The billboard (Mar 1896)

4 BILLBOARD ADVERTISING. March, 1896. POSTERS AND PAMPHLETS. tire experience M BD advertiser. I ha never bad a doubt as to the value of this clan of display advertising immediate local publicity, but I have had my misgivinEB—and I think they have been justified—u to the reliability of the ered other than a science, that notoriety has been mistaken for reputation, and (be attainment of publicity by flashy methods or in any nay, has been regarded i goal to which the advertiser was tending, baa, through the early connection of the felt would be profitable, provided I could get exactly what I paid for. But a change has come. The bill posters of the country realized that life was frolic ; that bill postinj to believe that all advertising aes of circu s, a frolic; and in- ia bills being carefully put up, nets of tins class of display. It s be thoroughly understood and stated with emphasis here that for yean there have been thoroughly reliable bill posters, jnjt as there have been admittedly thor- oughly unreliable ones, and the advertiser, loathe to see his profits on the reliable poster absorbed and turned into a to the bad business methods of the liable. ; Theatres, amusements of all kinds, and mot the local rhrrking of the circus bill poster, who But when the general advertiser, seeking publicity. sent his bills to a bill poster awaited the convenient of the bill poster have been the desire of the advertiser to make a complete display at one time, they have been spread over six or eight weeks. The charge may have been right, but the lack, of attention, the,delays, have lost for the advertiser the entire effect. By making bis shot scattering he bas though thework was done conscientiously enough, as far as the time of display was done, t> there was a science in bill posting, all things. They learned to call it a po fenioD. and to take a pride ii came the formation of a Bill Posters' As- sociation, national and interstate ; then local organization : then a system of edu- cation in business ethics by bill posters for bill posters. Then came more rig" rules regarding membership. All this i suited in a pressure of opinion among b posters which either whipped a careless dishonest man into line or excluded him me to say that the general e doves returned tt 1 believing that the posting was not only well done, hut that it was s profit- able venture, which could be made so by the display of better designs and in larger numbers. The confidence thus 'red has made the number of sheets arranged for this year nearly four hnn- * * honsand, and although this is insig- it from the standpoint of large ad- era, it is another of those feelers which an advertiser usually, if thoughtful, sends out before venturing from bis shell. Where large sums arc involved, the adver- well over him, preparing to jump back the .bt0 posters of the nation t hff" one th e a t ri c al company, yet his display was desultory and ineffective, and the ii dividual or local bill poster looked upon that dty, can live without a dozen cities. He is in a position where he does not need to do bin posting at all, and will ex. erase his judgment accordingly, and if cities do not respond to the Mil posting which he bas sent there.he will leave that dty off the list, ana no one will be hurt using unreliable business methods, is soon spotted, and the adver- tiser will frequently leave a medium alone just because of doubt as to its nine. T is, therefore, a fundamental.-principli that the bill posters should study with th< the patronage of the general! advertiser they must inspire him with confidence in hich is the keynote of ■rofessioD as well as for other tines of business. There is one ether subject which I wish to discuss here and offer a suggestion. During the last eight years it has been my privilege to distribute in various ways forty-eight million little pamphlets, many of them going from door to door by hand, many through the medium of druggists, and very large quantities by mail. Nearly three million of these pamphlets were sent by mail daring the month of Febru- ary. They were sent two in an envelope, costs money for the collect- ing of the lists, for the writing of i envelopes, for the envelopes them sell for ailing, and the postage alone i £15000. The cost of this distribution, aside from the books themselves, between eighteen and twenty thousand dollars. The actual distribution ,50 ,000 addresses, and therefore the xjt per address was a little more 1 ent and a quarter, or perhaps tb dollars a thousand. We are succeeding in our distribution as it is, because the V. S. mail w compara- tively reliable, and tbe men whom we now employ have taught us by experience that they can be utterly and absolutely relied upon. How much better it would be, how much cheaper, and how much simpler, if the hundred .advertisers who use circulars and pamphlets—many of them in larger quantities than we have is- " could send to the Bill Posters' quantity, and feel oughncss. It would solve one of the greatest problems which confront tbe advertiser to-day. w " "" The 1 members would probably be very glad to distribute five or six millions of our little pamphlets, on the basis of two dollars per thousand, and we, as general adver- would be very glad indeed to have them, but we don't dare. This is no lporj tbe bill posters individu- al oy ■ pay their traveling and a good salary, on whom we lntely rely for the! i ahso- little books, the placing of them Barely under the door, rain or shine, frost and heat, we could not entrust an advertising expenditure aggregating ap- proximately fifty thousand dollars per iy body of men with whose re not wholly familiar, cms which confront ns are th es e : 'Whatever may be the reliability ol ibers of your Association, will they give this matter for actual distribu- of dnty is such that they value ad- vertising matter, and will the poster him- self see that they are properly watched? Truly, in the distribution of these mil- cms of pamphlets, we have learned much 'ten pinned our faith to a broken reed. It is so much easier for a traveling repre sentative to sit in the hotel and let tin Again let me say that the keynote of the bill poster's and distributor's profes- sion is the establishment of confidence, and this can only be done by the most rigid criticism of bill posters by bill post- ers, by the making of their profession dignified, by bringing to the members of your Association a realizing sense of the responsibility which they assume when they accept the money of an advertiser, and besides, they should be made alive to the fact that the advertiser, while he may be a goose, is still the goose that lays the golden egg, and as his business develops by the success of his advertising, they, by contributing to bis success by the thor- oughness of their methods, build up for repose to do will further publicity, and that we may someday look forward to the time when the distribution our pamphlets may also be entrusted the bill posters, for whose organization iave great respect, and whose individual " felicitate upon their entrance into hope may be realized beyond their bright- Ma. A. Cassav . Ding article Is m for him to pin his faith It countenance of an urchin who well than to walk the weary miles behind him to see that his wo done properly. It has been our e ience that the general public and distrib- utors in particular do not appreciate the value of advertising matter, and we wei actually at one time sued for damages f< the stoppage of a city sewer, in which were found twelve thousand of our tx ■ person or firm who is desireuj ng a qnidc demand for his or th wares, should use posters in preference ~ other avenues of publicity. Nothi is otic-half so prompt Proof of this f is found in the fact that circus and tl atrial managers have learned throti years of experience that they bring a 0 advertise anything any - 1 la at minimum outlay.