Business screen magazine (1939-1940)

'Bits' ^a- MOV/IE AALUE .2BaJBAT 31-^*15 SCREEII jlDlJiRTI!i.lllG & THE MOVIE AIIDIEME ♦ More than one-hai.f of the nalioii's 17.000 theatres now accept and regularly show screen advertising to their patrons. The majority of these are very hrief messages of approximately one minute in length and not more than five are usually shown on a single program. This is not a new medium and yet its present sponsors and the producers and distributors of the films have brought it to a stage of perfection and receptivity far beyond that of its early beginnings in the glass slide and curtain advertising days. Today color, cartoon fantasy, swiftly-paced newsreel sequences and sound make these minute-length movies the equal of the feature attractions they accompany. Two fields of circulation are available to the screen advertiser: in the first, the manufacturer with national distribution may purchase a complete campaign liased on a syndicated series of film playlets to be placed in theatres a])proximating his own retail outlets. These national advertisements may be localized by the addition of dealer signature "trailers". Circulation controls based on theatre attendance assure the advertiser and advertising agencies (who place a great percentage of such business) careful measure of cost and results. National and Dealer Co-OFERATIVE FlELDS National campaigns based on local tiealer participation form another field of screen advertising. Such films are placed on a basis similar to co-operative newspaper advertising in which the national organization prepares the original advertisements and the deah'r meets the cost of local distribution, in this case the local theatrical showings. The national campaigns are placed through national film distribution agencies especially geared for selection, promotion and distribution as well as analysis and checking of returns and results. Local participation programs are sold to the local dealers through field sales staffs maintained by those organizations specializing in this type of screen advertising distribution. What Do Audiences Think:? The theatre owner is tlie judge of the acceptability of screen advertising. Often confused as evidence of the non-acceptance of such programs are the lamentations of producer-controlled theatre managements and of producing organizations who have products which compete for all available screening time. On the other hand the showing of advertising playlets in more than 7.000 theatres of the country has gone on ever since the birth of the movies. The fundamental fact is that audiences resent only poorly-produced films or those in poor taste and the modern advertising playlet is produced according to standards comparable with those of Hollywood's finest. Some locally-produced playlets have been offenders of this rule. Poor sound qualities and amateurish photography contribute to the audience's dislike of these local butcher, baker and coal dealer trailers. Such antipathy is not felt in the case of the national playlet and, in fact, recent color cartoons have been created with applause. Although this field represents but one of the many ways in which films are used today by business, it it. nevertheless, a potent factor because of its ability to deliver mass audiences at a flat price per person subject to careful auditing of results. The potency of the film medium is by no means diminished by the observation of the rules of good taste. In one typical screen campaign, a ciuestioniiaire was sent to 161 theatres; 49 replied and of these 48 reported either excellent or good as their answer to the following questions: I. How did your patrons react to the advertising playlets? 2 As a measure of subject treatment how did you like the manner in which the subject was handled in these films? Maintain Research Departments Theatre relations departments offer indexed information concerning the seating capacity, average weekly attendance, location, type of patronage and days per week of showings of every theatre in the country. Attendance figures are computed on the same basis as that used by theatre managements to gauge their own incomes and quoted lower. One formula set up as a rate base is "attendance equals six times seating capacity." In further pages other factors are discussed. In summary of these it may be said that theatre screen advertising is a medium with a proven "present" and a great future. Its present lies in the actual statistical facts which such distributors are able to lay before the advertiser which show the large numbers of excellent neighborhood theatres in large cities and small which are available for this potent method of advertising. Its future lies in the good taste and in the strict adherence to the rules of audience acceptance to which sponsors and producers alike must adhere so that this medium may one day take its place with radio, magazines and newspapers. Screen Advertising 1940 [15]