Broadcasting Telecasting (Oct-Dec 1953)

MERCHANDISING HELPS FILM ADS TO SELL NBC Film Division's Jay Smolin tells workshop group 'good' results can become 'excellent' when merchandising is an added service for advertisers. He cites Kenyon & Eckhardt survey. "COMMERCIALS are only the first phase of a client's sales efforts in radio or television," Jay Smolin, advertising and promotion manager, NBC Film Division, said Thursday evening at the November workshop session of Radio & Television Executives Society in New York. "The superimposing of merchandising on the advertising makes the difference between fairly good results and excellent results in most cases," he said. He pointed out that this principle holds good regardless of whether the client is a national advertiser with a million-dollar broadcast budget or a local concern spending $100 a week for a syndicated program. Murray Heilweil, manager of NBC's Mer MPTV to Handle Police Series Produced in France in Color PLANS for producing in Paris 117 half-hour dramatic programs in color for distribution by Motion Pictures for Television during the next three years were announced last week by Edward D. Madden, vice president and general manager of MPTV's film syndication division. The series will be produced by Etoile Productions Inc., Paris, which is owned by actors Louis Jourdan and Claude Dauphin, and Andre Hakim and Joe Eisinger. Messrs. Jourdan and Dauphin will star in the series, which will be produced by Mr. Hakim and written by Mr. Eisinger. Titled Paris Precinct, the series will be based on true stories of the French police. The dialogue will be in English. Mr. Madden said production on the series will not begin until May 1, 1954, in order to permit Mr. Jourdan to fulfill a commitment for a Broadway play. It is expected that the series will be made available to tv stations by September 1954. Hornsby, National Begin Film Series on Baseball NATIONAL Productions Inc., Washington, D. C, subsidiary of Robert J. Enders Inc., advertising agency, last week shot the first of a scheduled weekly series of quarter-hour tv films starring Rogers Hornsby, all-time baseball great, featuring interviews and demonstrations with major league baseball players on various aspects of baseball technique. The show, Rogers Hornsby's Baseball School, according to Robert L. Friend, producer, will give instructions to youngsters on baseball but will have entertainment value for both youths and adults. Mr. Hornsby will operate a school in Florida where he will accept two boys in different age groups from each community where the tv show is sponsored for a four-week training period each year. Co-star is Bob Wolff, Washington sportscaster. Robert J. Enders of National Productions said it has not been decided whether the show will be on a network or syndicated to stations. Mr. Hornsby, who will be an associate in National Productions, has served in various major league managerial positions in recent years. Brazilian Buys 'Gems' SCREEN GEMS, New York, has announced that J. B. Amaral, owner and operator of Radio Record in Sao Paolo, Brazil, and who is scheduled to begin tv operation shortly in that city, has purchased Music to Remember and Screen Gems' Tv Disc Jockey Films series. chandising Dept., said the realization that it is no longer enough to put a good show on the air in a good time period and let it go at that led to the organization of the NBC merchandising organization, with 12 field men throughout the country and the support of all NBC affiliate stations. The reason it is NBC's — or any medium's — business to get into merchandising and not leave it up to the advertiser, he said, is that the goal of any advertising campaign is to sell goods and the more the medium does to help make its use successful the better chance it has of getting more business from that client. Asked what per cent of its gross income a local station should spend for merchandising services, Mr. Heilweil said there is no fixed amount as it would differ with the size of the market, the type of station and a number of other factors. Pressed for a more specific answer, he finally said that 5% would probably be a fair average, although it would vary appreciably from station to station. He cited the tv station merchandising survey conducted by Kenyon & Eckhardt and published in the 1953-54 Telecasting Yearbook as showing how widely merchandising services offered by stations vary. (The K & E radio station merchandising survey results will be published as a supplement to the Nov. 30 issue of B»T). Messrs. Smolin and Heilweil displayed the various merchandising materials and services offered by NBC to its national and local radio and tv clients, pointing out that merchandising support for a broadcast campaign is available to all NBC advertisers at reasonable cost. Don McClure, workshop chairman, announced that the next meeting, Dec. 10, would be a color tv demonstration staged by NBC. Gray Suggests Prizes For Tv Film Commercials ESTABLISHMENT of awards for television film commercials was recommended last Thursday by Arthur Gray Jr., president of Michael Myerberg Productions, New York, as a step toward encouraging a higher standard of film production. Mr. Gray urged this move at the monthly luncheon meeting of the National Television Council in New York and suggested that the council be the spearhead for such an industry development. He proposed that awards be made for live acting, cartoon animation, three dimensional animation (puppets and similar devices) and any combination of the three. Displayed at the meeting were film sequences produced by Myerberg Productions which used electronic puppets. Mr. Gray said commercials employing this device now are being made available to sponsors. According to Mr. Gray, Michael Myerberg, founder of the company, has spent some $750,000 to perfect the electronic puppet technique, which will be used in the company's forthcoming technicolor musical film, "Hansel and Gretel." He listed among the advantages of the device its eventual low cost to sponsors after repeated use of the puppet films. UTP-WABD Plan Provides For Unlimited Film Use NEW PATTERN for use of tv films by stations was claimed last week by Aaron Beckwith of United Television Programs in disclosing details of a sales transaction completed between UTP and WABD (TV) New York. Terms of the contract, negotiated by Mr. Beckwith and Norman Knight, general manager of WABD, call for 69 City Assignment films on a one-time basis, plus unlimited runs for two years of 52 Royal Playhouse, 26 Counterpoint and 13 Hollywood Off Beat films. Total price was said to be about $150,000. Mr. Beckwith said the stipulation permitting the station to use the strips as often as desired over a two-year period indicates a new trend for stations as well as a new sales approach for distribution companies. He noted UTP ABC Film Syndication staff met Nov. 1 1 in New York for the first national sales meeting of the network's newly-created division. Conferring are (I to r): seated, Joseph Greene, traffic manager; George T. Shupert, vice president of ABC Film Syndication; Robert E. Kintner, ABC president; Lee Francis, promotion, advertising and research; Frank Freeman, administrative assistant to Mr. Shupert; standing, John B. Burns, Chicago sales office supervisor; Patrick W. Rastall, Chicago sales office; William L. Clark, western manager; Don L. Kearney, national sales manager, and John' Callis and Nat V. Donato, both of the New York sales office. Broadcasting • Telecasting November 23, 1953 • Page 35