U. S. Radio (Oct 1957-Dec 1958)

Client' and agency representatives who spearheaded Waverly's switch from print to radio. Two years ago Waverly Fabrics, a division of F. Schumacher & Co., was spending approximately 30% of its advertising budget for radio. Today the firm allocates 80% to radio, a phenomenal 50% increase. Out of a total appropriation of $500,000, a whopping 1400,000 is earmarked for radio. The switch to radio has resulted in increased sales for Waverly, a new source of revenue for local stations, and a financially feasible way for the retail stores to use Waverly's advertising allowance. Previously, Waverly had been using radio to a limited extent on a regional basis, with the rest of their money going into the printed media. The big change-over came when the firm awarded their account to Ehrlich, Neuwirth &: Sobo, Inc., a medium-sized New York agency. Norton H. Sobo, a principal of the agency and account executive for Waverly, said that the agency's determination to swing the budget to radio was based on these conclusions about the medium: • Radio is local • Radio is a primary medium • Radio is a merchandising medium. Switch From Print All of this added up to the switch from print. According to Mr. Sobo, "There is nothing like radio's local approach. What magazine has its hot little hands on the local level? They offer only a very institutional support to advertising. Radio is local and is pmely merchandisable." The spectacular results achieved by the move to radio have delighted Waverly's top brass, who give all the credit to the agency. "We've never seen. an agency get more out of a modest ad budget ($500,000) ," said Edwin H. Bostick, advertising manager for Waverly. "One of the problems that had to be licked \\hen A\e took over the ac Edwm H. Bostick, advertising manager for Waverly Fabrics. count," Mr. Sobo said, "was that Waverly was offering money that nobody wanted. They were allo^^■ing five cents per yard credit to the retailer for advertising. But \Vaverly couldn't give the money away. "Five cents didn't begin to pay for space in newspapers, especially in bis: cities. Little stores didn't buv enough yardage for the five cents to mean anything. Figure it out . . . 500 yards would bring a credit allowance of $25.00. With our radio plan, the money is buying something," Mr. Sobo said. Not only is Waverly happy about its increased sales, but so are the local stores who have finally found a Avorkable ans-\ver to the problem of making their five cent advertising allowance pay off. Stations across the coinitry are applauding Wa\erly's precedent-making use of radio, because they feel it opens up a whole new source of revenue for radio . . . the fabric industrv. Norton H. Sobo, executive on the Waverly account at Ehrlich, Neuwirth & Sobo, Inc. In July, 1956, Waverly bought seven weeks of ten announcements on NBC's "Monitor." Before the seven weeks were up they bought six more to complete a 13-week cycle, and then put in an order for another 13 weeks. Along Avith the network spots, ten second adjacencies were made available to NBC's affiliates for sale to local stores. With helpful hints from Ehrlich, Neuwirth & Sobo, they succeeded in selling a total of 13,000 spots to 2,376 department and specialty stores all over the U. S. Stations Sell Stores George Graham, director, NBC radio network sales service, explained the high local sales record this way: "Stations weren't just going to go o\ erboard for the net\\ork show alone. We had to give incentive to the stations to make them care. By showing them how to sell the local stores we, through \Vaver (Cont'd on page 26) f/. 5. RADIO November 1937 25