Broadcasting Telecasting (Oct-Dec 1957)

ADVERTISERS & AGENCIES continued of Monsanto's platform, quoting a "satisfied customer," the Prudential Insurance Co. of America, as having said that Air Power and The Twentieth Century have opened thousands of doors to its salesmen as no other form of prestige advertising had been able to do. According to Monsanto advertising director Bill Farrell, the possibility of corporate sponsorship first hit Monsanto in 1954 after it had distributed, free, to tv stations throughout the country, a 15-minute industrial color film showing how plastics affect our daily lives. Local Monsanto dealers and jobbers found the films of sufficient interest to sponsor them locally. Recalls Gardner's Chick Martini: "We looked and looked for three years, rejecting 'pure entertainment' offered us by the networks and the talent agents. We wanted 'complete scope.' " Mr. Martini passed over three of Mr. Gitlin's prize projects, The Search, Adventure and Odyssey before settling for Conquest. All three had been on the block but failed to attract an advertiser; they are now off the air. Last Dec. 30, as part of the network's three-hour summary. At Year's End: 1956, Mr. Gitlin and public affairs department producer Michael Sklar teamed up with the American Academy for the Advancement of Science to present The New Frontier, an hour-long show dealing with the scientific achievements of the year. This, it turned out later, was the seed from which Conquest sprang. Critical reaction — most of it favorable — led to further development of a "science series" and by May 28, Mr. Gitlin and staff had completed drawing up a 57-page detailed presentation for Conquest. Sight unseen, as it were — there never was a pilot film — Gardner Adv. Co. bought the show for two years at a price tag reported at $2 million. Dr. Thomas, a member of the National Academy of Sciences (which will work with the AAAS on the show) went along almost immediately, reasoning that Conquest would reach "that special audience of key men of industry who often don't watch the ordinary 'amusement' program; thus they would be exposed not only to an adult program but to our message as well." Behind the actual showing of Conquest stands an intensive merchandising drive paid for by Monsanto. Tie-in print ads are scheduled to run in Life, Time and Farm Journal. Monsanto also will pre-sell its series in Tv Guide, and is staging special sales meetings with its key sales people in 10-12 cities. The salesmen will be sporting special Conquest neckties and lapel buttons, and lest the stockholders be alarmed that their precious dividends are being funneled into television, Monsanto last month kept its thousands of "bosses" informed via special Conquest stuffers enclosed with their dividend. "Five years ago," Mr. Martini said Tuesday, "we wouldn't have been able to air Conquest or any show like it. The climate of public acceptance just wasn't there." It is today, he feels, and he credits to some degree Omnibus and Wide Wide World, not to men tion the impact of Soviet scientific achievement. Such shows as the Frank Capra-AT&T series, claims Mr. Martini, have opened up new tv vistas for corporate advertisers. Five years ago, science was "for sissies only." Today, scientific explorers, be they named Salk or Hillary, working out of a lab or on an Antarctic icecap in "Operation Deep Freeze," are American heroes. Such a hero is U.S.A. F. Major David Simons, "star" of the Dec. 1 Conquest. Monsanto and CBS will present for the first time exclusive filmed reports on Maj. Simons' 33-hour solitary confinement in a balloon 20 miles above Reawakened interest in radio as a salesman was amply evident in the radio workshop session at the Advertising Research Foundation's third annual all-day conference in New York last Thursday. Although two other workshops were in progress at the same time, a roomful of some 75 advertiser, agency and media executives met to hear "what we need to know about radio" discussed from the standpoint of all three — and then kept the speakers overtime with questions and further discussion from the floor. The consensus of the three panelists was that "what we need most to know about radio" has to do with additional research — especially as to the who, where, when of listenership — that would permit more meaningful use of radio by advertisers and agencies and more knowledgeable selling by broadcasters. The panelists were Thomas B. McCabe Jr., director of advertising for Scott Paper Co.; Jack R. Green, associate media director of J. Walter Thompson Co. (see condensed text page 36), and Melvin A. Goldberg, director of research for Westinghouse Broadcasting Co. Workshop Chairman Arthur A. Porter, JWT vice president, noted at the outset that there is "more interest" in radio today than in many years, and that this renewed interest is reaching into all areas of the advertising business — marketing, copy, research, etc. He also thought it possible that the next big step in media research may lead to a technique for "comparing apples and oranges" — comparing different media on a common basis — even though the generally popular view has been that this could not be done. After all, he said, "every time we write a media plan, we have compared them mentally." Mr. Goldberg said radio "has labored under a severe handicap" in that "it is almost too good. For years, radio has been used by advertisers to help sell their wares, and apparently it has been quite successful. But I would venture to say it has been successful despite a serious lack of knowledge about the medium." He told the group that radio "is too effective to be afraid of research. We need more of it, better done and on a more Minnesota last Aug. 18 in the Air Force's "Operation Man High." Monsanto hopes to clear the air of the mystery of science and stimulate interest in science as a career. It will try to do so on each show via its four 90-second commercials— produced by MPO Films and featuring announcer Nelson Case. Better yet, though, comments host Eric Sevareid, even a sophisticated, 45-year-old reporter who has literally been through hell and high water, can stand to learn from Conquest's myriad forays past the "forbidden" frontiers of science. qualitative basis. The truth can only help us." Mr. Goldberg cited information which the advertiser needs and which for the most part generally is available — number of sets, marketing data, station coverage, programming, audience composition and station "image" (how people feel about a station), etc. But he pointed out that research along these lines could be refined further to the advantage of both advertiser and medium. He also cited other research areas where he thought "extremely valuable" information might be developed: "I would like to see some studies on the problem of frequency and repetition. How much repetition is necessary to get a given message across — if the message is also being presented on tv? How much if it is radio alone? What are the communications dynamics, once a message is heard? "Another intangible about which we do not have hard data, but for which there is a need, is the ability of radio to reach the customers where the product is being used. When a food packager can reach the woman in the kitchen; when the company that sells gasoline can reach the car owner in his automobile; when the seller of any merchandise can reach the woman in the car on the way to the shopping center, or can reach her just before she leaves to go shopping, this is a substantial plus that radio does have. Unfortunately, no research service offers data on radio listening by location of set. "As a corollary to this, I think it would be valuable to the advertising industry and, incidentally, to the Civil Defense Administration, to know the number of radios in business establishments and the degree to which these radios are in use. This information could be gathered in the 1958 Census of Business, unless it is too late. Here, ARF could take the lead." Mr. Goldberg said another area where ARF might help is in connection with the decennial census. He thought it "a great error" that radio questions are to be omitted from the 1960 census, because such information "would again be of aid not only to the industry but to civil defense as well." He continued: "As a result of such a survey we would have county data on the number of radios RESEARCH NEEDED, ARF TOLD • McCabe, Green, Goldberg address workshop on radio • Well-attended session shows renewed interest in medium Page 34 • November 18, 1957 Broadcasting