Broadcasting Telecasting (Oct-Dec 1957)

ADVERTISERS & AGENCIES $2 MILLION TO SELL A NAME Science-minded chemical firm pins its hopes on a network documentary With sputniks I and II beep-beeping ominously through space, Monsanto Chemical Co., fifth largest U. S. chemical concern (1957 net sales: $600 million), which claims to have a stake both in science and in our national survival, is about to make its corporate * plunge into network television. Happily cashing in on front-page news, Monsanto on Dec. 1, will premiere Conquest, a new science series on 105 CBS TV affiliates; nine additional such "oneshots" are scheduled before June 1959 [Advertisers & Agencies, July 22]. Unlike its competitors, the St. Louis firm has no consumer products to sell. Yet it has allocated $2 million — representing one-third of its total budget — for one program series scheduled for prime Sunday afternoon time. To get the answer to why it joined the ever-growing ranks of corporate advertisers and what it hopes to get out of Conquest, Broadcasting last week talked with the five people most concerned with the development and execution of the new CBS-TV series: Monsanto marketing vice president John L. Gillis; his advertising director, William R. Farrell; CBS Public Affairs director Irving Gitlin; Gardner Adv. Co.'s vice president David P. Ferriss and Roland (Chick) Martini. Mr. Ferriss is account supervisor in the agency's St. Louis headquarters; Mr. Martini is executive director of radio-tv and the man who initially bought the show for Monsanto. One reason behind Monsanto's step: like many other chemical concerns it is alarmed at the science race between the U. S and the U.S.S.R. Notes CBS's Irv Gitlin: "Never before has science interest run so high . . . has the nation's need for scientists been so acute . . . has there been so pressing a need to attract youngsters to science . . . and has Soviet scientific research and education aimed so dangerous a threat to national survival." Adds Monsanto president Dr. Charles Allen Thomas: "The events of recent weeks have demonstrated dramatically how science can affect the lives of us all. At no time in our history has an understanding of science been so important to our progress — even our security." Altruism is only a part of the story. Beneath Monsanto's concern for the national welfare and its sincere efforts to stimulate science recruitment, there also is a sound business reason why Monsanto is putting most of its broadcast chips into one basket. According to Gardner executive Dave Ferriss: "We face a tremendously complicated marketing problem." Because of Monsanto's enormous product range — some 500 different items ranging from A-9 (phthalic anhydride) to zinc benzoate, none in the consumer product category — "we needed a [* Corporate — more commonly known as institutional, a term now out of favor with advertisers who claim "We aren't institutions but corporations."] means whereby we could detail the broad sweep of our complex operations on a national scale, to illustrate our slogan, 'Monsanto— where creative chemistry works for you'!" Although Conquest represents the largest outlay for a single tv series in Monsanto's history and while it is the firm's first corporate buy, Monsanto is no stranger to television. Between 1955-56, Monsanto shared sponsorship of ABC-TV's Warner Bros. Presents on behalf of its "all" detergents and starches, spending $490,000 in 1955 and $723,000 in 1956. (Monsanto got out of the consumer product business last May when it sold complete marketing franchises and trademark rights to "all" to Lever Bros., thus trimming an estimated $4 million from the total ad budget.) And while its plastics division (serviced by Needham, Louis & Brorby, Chicago) no longer uses CBS-TV's Morning Show (defunct), NBC-TV's Home (also defunct) and Today, tv consciousness still prevails in St. Louis. Lion Oil Co. (through Ridgway Adv. DISCUSSING the premiere performance of Monsanto's Conquest are Irv Gitlin (I), CBS director of public affairs, and Dr. Charles Allen Thomas, president of Monsanto. St. Louis), which Monsanto purchased in 1956, currently sponsors Ziv Television Programs' Highway Patrol in 26 central-south markets. Monsanto's success in spot-broadcasting (radio and tv) for "all" ($500,000 in 1956) has prompted the firm to spend some $50,000 in farm radio in six midwest states on behalf of its fertilizers and an additional $10,000 in spot tv on the West Coast for its Rez wood finishes. Furthermore, though it does not participate in planning advertising for Chemstrand Corp. (which it jointly owns with American Viscose Co.), it encouraged Chemstrand's Acrilan this fall to pick up alternate sponsorship on NBCTV's Sally film series starring Joan Caul field. (Doyle Dane Bernbach, New York, is Chemstrand's agency.) To justify Mr. Ferriss' "terribly complicated marketing problem," one look at Monsanto's sales breakdown ought to suffice. Plastics, synthetic resins and coatings account for 31.5% of its net sales; phosphates and detergents (it still manufactures "all" for Lever), 18.2%; plasticizers, 13%; agricultural chemicals, 9.2%; petroleum products, 8.8%; rubber and oil chemicals, 6.8%; heavy chemicals, 4.4%; pharmaceuticals and flavors, 3.7%, and "other" products, 4.4%. Another factor behind Monsanto's purchase of Conquest was competition. E. I. duPont de Nemours, ranking first among U.S. chemical manufacturers (1957 sales: $2 billion), went into tv spectaculars for the first time this year with CBS-TV's duPont Show of the Month after years of having sponsored Cavalcade of America in radio-tv. Union Carbide, No. 2 among the chemical giants (1957 sales: $1.45 billion), has been co-sponsoring Omnibus for two seasons on two networks. And while Allied Chemical & Dye Corp., No. 3 (1957 sales: $670 million) hasn't yet made its tv debut, Dow Chemical Corp., No. 4 (1957 sales: $630 million) is again considering tv after having backed NBC-TV's Medic last year. (Shortly before Monsanto picked up Conquest at roughly $125,000 a show plus $80,000 for time and commercials, Dow's agency, MacManus, John & Adams, was reported interested in the show; so were Shell Oil Co. and Portland Cement Co.). Monsanto doesn't need tv to bolster its sales as would, say, a food manufacturer. It has happily been riding the crest of a gigantic postwar chemical boom; witness its growth in sales from $267 million in 1952 to $542 million in 1956. For the first nine months of this year, net sales jumped 7.2% while earnings before taxes advanced 7.5%. If it doesn't intend to "push" its products, what does Monsanto hope to gain from television? Having recently embarked on a $75 million capital expenditure program, Monsanto, according to Marketing Vice President Jack Gillis, intends to: • Increase "favorable recognition" on a corporate scale. • Build its reputation as "a successful, well-managed, diversified company." • Emphasize the fact that it makes topquality products and backs them with "the finest technical service." • Sell its products indirectly by broadening markets for its own products and those of its jobbers. • Expand general knowledge of the broad range of products manufactured by Monsanto. • Create a "selling climate" for its sales force in order to assure that they'll be seen promptly and listened to closely. Mr. Gitlin hit hard on the latter plank Broadcasting November 18, 1957 • Page 33