Broadcasting Telecasting (Apr-Jun 1957)

ADVERTISERS & AGENCIES — and persons with above-average incomes — were the strongest supporters of pay-tv," Mr. Eaton reported. "Viewers over 50 years of age were least enthusiastic. But even in this group most people with opinions voted yes." Asked why they had not bought a color tv set (less than 1% of Los Angeles families have), nearly 25c/c of the people interviewed said they have no objection to color, but most of the rest thought the price for color is still too high and that by waiting a year or two they'll be able to get better color sets for less money. Food Products Lead In Spot Radio Spending FOOD and grocery products nosed out tobacco products and supplies for first place among product categories in expenditures for spot radio during the first quarter of 1957, Station Representatives Assn. is reporting today (Monday). The product breakdown is prepared from data compiled regularly for SRA by the accounting firm of Price Waterhouse & Co., New York. The first-quarter report showed food and grocery products accounted for $8,291,000 or 17% of the $48,827,000 estimated total gross expenditure in spot radio during the three-month period. Tobacco products and supplies accounted for $8,141,000 or 16.7%. Drug products took No. 3 spot with $5,375,000 or 11%. Lawrence Webb, SRA managing director, noted that there was no comparable product breakdown for the first quarter of last year, but that total spot radio spending for this year's first three months exceeded the same period in 1956 by 40.5%. The 1957 first-quarter breakdown: PAYOFF A CHRONICLE OF COMMERCIAL PERFORMANCE SUCCESS Agriculture (2.7%) Ale, beer and wine (5.9%) Amusements, entertainment (.5%) Automotive (8.2%) Building material, fixtures, paints (.1%) Clothing and accessories (.5%) Confections and soft drinks (1.4%) Consumer services (4.1?£) Cosmetics and toiletries (4.4%) Dairy and margarine products (.4%) Dental products, tooth paste, etc. (5.1%) Drug products (11.0%) Finance and insurance (.3%) Food and grocery products (17.0%) Garden supplies and equipment (.2%) Gasoline and lubricants (4.4%) Hotels, resorts, restaurants (.3%) Household cleaners, soaps, polishes, waxes (2.1%) Household appliances (.2%) Household furnishings (.3%) Household laundry products (1.3%) Household paper products (.3%) Household general (.9%) Notions (2.7%) Pet products (.3%) Publications (.8%) Religious (2.9%) Tobacco products and supplies (16.7%) Transportation and travel (2.3%) Watches, jewelry, cameras (.1%) Miscellaneous (2.6%) Estimated revenues $ 1,291,000 2,902,000 240,000 4,020,000 64,000 259,000 699,000 2,019,000 2,158,000 202,000 2,487,000 5,375,000 142,000 8,291,000 108,000 2,149,000 140,000 998,000 1 1 3,000 120,000 644,000 146,000 413,000 1,319,000 138,000 408,000 1,420,000 8,141,000 1,098,000 59,000 1,264,000 $48,827,000 TOPNOTCH FOR TOPKNOTS • Using live television to promote beauty-care item. Weaver Products of Minneapolis got results that would curl the hair. Weaver Products has been using time on WLWT (TV) Cincinnati to sell its Spoolie hair curlers. Using WLWT as its prime promotional avenue, Weaver hit $200,000 in retail sales in the first five weeks of the campaign, with more than $40,000 in orders backed up from drug, department, grocery and 5 & 10 cent stories. A package of 32 curlers retails for $1.50. John P. Lewis, Spoolie sales manager, through Herb Flaig Agency, Cincinnati, chose a morning variety show and an afternoon movie on WLWT. Mrs. Gladys Weaver, wife of the firm's president, Joseph Weaver, did the commercials. At the point of saturation in the campaign's first five weeks, this meant 10-11 spots a week on WLWT, of which 80% were live. Mrs. Weaver's salesmanship and the visual medium combined to keep many Cincinnati area customers waiting six to eight weeks for orders, with company production outsold for the following four months. "In Cincinnati we reached a new peak," President Weaver reported, adding the success "rests solely on having an excellent product and selling it with live television." The firm has retained the WLWT shows on a long-range basis. POTENT PARLAY • A former dentist and an ex-optometrist have parlayed three wristwatches, a flair for salesmanship and a heavy tv schedule on WTVT (TV) Tampa, Fla., into a successful discount house operation. M.D. (Doc) Abrams, the optometrist, and Bob Swerny met when both were planning IN FOR MORE SPINS P. LORILLARD CO.'s Kent cigarette jingle may turn into a double hit, both king-sized and regular. Aladdin Records likes the jazz ad jingle so well it bought rights to the music and is giving it two chances to succeed. Appearing in different versions on two sides of a record, the tune is played on one as "The Kent Theme," a straight instrumental piece by Buddy Weed's orchestra; on the other side the jingle has new words, "For Love," sung by Three Beaux and a Peep. The radio-tv spot which caught Aladdin's fancy is by Young & Rubicam, with music by Roy Eaton of that firm. The record people are pressing 100,000 records for the initial edition and sending out 1.500 to disc jockeys across the land. These prospective spins, added to 11,000-odd airings the Kent jingle gets each week on stations and the network (CBS-TV. The Big Challenge) forecast a promotional hit for P. Lorillard. a professional change, and last year opened the Bay Discount House in Tampa. On opening day they purchased every available spot announcement on WTVT (TV), broadcasting commercials live from remote facilities at the store. Results proved that they had found a simple formula for success: volume sales through tv advertising. Where do the watches come in? They have become the firm's trade-mark — Doc Abrams delivers all the firm's commercials brandishing three wrist watches on his arm. He displays them prominently while mentioning four or five items in a minute spot, with the firm seeing immediate results on these items. A second store has been opened in Clearwater, Fla., and both rely almost completely on tv advertising . . . "Because it enables the customer to window shop from his home ... its exclusiveness (avoiding the direct competition of retail advertising in newspapers) ... its personal touch." The firm's current ad schedule calls for 23 spots a week on WTVT (TV) news, sports and weather shows and its Popeye cartoon series. It also sponsors two late-evening films on the station. R.S.V.P. • On May 6, Bob Smith invited some people to be his guests at the movies. More than 1,000 people accepted within an hour after the request was made. Though the response would have overwhelmed an ordinary host, Mr. Smith was extraordinarily pleased. So were the prompters of the invitation. Century Theatres, a 33-theatre chain in Brooklyn, Queens and Long Island. They were particularly satisfied because all but 73 of the calls came from Brooklyn, Queens and Long Island. The announcement, broadcast on a 15minute segment of The Bob Smith Show, was part of a campaign for Century on WOR New York. Passes to the theatres were given to all who called within an hour after the offer was made. NO BOLOGNA • A local production on WNEM-TV Bay City, Mich., resulted in big business for Al Goulet, owner of a small grocery business in Bay City. Mr. Goulet sold his complete stock of Goulet's bologna in two hours following a demonstration commercial on WNEM-TV. The initial television trial for the product not only boosted Mr. Goulet's own business, but created a demand among other independent grocers for the whole Goulet line of prepared meats. TEST RESULTS • Bernard B. Schnitzer Inc.. San Francisco advertising agency, has tested the conclusions of agency research — and found the results so valid that it has signed a contract for its second year on KDFCFM San Francisco. A study made by the agency's research department showed that business leaders and executives, "thought leaders" in the community, are likely to be fm adherents. The agency decided that fm could be a test medium for its own institutional advertising, bringing the agency name before a specific Page 44 June 10, 1957 Broadcasting Telecasting