Broadcasting Telecasting (Oct-Dec 1957)

ADVERTISERS & AGENCIES CONTINUED BANKS SEES MEDIA COMPARISON • Burnett executive sees major media equivalent standards • NBC's Beville addresses Audit Bureau of Circulations The next major step forward in media measurement will be the development of measures of individual advertisement audiences which will be equivalent and comparable for the major media, including radio and tv, the Audit Bureau of Circulations was told at its 43d annual convention in Chicago last week. The prediction was voiced by Dr. Seymour Banks, media planning and research manager of Leo Burnett Co., at a panel session set by the Advertising Research Foundation Friday. Dr. Banks spoke along with Dr. G. Maxwell Ule, vice president and research director, Kenyon & Eckhardt Inc.; Edwin Green, assistant to the vice president and media director of J. Walter Thompson Co.; Hugh M. Beville Jr., vice president of planning and research for NBC, and A. Edward Miller, assistant to the publisher, Life magazine. Mr. Beville's appearance marked the first by a non-print-media representative on an ABC convention agenda. The two-day convention, held at the Drake Hotel, opened Thursday under chairmanship of George Dibert, J. Walter Thompson Co., ABC board chairman. The question of whether ABC should audit unpaid portions of publications' distribution and other matters were discussed. With development of individual and comparable audiences for all media, "the advertiser will be able to compare the number of people who are like! v to be resched [exposed to] by $100,000 worth of advertising, whether that money buys four-color bleed pages in a list of magazines, 1,750-line ads in 100 newspapers in the top 50 markets, a 90-second commercial on a tv spectacular or any other variation in choice of space or time units," Dr. Banks asserted. He recounted the Burnett agency's work on media measurements in terms of a "rela tive media cost efficiency study" for spring 1957 — adjusting media audiences by measures of resoonse to individual advertisements appearing in those media, and relating advertising audiences estimated to cost of space or time units involved. A table of cost per media advertising impression, (or people exposures), presented by Dr. Banks, updates a previous 1956 study reported last spring by Leonard S. Matthews, Burnett vice president in charge of media. It shows that generally, in a kind of "apples and oranges" comparison, broadcast media deliver an advertising impression at a cost far below that of newspapers, newspaper supplements and magazines [Advertisers & Agencies, April 1]. The new findings : ( 1 ) Television — a one-minute commercial in an average evening half-hour program, $1.30 per impression; minute commercial in an average quarter-hour daytime program, $1.21; minute commercial (60-second daytime spot) $1.56; commercials delivered in 20-second nighttime spots, $2.10. (2) Radio — one-minute commercial for average quarter-hour daytime program, 97 cents. (3) Magazines — (general weeklies) fourcolor page, $4.84, and black and white page, $5.69; (women's service and home service) four-color, $5.10, and black and white, $5.73. (4) Newspaper supplements — four-color page, $3.73, and black and white page, $5.11. (5) Newspapers — 1,000-line, ROP, black and white, $6.88; ROP, black and white page. $10.31, and ROP. four-color page, $8.70. Broadcast data covered the March-April 1957 period, with sources including A. C. Nielsen for program audiences and cost, American Research Bureau for program HOW PEOPLE SPEND THEIR TIME THERE WERE 123,417,000 people in the U. S. over 12 years of age during the week Oct. 6-Oct. 12. This is how they spent their time: 69.1% ( 85,281,000) spent 1,850.6 million hours watching television 54.1% ( 66,769,000) spent 981.5 million hours listening to radio 82.3% (101,572,000) spent 414.8 million hours reading nbwspapers 30.4% ( 37,519,000) spent 168.1 million hours reading magazines 25.4% ( 31,348,000) spent 384.0 million hours watching movies on tv 27.5% ( 33,978,000) spent 142.1 million hours attending movies These totals, compiled by Sindlinger & Co., Ridley Park, Pa., and published exclusively by Broadcasting each week, are based on a 48-state, random dispersion sample of 7,000 interviews (1,000 each day). Sindlinger's monthly "Activity" report, from which these weekly figures are drawn, furnishes comprehensive breakdowns of these and numerous other categories, and shows the duplicated and unduplicated audiences between each specific medium. Copyright 1957 Sindlinger & Co. • AH figures are average daily tabulations for the week with exception of the "attending movies" category which is a cumulative total for the week. Sindlinger tabulations are available within 2-7 days of the interviewing week. WINS A.B.C. AWARD "Grand Award" for an advertising campaign promoting the significance of Audit Bureau of Circulations during 1957 was presented to Broadcasting Oct. 17 at the ABC's 43d annual convention in Chicago. This top award was given for the best campaign among the four ABC divisions — daily newspapers, weeklies, business publications and magazines. In addition, Broadcasting received one of two awards in the business publication field for an individual advertisement. Broadcasting became an ABC member Oct. 15, 1956, the only publication in the radio-tv field carrying the ABC symbol. audience composition, spot ratings based on spring 1957 ARB reports in 100 markets and costs from Standard Rate & Data Service in 13-week cycles. Print measurements were based on individual media, Daniel Starch & Assoc., Alfred Politz and newspaper reports. An advertising impression for print was described as one where a person noted or saw an advertisement, and for broadcast media where a person was exposed to one minute of commercial time via programs (using Nielsen average audience ratings). For spot, it was determined two exposures to spot were equivalent to one exposure via programs (exposures are defined as sufficient attentiveness leading to registration in conscious faculties). Dr. Banks cited "excellent data" on program audiences and only "fragmentary data on response to individual commercials." He added, "There is a considerable amount of information about set usage while spot announcements are on but, again, we know very little about the actual audience to the announcements." Data for major magazines on publication audience and advertisement response is excellent, he claimed, while issue audience and advertisement readership figures are limited to a relatively small number of newspapers. Dr. Ule declared, "The pressures of the marketing facts of life make it almost inevitable that the orderly, the logical, the rigorous and fair methods of the scientific method shall have to replace the sloppy, slipshod, non-comparable methods of the past." Dr. Ule urged development of "comparable measurements of circulation which are relatively interchangeable" among print and broadcast media. "We must measure total reach or coverage first, on a comparable basis — this is simply making certain that we take a full comparable count of the number of households which are reached with the particular issue or broadcast" before delving into qualitative differences and "unknown" factors. Dr. Ule also noted "important progress" in some areas in appraising the "qualitative differences" of these impressions in terms of ability to implant a product message Page 70 • October 21, 1957 Broadcasting