of the same type. The reader doesn't have to read those advertisements. It's practically impossible to avoid them on the air if the radio set is tuned to the station carrying them. Broadcasters are most concerned with per-inquiry advertising that wants to get on the air without paying for time but only paying for sales. A great portion of this type of advertising pays such a high percentage of the direct-mail sales price as to tell the station manager at once that the product is dangerously over-priced. There's a reducing product direct-mail priced at $2.50, with the station getting $1.00 per order. Harmonica lessons with a "free" harmonica at $1.69 bring the station $.70. A Lone Ranger pen set with belt sells on the air for $1.98, with the station getting $.70 per sale. This pen set is advertised in the merchandise section of The Billboard for $.50 in gross lots. The fact that another PI operator offered the identical pen set to stations to sell on the air for $1.00 (the station keeping $.25 per order) will give some idea of how "deals" like this operate. The Lone Ranger pen offers were made by an agency in New York and a firm with a post-office box number in Waterloo, Iowa, for an address. The higher-cost deal operated from New York. Many of the per-inquiry offers are for products advertised in "merchandise" sections of publications like The Billboard, which have high readership among "specialty" salesmen. The danger to a station in giving way to temptation and airing the Lone Ranger pen offer at $1.98, while another station takes the $1.00 offer, needs no detailing. Newspapers and magazines may have comparative shoppers who are equipped to check "fairvalue" of advertised products. Obviously stations haven't — and everything that's said on the air is credited by a great majority of listeners as originating from and endorsed by the outlet. Complete and devastating evidence of this is obtainable at any station when a situation, or even a word, that shouldn't be on the air is broadcast. The switchboards at the stations light up like a Christmas tree when such a slip passes the microphone. Most per-inquiry sold products are willing to protect stations by refunding full purchase price if the buyer isn't satisfied. There's a rub to this. It's best explained by reprinting a postscript of a letter from a PI agency: " will refund the full cost to any purchaser through your station who is dissatisfied BUT do not make this fact part of the advertising copy." In other words, the seller will make good if the buyer squawks, but do not let the buyer know it. Some of the direct-mail sellers do use the "return if not satisfied and full purchase price refunded" appeal but they are the exception not the rule. Any station with a good listening audience can insist on this copy being included in the broadcast commercial, but few know this. And even if it is included it doesn't help a station if the listener is unhappy with a purchase. Newspapers aren't blamed if an advertised product doesn't live up to the reader's expectation. Neither are magazines. But broadcast stations are. (Please turn to page 60) 25