Broadcasting Telecasting (Oct-Dec 1957)

PROGRAMS S PROMOTIONS continued RADIO UPS SHOPPING AREA BUYING BUYING BIG BUSINESS? BEST BUY IN ROANOKE! WSLS-TV The circle of WSLS-TV influence reaches a 2 billion dollar market . . . bringing 548,200 households within sales range. Confirmed by NCS #2 Spring 1956 WHBF RADIO & TELEVISION COMING! Greatly Expanded TV Coverage from a New 1000 ft. Tower REPRESENTED BY AVERY-KNODEL, INC. Christmas buying came early to one community shopping center this yeai — thanks to radio. The University District in Seattle is so named because it has grown up around the campus of the U. of Washintgon. Its population is heavily weighted with students, faculty and persons with intellectual and allied interests. "The District," as its residents call it, is far enough from the city center (10-15 minutes by car, somewhat longer by Seattle Transit) and parking conditions are so rough in downtown Seattle, that many District families habitually do their shopping near home. Others do go downtown, however, and there rarely has been any reverse trend of people coming from other residential sections to the University District to do their buying. There is considerable community spirit not only because of the academic and cultural activities on the campus, but because the residents are a homogeneous group. The local merchants and professional people do all they can to foster this Districtmindedness: The University District Commercial Club often leads in community promotions, such as sponsoring the Kids Day Parade during the annual Seattle Seafair and decorating the main streets during the Christmas season. Most of the advertising, however, in the past has been confined to District media, with occasional insertions in the "downtown" daily papers and small radio budgets. This year, the University District Commercial Club decided to try something different, banking heavily on a new approach to radio. In the first weeks of the experiment the results were so impressive and the merchant reaction so favorable that there is talk already of turning it into a permanent, possibly year-round venture. Simply stated, the new idea is akin to the cooperative advertising funds made available to local dealers by some manufacturers. The Commercial Club decided to invest $2,400 in a contract with one station, KOL Seattle. Under the agreement, merchant members of the Commercial Club may buy KOL time for their own advertising with half the cost of the time paid by the club. To protect the smaller merchants in the Commercial Club, a limit was set so the biggest firms would not immediately use up the allocated funds. The Club undertook to pay 50% of the cost of one-minute spots up to 62 times for anv member-advertiser and 50% of 30-second spots up to 75 times. There was one stipulation: Each announcement by the member-advertiser must include a ten-second transcribed spot plugging the University District. The jingle, arranged by KOL and prepared by Allied Radio Artists, Hollywood, features the "Magic Mile," to identify the entire University District shopping center. The theory was — and it proved sound — that all merchants in the District would thus benefit from every announcement aired. Although the Commercial Club has more than 250 firm and professional members (about 100 of them retail businesses), all available funds under the cooperative advertising project were snapped up by the first 17 member merchants who took advantage of the offer. The first copy went on the air in midNovember, and while some of the advertisers have arranged for their campaigns to be spread up to as late as February, most of the budget has been used during the preholiday season. Final results cannot be evaluated until January or later, but the advertising merchants— and University District firms generally— were expressing strong enthusiasm for the plan within days after the first announcements were aired. The idea originated with Miles Blankinship, executive secretary of the University District Commercial Club; Cappy Ricks, advertising man with Cappy Ricks & Assoc.; and R. B. Harris, KOL account executive. Mr. Blankinship gave a pre-Christmas evaluation of the projects results in these terms: "There is already discernible an abovenormal increase in shopper traffic for this time of the year. Ordinarily, the Christmas shopping in our District reaches its peak during the week or week-and-a-half before Christmas, but this year it seems to have started at the beginning of December. "Moreover," he added, "it isn't only the advertisers themselves who are benefiting. THE BEST FRIEND A STATION EVER HAD! "TelePrompTer equipment has been a tremendous asset to our Program Department. We would be lost without this equipment, and our production quality could not be maintained without its availability." Mr. Glenn G. Griswold, Gen. Mgr. KFEQ-TV, St. Joseph, Mi ssoun —11 CORPORATION — — Jim Blair, Equipment Sales Manager 311 West 43rd Street, New York 36, N. Y., JUdson 2-3800 Our new TelePro 6000 rear screen projector produces 6000 lumens ol I i 3 ht with a 3000 watt bulb Page 104 • December 16, 1957 Broadcasting