Business screen magazine (1958)

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or the local dealer may assume all the screening costs. A growing practice today is for the national advertiser to underwrite the production of a series of selling messages on his product. These commercials are about 26 seconds long, allowing the local dealer a tie-in message at the end. The film company's field force sells the film series to dealers, and the dealers are billed for the advertisements. Dealers frequently spend from $5.00 to $15.00 for every dollar the manufacturer has invested in the screen campaign. The Carnation Company, as one example, includes theatre-screen advertising in its national advertising budget. On its Carnation brand evaporated milk and Friskies dog food, the company places screen ads through its agency on the same basis as all other forms of national advertising. For strictly "local" advertising. producers maintain a library of commercials covering virtually every type of retail operation. The dealer selects the ad series he wants, and the producer adds a trailer identifying him with the sales message. HferehandiKing Is TVeiv A new merchandising service recently made available to all theatre screen advertisers allows the handing out of a product sample or literature in all locations where the ads are shown. During the weeks that the sales message is being screened, patrons are given samples, coupons, inquiry postcards or other product information as they enter or leave the theatre. The screen commercials refer to the product being handed out or sampled. Coupons or return postcards can be keyed, if desired, to show the theatre they were obtained in. Such distribution can be as selective as desired — to adults only. to men or women only, or to children only. Cost is essentially the same as that for showing the commercial. The principal companies engaged in the production and distribution of screen advertising are the Alexander Film Company, Colorado Springs, Colorado; A. V. Cauger Service, Inc., Independence, Missouri; Motion Picture Advertising Service, Inc., New Orleans, Louisiana; Reid H. Ray Film Industries, St. Paul, Minnesota; and United Film Service, Inc., Kansas City, Missouri. The number of all persons who attend movie theatres regularly (once a month or more) has been increasing in the last three years. Sindlinger & Company, business analysts, estimates that today 40% of the United States' population, 12 years of age and older, are regular movie-goers. Only 25 % of the adult population go to the movies less than once a year. Aiiflipiict' Is Increasing Between 1947, when television began its climb, and 1952, the During the summer of 1946, if everyone in the United States had decided to go to the movies at the same time, only about 12 million would have been able to sit down in the country's 1 8,000 conventional theatres and 548 drive-ins. This year, there are seats for 27 million persons, more than twice as many, in 1 3,000 four-wall houses and 4,500 drive-ins. This gain in seating capacity is largely the result of the great increase in the number of drive-in Out of this film library at Colorado Springs, a thud oj ilu required, thousands oj theatre playlets move all over U.S. lotdi space number of regular movie-goers dropped from 6*8% to 38%. Then attendance leveled off, and since 1955 it has been on the increase. The principal difference is that now more different people attend the movies; not so many go two or th'.ee times a week, as in pretelevision days. Because of this, the cumulative audience that will see theatre ads during a thirteen-week run, for instance, may total from 60% to 70% of an area's population. Studies have also shown that theatre audiences remember the ads they have seen. In a survey made by Sindlinger & Company, 72% of the persons who had seen screen advertising within the past week could remember it, and 64% could correctly name one or more ads or products. Seating capacity of American motion picture theatres has more than doubled since the end of World War II, and the audience potential for screen advertising has almost tripled. theatres during the last 10 years. However, although fewer conventional theatres are now in operation, the average capacity of these houses is considerably larger than it was a decade ago. In the drive-ins of 1947, the average seating capacity was about 250 automobiles. The average drive-in today has accommodations for about 850 cars. Ten years ago the average fourwall movie house had scats for 623 persons. Today the average seating capacity of these theatres is 828 persons. On the basis of four seats per automobile, there were approximately 300,000 seats in drive-ins in 1947. Total capacity now is about 15,000,000. Ten years ago, only about 40%. of the 300,000 drive-in seats, or about 120,000 were in theatres where screen commercials were shown, and approximately 70% of the 11,660,000 conventional theatre seats, or about 8,100,000. were in theatres showing advertising. ir*9 Alillion a Month Today, 98% of the seats ir drive-ins, or about 14,000,000 are in drive-ins available for advertising; and approximately 80% ol conventional four -wall theatre seats, numbering some 9,750,000 are in houses showing advertising films. During 1958, it is estimated, ar average of 159,000,000 persons £ month will attend theatres in whicf screen advertisements are being shown. In 1957, attendance at theatres showing screen ads averagec 145,000,000 a month. In drive-ins alone, it is estimatec that the average weekly audience (continued on next page; MAJORITY OF THEATRE AUDIENCE IS UNDER 35 AGE DISTRIBUTION OF AVERAGE WEEKLY AUDIENCE lOO"^ 4-WALL DRIVE-W SUMMER 4-WALL DRIVE-IN WINTER This Sindlinger chart shows 60% of total average weekly audience, 56% of winter audience, is under 35 years of age. NUMBER 6 VOLUME 19