Broadcasting Telecasting (Jan-Mar 1956)

ground rules had to be adopted. These were evolved, Mr. Knipe explained, after discussion with "many of the best-informed agency people" over a period of several months. There were many suggestions and, consequently, some "compromises." "Most important of these compromises," Mr. Knipe asserted, "was the one having to do with the grouping of commercial lengths into two groups — a 'commercial unit' and a 'onehalf commercial unit' — and the assignment of a certain number of 'commercial units' to programs of varying length." This process is described in each HIBA report as follows: "The starting point is to define a commercial unit as a commercial exposure of more than 10 seconds but usually not more than one minute in duration. "Since this commercial unit is typically priced at twice that of a 10-second station identification (television) or a time signal (radio), these 10-second exposures are defined as one-half commercial units. "Using an allocation pattern somewhat similar to that of the Television Code of the NARTB, commercial units are attributed to programs as follows: "5-minute program — 1 commercial unit. "10-minute program — 2 commercial units. "15-minute program — 3 commercial units. "30-minute program — 4 commercial units. "60-minute program — 6 commercial units. "For programs of more than 60 minutes in length, commercial units are attributed at the rate of one commercial unit for each additional 10 minutes, as in a 60-minute program. . . ." Mr. Knipe said that when the Hooper firm originally became interested in developing an HIBA service (first called "Monitored Commercials with Audience Ratings"), it did some experimenting of its own with other methods. But "it did not take us long to realize that tape was the only way to do the job," he added, pointing out that Hooper has since acquired an ownership interest — described only as a principal stock interest — in the BAR organization. BAR was founded in November 1952 by Phil Edwards, president, and Bob Morris, executive vice president. Offices are in New York and Chicago; production facilities in Darby, Pa., and New Brunswick, N. J. The West Coast affiliate, owned by Tonie Kelley, is located in Sherman Oaks, Calif., just outside Los Angeles. Schwerin Highlights Mistakes In Tv Advertisers' Research MANY tv advertisers are guilty of fundamental mistakes in approaching the field of qualitative research, particularly in the study or testing of tv commercials, Horace Schwerin, president of Schwerin Research Corp., New York, said Thursday. At a luncheon meeting in New York of the media research group of the American Marketing Assn., Mr. Schwerin listed five errors commonly committed by these tv advertisers. He hit at the practice of some in avoiding research which may bring up just the answers the advertisers don't want to hear. Many agencies, on the other hand, he said, encourage studies which may throw a critical spotlight on their own creative efforts, in the hope that in ihe long run the analysis will help. Another error, he said, is the use of the wrong measures to find answers to salient questions. An example of this, Mr. Schwerin said, is measuring total remembrance of copy points within a commercial and pointing to these as a correlation of the commercial's effectiveness. A third, which ties in with this, is discounting the emotion or mood of the commercial and overemphasizing the importance of getting explicit copy points remembered. Two other mistakes listed by Mr. Schwerin: Unnecessary "hammering away" at copy points — i.e. attempting to accomplish with a mailed fist what could more readily be achieved by a light touch — and not enough experimentation. UPA's Mister Magoo Heads Rheingold Beer Promotion THE near-sighted Mister Magoo, hero of UPA's film "When Magoo Flew," winner of the 1954 Academy Award Oscar as the best cartoon short subject, has been named number one salesman for Rheingold Beer in Southern California. In a campaign created by the Foote, Cone & Belding agency and UPA Pictures Inc., Mister Magoo is being featured for Rheingold Beer in a series of television announcements, daily advertisements in newspapers, and a variety of point-of-purchase displays. The tie-up marks the first time Magoo has been released for commercial use; his exposure to the public hitherto has been confined to theatrical shorts released by Columbia Pictures Corp. The campaign is confined to the Southern California region. Arrangements for the project were negotiated by Stephen Bosustow, UPA president; Herbert Klynn, west coast tv sales representative for UPA; Frank Delano, FC&B vice president and Rheingold's New York account supervisor, and Byron Mayo, west coast FC&B-Rheingold account executive. BEER IN CLEVELAND TV WHOSE COMMERCIALS ARE SEEN MOST? Hooper Index of Broadcast Advertisers {Based on Broadcast Advertisers Reports' monitoring) THE NATIONAL (NETWORK) INDEX Hooper Index Network Total Commercial of Broadcast Rank Product & Agency Shows Networks Units Advertisers 1. Schlitz (Lennen & Newell) 1 1 4 113 2. Budweiser (D'Arcy) 1 1 4 74 3. Pabst (Leo Burnett) 1 1 2Vi 58 THE CLEVELAND INDEX (NETWORK PLUS SPOT) Hooper Index Network Total Commercial of Broadcast Rank Product & Agency Shows Stations Units Advertisers 1. Erin Brew (Hart-Conway) 2 57 % 443 2. P.O.C. (Clifford A. Kroening) 3 32 % 247 3. Carlings (Lang, Fisher & Stashower) — 2 18 157 (Benton & Bowles) 4. Schlitz (Lennen & Newell) 1 1 4 108 5. Stroh (Zimmer, Keller & Calvert) 1 4 57 6. Pfeiffer (Maxon) 1 4'/2 51 7. Duquesne (Walker & Downing) 1 6 50 8. Pabst (Leo Burnett) 1 1 216 50 9. Budweiser (D'Arcy) 1 1 4 46 10. Old Dutch 1 4 35 11. National Bohemian (W. B. Doner) 1 1 21 12. Iron City (Smith, Taylor & Jenkins) 1 4 18 The Hooper Index of Broadcast Advertisers is a measure of the extent to which a sponsor's commercials are seen or heard. Each commercial is assigned a number of "commercial units," according to its length.* This number is then multiplied by the audience rating attributed to that commercial.** When each commercial has thus been evaluated, the results for all commercials of each sponsor are added to form the HIBA. For further details of preparation, see the basic reports published by C. E. Hooper Inc., Broadcast Advertisers Reports Inc. and American Research Bureau Inc. Above summary is prepared for use solely by Broadcasting • Telecasting. No reproduction permitted. * "Commercial Units": Commercials are taken from the monitored reports published by Broadcast Advertisers Reports Inc. A "commercial unit" is denned as a commercial exposure of more than 10 seconds but usually not more than one minute in duration. Four "commercial units" are attributed to a 30-minute program, and in the same proportion for programs of other lengths. A "station identification" equals one-half "commercial unit." ** Audience ratings for television, both national and local, are those published by American Research Bureau Inc. Those for radio are the ratings of C. E. Hooper Inc. In the case of station breaks, the average of the ratings for the preceding and following time periods is used wherever feasible; otherwise, the rating is that of either the preceding or following time period, normally the preceding. In the above summary, monitoring of the networks for the national report occurred Jan. 5-11, 1956. Monitoring in Cleveland took place Jan. 1-7, 1956. Broadcasting • Telecasting February 27, 1956 • Page 35