Broadcasting Telecasting (Apr-Jun 1957)

7 from HANK FOWNES, vice president & N. Y. manager, MacManus, John & Adams DON'T BET YOUR ROLL ON ONE BIG TV SHOW THE GAMBLER with his frock coat and string tie is a popular figure on television dramas these days, but the tv gambler in the grey flannel suit isn't nearly so popular along Madison Avenue. "You can gamble for match-sticks or you can gamble for gold," to paraphrase the current song hit, "but if you haven't gambled for those moonlight tv hours, then you haven't gambled at all." And the odds have never been steeper. Never before has there been such a disastrous television year from a standpoint of show failures. Of all new shows this season, 69% have been canceled or will be canceled by season's end. Walter Winchell. Stanley, Noah's Ark and Hiram Holliday are just a few which have felt the sponsor's axe. Even Sir Lancelot was unhorsed. For the first time in years Madison Avenue is echoing to the tread of network salesmen calling on agencies, instead of vice versa. Never before have so many sponsors given up the concept of strong sponsor identification in favor of alternating or participating sponsorship. Sponsors may miss telling the boys at the home office about that night on the town with Milton or Jackie, but they don't have that morning-after feeling so common with a single show and an unfriendly Nielsen. Despite the great percentage of flops among shows this season, the sudden buyer's market and the trend away from "big" network shows, television as a medium remains as attractive a buy as ever, if properly used. Actually, television's average cost per thousand remains well in line with other media. These problems simply point up the need for shrewd agency analysis of the right approach to buying television so that a client may spend his television dollar more efficiently than the competition. I feel the answer is the circulation concept or "smorgasbord"' system of television buying. The "smorgasbord" system, as the name implies, simply means spending your television dollars in a greater number and variety of ways, rather than channeling them all into buying one "big" show. "Bigness" in television might be defined as keeping up with the competition in relation to show impact. The "big" show, when it's a hit, is pure caviar, but over the long run smorgasbord is more nourishing. As this season's casualty list illustrates, "big" shows are often as costly as caviar and as impractical on a 52-week diet. The recent television productions of "Romeo and Juliet" and "Mayerling" are examples of "big", expensive, good shows which failed to pay off in audience. In fact, when the ratings came in some ad men may have followed the example of Mel Ferrer in "Mayerling" and shot themselves! Obviously the purpose of any television effort is to reach as many qualified customers at the lowest possible cost as in any other medium. Unfortunately this job is made more complicated in tv by three-network competition and formidable movie programming on local stations. Thus the tv executive shopping to spend his client's dollars in tv finds himself cast Henry Gaither Fownes; b. Pittsburgh, Pa., June 20, 1922; educ. Yale U. Served with Air Corps in European Theatre; joined Benton & Bowles 1946. Went to Fennon Productions as radio-tv producer servicing , among others, Pontiac and Cadillac accounts. Joined MacManus, John & Adams 1950, appointed overall radio-tv director 1953, became manager of New York office and vice president at MJ&A 1955. not simply as an experienced business man, but as a show business prognosticator trying to decide what will be a hit. Moreover, unlike other areas of show business, even with the best judgment in the world the fate of the tv program you choose may be determined by any number of factors beyond your control. We had this vividly impressed on us last season when we bought for Pontiac what seemed to be a foolproof program: Playwrights' '56. It had one of television's top producers m Fred Coe; many of the top writers of the medium, and an impressive lineup of stories and stars. A further advantage was that no established program was slotted opposite us but a revamped retread of a radio show. Unfortunately for us that radio retread turned out to be the $64,000 Question which topped everything on tv that season. (It in turn is an example of the axiom that nowhere is fame so fleeting as on the airways. It had to up its ante from a paltry $64,000 to $256,000 so that 10-year-old Rob Strom would have sufficient incentive to keep playing!) The extent of the gamble in picking a hit tv show is spelled out in the figures showing that the average cost of a half-hour weekly show this season was $76,000 for time and talent, and the hits were few and far between. The big gamble on those expensive "moonlight hours" pays off in a big way if you happen to hit a Twenty One, but no one walks into a gambling casino and puts all his money on double zero. More and more advertisers who need weekly exposure will abandon single sponsorship in favor of alternating or participating sponsorship of different shows. Advertisers who don't need weekly exposure will tend towards the big show (specials, spectaculars, etc.) less frequently, often supplemented by spot schedules to build total unduplicated audience. Nielsen studies show us that any sponsor identification which might be lost is more than balanced by the increased cumulative audience (number of unduplicated people seeing a given commercial), and by the reduction of gamble involved by spreading dollars over several shows. The circulation concept is simply an approach to television which will guarantee a sponsor greater cumulative audience at the least possible risk. An agency can buy television circulation for a client in a number of different ways. But whether it be a spot campaign, an alternate week show, four shows a year, syndication or a combination of these and other alternatives, the agency must look for mass circulation in the surest possible way. If "bigness" is important to a client, he can achieve it in newspapers, magazines, or radio, which do not ask him to speculate on success. Or he can buy occasional "special" shows as we did with "Richard III" and the pro football championship, which netted a 41.8 Nielsen. Here the gamble is comparative!) negligible. By using this "smorgasbord" system the advertising man can assure his client strong representation in television and occasionally a vacation in Las Vegas where he can gamble to his heart's content. Broadcasting • Telecasting May 20, 1957 Page 121