Business screen magazine (1938)

Lew Gust's candid camera reports scenes ti/pical oj the audiences which interest the user of this jorjn of advertisiny. y-*^^. j, ^i^^ct^fA at l^j 5^ \ • It was once said of Uncle Sam's open door foreign policy that he wanted the door wide open — until he got inside. An advertiser sponsoring the open door policy for theatre screen advertising takes a different attitude — he wants to be sure the door remains wide open so that he can come back easily again and again with a full series of commercial announcements from the screen. It is important for any advertiser, who now or in the future, is in a position to utilize this new advertising medium to understand the hazards and difficulties in keeping this door wide open . . . it's the purpose of this article to explore the "mysteries" and successful managements of various campaigns so that you will see how this has been accomplished. Screen advertising as such is not really new. For nearly twenty years film ad companies have been busy selling syndicate and special film service to such local dealers as beauty parlors, banks, clothing stores, dairies, etc. They have also sold territorial accounts with special productions or with syndicate service, plus a specially prepared insert. It is very important to the national advertiser not to confuse this type of so-called local service with the national medium that has been created for his benefit. The national division, however, did arise from the local set-up. The local film companies in the very early 1930's banded together for the purpose of combining their territorial screening privileges into a national network of motion picture theatres — so that all theatres accepting screen advertising could be offered through one organization to the national advertiser. In 1933 some of the members dropped out and formed a rival organization. At the present time there are two national organizations active in screen advertising. One offers distribution through more than 8,400 theatres with an average weekly attendance in excess of 34,000,000. This is not a small town operation because campaigns have been screened by this What About Screen Advertising? Attliougli its volume looms comparatively small in the miyhtij field oj commercial motion picture aiut slide film usage, the medium of screen advertising gets a good deal oj attention. Its jacts and future are the svbject of this and succeeding articles soon to appear in Business Screen. organization in every city in the United States above 500,000 in size. To understand the use of screen advertising, an advertiser must realize that unlike all other media the theatre is primarily in business for entertainment purposes, with advertising revenue decidedly secondary. Also, to a much greater degree than any other media, screen advertising must compete with the entertainment values — that is, it must measure up in interest and production values to high price, technically excellent feature pictures. In order to find out what measures have been instituted to achieve this goal, let us briefly study the policies and functioning of the service organization. In addition to furnishing advertisers and advertising agencies with basic circulation figures, costs, coverage, etc. (as do all media) this organization has to go much farther in running a complete motion picture advertising service. It maintains a creative scenario department for the purpose of working with advertising executives in translating their sales stories into 90 foot (one minute) scripts. This company associates itself with the production technicalities to the extent that it is willing to work witli the selected producer in supervising the production of all one minute productions. This service has since its very inception been offered without charge ... it takes the stand that top notch "minute movies" are necessary to the life of the company itself. All "minute movie" productions whether prepared in cooperation with the company or