Business screen magazine (1958)

rONTD FROM PRECEDING PAGE) jring this year will be 2 1 ,000.000 :rsons over the age of 12 years locations open to screen adveriing. The big drive-in season is rtween the months of May and ovember. During this period. ;ekly theatre attendance shoots > from 30 million to almost 70 illion; and drive-ins account for uch of this increase. For example, according to Bo.\■FiCE magazine, attendance at ive-ins during the week of July 1. 1958. was up a remarkable ). 16'^r over the average weekly tendance in June. More than 66 illion admissions were sold durz that week. Over all. drive-ins port a business increase of 10*^/ is summer over the same period 1957. To show that all of this resurgce has not been confined to the ive-in field, Boxoffice magazine ;o reports that 1 1 4 conventional :atres were re-opened in the first artcr of 1958. These theatres d a combined seatinu capacity 58,124. Theatre screen advertising had beginning about 50 years ago. a very literal sen.se. this form advertising grew up with the ition picture industry. ir;<«>Kl iKorK l.4»<-al Today, as it was in the beginig, local and regional advertisers iresent by far the largest users this medium. Best estimates are It more than 25,000 local busisses are regular users of theatre een advertisements. Many of :m have been users for a long riod of time. For example, the M. J. Goss 3tor Company, Chevrolet dealer LaGrande. Oregon, began using een advertising 'way back in 29, during the silent film days, day the company spends twice much in this medium as it does newspapers, and uses theatres iging from one block to 25 miles im its place of business. McKay Markets, regional food iin with headquarters in Eugene, egon, has been using screen ads ■ five years on an every-otherek basis, using theatres in the ir Oregon towns in which it has res. "Library" films on national )d brands are individualized by railer giving the address of the irest store. The company spends lut $5,000 a year <m its film i/ertising program, and finds that is particularly effective in acainting new families who move o its area with its stores. White Star Oil Company, St. SCREEN ADVERTISING Olaf. Iowa, a screen advertiser for 15 years, credits the medium with helping to build its business to a volume of more than 2 million gallons of gasoline and fuel oil a year. This firm uses four theatres on a 26-weeks-a-year schedule, and no other local advertising except the ads its national refinery places in the newspapers in its area. Not all local users of screen advertising, of course, can point to experiences as lengthy or outstanding as these, but the fact remains that local merchants in virtually ail lines of business have been using the screen medium successfully for many years. >aii«»nal I'k*' Increasing A comparatively recent trend has been the increasing use of theatre screens by national advertisers to get their sales messages across. The number of national advertisers using this medium has risen from fewer than 100 companies in 1955 to about 175 this year. Since the beginning of 1958, a number of national advertisers new to this medium, as well as others who have been using it for years. HIGHEST RECALL 15 V A (, E G R O L I' S IS C H A R T E I) RECALL OF SCREEN ADVERTISING RELATED TO TIME OF EXPOSURE (Among Drive-ln Audience) 96.4% ^; remembered seeing ■■.....'.■\H screen adveiitsing % thol correctly named one or more advertiser Past Hour Past 24 2-7 Days Week 1-3 3 Months Over Hours I Month Months I Yeor I Yeor Last Time Attended S Exposed RECALL OF SCREEN ADVERTISING RELATED TO TIME OF EXPOSURE (Based On Study Of 4 Cities) % of total in clossificotion that remembered seeing screen advertising % that correctly named one or mora advertiser Time Of Enponn Measuring impact of theatre screen advertising, Sindlinger studies found age groups from 15 to 24 (in four-wall theatres) and from 24 ihroug/i 34 (in drive-ins) has higlwsl recall. have announced new screen campaigns. For instance, Studebaker-Packard flashed its 1958 models on screens across the country. Philco Corporation promoted its latest appliances in a series of 13 "hard sell" films, tied-in with a trailer which ofl'ered a free premium if viewers came into their local dealer's store for a demonstration. Rheem Manufacturing Company has a new series of theatre commercials on its room heate-s. Ford and Chevrolet have been pioneers among automobile manufacturers in theatre screen advertising. Chevrolet's 1958 series includes 27 one-minute films, 14 showing this year's models in action, seven featuring Chevrolet trucks, and six plugging "OK" used car purchases from Chevrolet dealers. The company, through its agency, booked 3,500 theatres for its 1958 campaign, most of them drive-ins. I*r<»»«|i«>«*lj< in Drivt'-InN Drive-in audiences, Chevrolet believes, represent particularly fertile prospect groups, since most of those attending are watching the screen ads from older cars. All General Motors divisions except Cadillac are regular users of the theatre screen medium. Oldsmobile uses a distribution pattern similar to Chevrolet, with the agency specifying theatre locations and billing local dealers out of their cooperative advertising funds. Buick, Pontiac and GMC Truck pay all production costs, and turn their films over to the film distributing group, which sells them to local dealers. Pontiac has 14 new color films this year, GMC Truck, 1 1 . All divisions of the Ford Motor Company also are long-time screen advertising users. The Lincoln Division recently completed two new color commercials, making a total of four films now available for theatre screening. The Mopar Division of Chrysler Corporation recently completed seven 26-second full color commercials, available for sponsorship by local dealerships, designed to build traffic and sell service for Mopar dealers. 'V'oungstown Kitchens has five new color films on the newest models in its line. Skelgas Laboratories has a new theatre film series featuring ranges, washers, driers and heating systems in home uses. American Institute of Laundering has eight new films, emphasizing the quality methods used in laundering establishments. These are (continued on PAGE 64) BUSINESS SCREEN MAGAZINE