Broadcasting Telecasting (Oct-Dec 1957)

ADVERTISERS & AGENCIES continued SALES CLUB THEME: USE TV ANNOUNCER • Value not limited to ads • Gas success story cited Effectiveness of the television announcer as a company salesman, plus the impact of the medium through which he sells, were outlined Tuesday before the Sales Executives Club of New York. How an advertiser can and should capitalize on its tv announcer by using the personality's "box office appeal" in other media, sales training and company public relations were detailed by George F. Foley, management consultant, and a case history of such use was related by Thomas H. Lane, senior vice president of Lennen & Newell, New York. Mr. Lane told of the success in tv of the American Gas Assn. using Julia Meade in its commercials and carrying the theme and personality into other fields of advertising and promotion. Mr. Foley observed that, in addition to presenting the company's sales message to an audience totaling many millions of home viewers, the tv announcer "also becomes the personification of the corporate personality. This presents industry with an unusual opportunity for personal contact with the public, which is only beginning to be explored." Announcers "are among the best known personalities on the screen," he explained, with the personality adding "believeability to the sales message." Mr. Foley said industry "spends more money building the box office value of its commercial stars than Hollywood spends on its motion picture names. Yet, industry has not yet learned to cash in on the box office values it has created in its tv announcer-salesman. This box office value can be translated into other values for the sponsor by merchandising him, or her, into sales promotions, employe relations and public relations." While the tv announcer today is among the highest paid performers in the industry, only a few companies have signed the top performers to long term contracts, Mr. Foley said. "As the corporation uses the tv performer more and more, he will cease to be treated as talent and more as an executive. The time is coming when the personality will become a part of the corporate executive staff and given the same position and incentive treatment as top management executives." Mr. Lane reported that the American Gas Assn., a trade group of more than 400 utilities and associated companies, was faced with problems similar to those of a package goods manufacturer and hence L & N's approach for the account "is the same as for our soap and cigarette clients." AGA, like other businesses, was faced with a shrinking "share" of market and higher costs despite continued growth of total business, he explained. AGA found total gas sales rising each year, but for 10 years the total gas share of key appliances declined steadily, Mr. Lane said. In cooking, gas outsold electric ranges about three-to-one a decade ago, but this has narrowed to almost a standoff. Also, he said, "in every year of the The Next 10 Days Of Network Color Shows (All Times EST) CBS-TV Dec. 10 (9:30-10 p.m.) Red Skelton Show, S. C. Johnson & Son through Foote, Cone & Belding and Pet Milk through Gardner Adv. NBC-TV Dec. 2-6, 9-11 (1:30-2:30 p.m.) Howard Miller Show, participating sponsors. Dec. 2-6, 9-11 (3-4 p.m.) Matinee Theatre, participating sponsors. Dec. 2, 9 (7:30-8 p.m.) The Price Is Right, RCA Victor through Kenyon & Eckhardt and Speidel through Norman, Craig & Kummel. Dec. 3 (8-9 p.m.) George Gobel— Eddie Fisher Show, RCA-Whirlpool through Kenyon & Eckhardt and Liggett & Myers through McCann-Erickson. Dec. 4, 11 (9-10 p.m.) Kraft Television Theatre, Kraft Foods Co. through J. Walter Thompson Co. Dec. 5 (7:30-8 p.m.) Tic Tac Dough, RCA Victor through Kenyon & Eckhardt and Warner-Lambert through Lennen & Newell. Dec. 5 (10-10:30 p.m.) Lux Show, starring Rosemary Clooney, Lever Bros, through J. Walter Thompson Co. Dec. 7 (8-9 p.m.) Perry Como Show, participating sponsors. Dec. 7 (10:30-11 p.m.) Your Hit Parade, Toni through North and American Tobacco Co. through BBDO. Dec. 8 (2-4 p.m.) NBC Opera, sustaining. Dec. 8 (6:30-7 p.m.) My Friend Flicka, sustaining. Dec. 8 (8-9 p.m.) Steve Allen Show, participating sponsors. Dec. 8 (9-10 p.m.) Dinah Shore Chevy Show, Chevrolet through Campbell-Ewald. Dec. 10 (8-9 p.m.) Eddie FisherGeorge Gobel Show, RCA-Whirlpool through Kenyon & Eckhardt and Liggett & Myers through McCann-Erickson. Page 36 • December 2, 1957 decade mentioned, advertising support of major electric appliances was far greater than that for gas, in some of these years by as much as 10 times." L & N chose tv to solve the problem, Mr. Lane related, "because it was felt that the competition had made their greatest gains in television. Conversely, the gas industry's voice in national television was non-existent." Last January, AGA started on CBS-TV's Playhouse 90, he said, and today "although still out-spent by a considerable margin, they have succeeded in a most startling reversal of the 10-years sales trend. For the first time in 10 years, the key gas appliances are obtaining a greater share of the market." Mr. Lane also reported, that on the basis of studies, consumer attitudes "have been arrested and made more favorable toward gas development in the future." He said the tv program "has given a tremendous lift to the entire industry in many other ways — ranging from a whole new spirit in sales and employe activities to a more favorable attitude on the part of the public utility security analysts." Mr. Lane showed how the sales message and tv theme, using Miss Meade, were carried through into other forms of advertising where possible. The Julia Meade theme appears in current magazine advertisements, newspaper campaigns, billboards, in-store display, window streamers, table tents, postage meter slugs and envelope stuffers. Miss Meade travels constantly for the gas industry, he said, appearing at conventions, talking to industry groups "and generally selling the story of gas at the local level." Many of the utilities use the tv commercial in their sales training and at employe and dealer meetings, he said (see picture). The result, he concluded, has been that the industry overwhelmingly voted to continue the advertising program for a second year — by a vote of 98.5%. L & N last week distributed a mailing kit to the 140 CBS-TV stations carrying Playhouse 90 which contains a newspaper ad to call attention to the Bing Crosby commercial for AGA on the programs of Dec. 5, 12 and 19th. AGA members also will use the Crosby commercial on their local programs. While newspaper ads promoting tv programs are common these days, AGA believes this is possibly the first to advertise the commercial. $2.1 Million Coty Account Switches From HKS&J to BBDO Last week, "That Coty Girl" — representing a potential $2.1 million in broadcast billing — announced that effective Jan. 1 she would be "going places" with BBDO upon termination of services by Heineman, Kleinfeld, Shaw & Joseph, Coty Inc.'s present agency. The account first went with HKS&J (formerly Franklin Bruck Adv.) in 1950. Coty Advertising Director William Siegal said Tuesday the move was not prompted out of dissatisfaction with HKS&J but by Coty's needs for "a larger agency." The 57year-old perfume-cosmetics house recently began testing tv program sponsorship in Broadcasting