Broadcasting Telecasting (Oct-Dec 1953)

ADVERTISERS & AGENCIES CECIL & PRESBERY TO REALIGN TOP POSTS WITH CECIL TO BECOME CHAIRMAN Jan. 1 changes at agency also will find Thomas J. Moloney as president and Samuel Dalsimer executive vice president. Mr. Cecil Mr. Maloney Mr. Dalsimer REALIGNMENT of top executive positions at Cecil & Presbrey, New York, was announced last week by James M. Cecil, president of the agency. Changes become effective Jan. 1. Mr. Cecil will become chairman of the board of directors, succeeding Charles Presbrey, who has been inactive at the agency for the past several years. Thomas J. Maloney, executive vice president, becomes president, while Samuel Dalsimer, senior vice president, moves up to executive vice president. Edward B. Noakes, chairman of the executive committee, and David C. Thomas, treasurer, retain their same positions. J. D. Tarcher, senior vice president, holds his title and becomes secretary. Mr. Cecil continues as senior member of the management group. Six More Executives Due to the agency's rapid expansion in recent years, it was explained, the executive committee — which is composed of all the executives listed above — will be expanded to include six additional members. They are: James Clark, vice president and art director; Guild Copeland, vice president and copy director; Archibald M. Foster, vice president; Frank Gilday, vice president and director of radio-television department; Frank McCord, vice president and director of research and merchandising, and Harry Parnas, vice president and media director. "The agency has experienced spectacular growth since the war, much of it attributable to successful exploitation of television as a new medium of advertising." the announcement said. KNXT (TV)'s Moskovics Advises Retailers on Tv Advertisers must be prepared to put cash and effort into television, he states, adding that 'prize hours' are only for those who can compete with high-budget network shows. BASIC considerations underlying a decision to use television and some fundamental considerations on how to utilize the medium successfully were given by George L. Moskovics, manager of television development for CBS' KNXT (TV) Hollywood, when he discussed "Television as a Sales Promotion Tool in Retailing" before the California Retailers Assn. in the Los Angeles Biltmore Hotel Monday. Mr. Moskovics pointed out that the principal ends sought were: (1) to select the merchandise to be promoted on the basis of the normal interests and desires of the television public the program would be designed to reach; (2) the proper presentation of that merchandise in order to bring out every point of advantage to the buyer, and (3) most important of all, the intense training of the personnel who would do the actual selling on the air. Must Take Full Advantage It was Mr. Moskovics' contention that if a retailer felt he could not profitably provide the facilities and personnel to take full advantage of the known selling ability of tv, then it would be a wasteful use of the medium. "Television costs too much to be wasted," he said. He stressed the fact that the "so-called prize nighttime hours when big audiences were available" are not necessarily the best for a retailer unless the store operator is prepared to spend enough money on programming to compete successfully with the high-budgeted network shows being telecast at those peak periods. It was his suggestion that the early morning hours might prove more profitable for retailers. For institutional, prestige-building programs a once-per-week half-hour or full hour might prove sufficient, he said, adding that for day-in, day-out hard merchandising a schedule of five or six times a week and certainly not less than three times per week would be called for. Cautioning the retailers against being too ambitious in their programming, Mr. Moskovics urged that they limit themselves to what can be done well within their budgets rather than reach out for more elaborate forms of programming which under the budget could be done only indifferently. Reiterating that the choice and training of selling personnel should be the most important task of the retailer, he further stressed that the actual program content be left to the professional experts in the business. The merchant himself, as an expert professional in the selling field, should control and train his television sales personnel, Mr. Moskovics concluded. Antell's Rosen Credits 'Pitch' Ads for Success HOW Charles Antell Inc., starting from "scratch," built up a $10 million business through the use of "pitch" advertising on radio and television, was explained last week to a joint meeting of the Washington. D. C. Advertising and Sales Executives Clubs by Leonard Rosen. Antell vice president. Mr. Rosen, who with his brother Jack as vice president-treasurer and Charles D. Kasher as president, began pitch tv advertising in July 1950 [B*T, Jan. 19] for Antell's hair preparations. Formula #9 and Antell's shampoo, said the firm's advertising messages were developed by constant streamlining of a 20-year-old pitch formula. The Antell vice president said his firm now uses 250 tv stations. Before the tv thaw, he said, Antell at one time was using 650 to 700 radio stations and 63 tv stations. The elements of good business that have helped Antell to grow to its present size, he said, are "a good product, good advertising, good management and good luck." He attributed the success of the Antell radio and tv commercials to their entertainment and educational value and their selling power. Acknowledging that radio and television have done a lot more for Antell than the printed media, he said the firm is working on printed advertising formulas which Mr. Rosen expects to pay off better than the broadcast media in Antell's long-range plans. BREAK TIME during rehearsal of CocaCola's Coke Time brings out a three-way conversation among (I to r) Paul Louis, radio-tv vice president for D'Arcy Advertising Co.; Eddie Fisher, singing star of Coke Time, and Robert Kesner, Coca-Cola's radiotelevision manager. The show is on NBC-TV. Nothing but Plush EXCLUSIVE club for members of the electronics industry has been opened in Chicago. Billed as "The Gaslight," the club is owned by the "Secret 16," whose founder, Dr. Burton Browne of the advertising agency of the same name, says its membership includes "some of the best-known men in the industry" — but in this case anonymous. "The Gaslight" is at 816 North Rush St.; its appointments include many turn-of-the-century pieces, including a solid mahogany bar said to have survived the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. Members have their own keys — sandwiches go for five cents — electrified gaslights are on the walls. "This is how a saloon should be run," says the Secret 16. Broadcasting • Telecasting November 23, 1953 • Page 33