Broadcasting Telecasting (Oct-Dec 1957)

$23 MILLION QUESTION: WHO GETS BUICK? The $20-million-plus question along Madison Avenue last week was: "Who is going to land the Buick account?" Almost immediately after Buick announced the end of its 22-year association with Kudner Adv., New York (story, opposite page), numerous rumors began to crop up. The only official word from Buick was that the company has "several agencies in mind." Those mentioned most frequently as heir to the lucrative account, whose billing is placed unofficially at $23 million, are Leo Burnett Co., Ted Bates & Co., Benton & Bowles and Compton Adv. Spokesmen for these agencies declined to discuss any presentations they may have made for the account, but there are advance reasons why some of these agencies could be in the running. It is known Burnett is interested in acquiring an automotive account and the agency in recent months has been advertising heavily in Detroit newspapers, citing its services and facilities. Compton figures in the speculation because E. J. Owens, a vice president, was associated with Kudner for 22 years until last summer and was active many of those years on the Buick account. Benton & Bowles, which had considerable automotive experience with the Studebaker-Packard account until S-P shifted last spring to Burke Dowling Adams, also is known to be eager to land a strong automotive account. Indications are that Buick will not make an immediate announcement since Kudner will handle the account until next fall and the new agency will have had an opportunity to study the account. IT'S INSTINCT, BURNETT TELLS DETROIT How does an agency pitch for an auto account? Chicago's Leo Burnett Co. has been doing it with full-page advertisements in Detroit newspapers. The theme of one current series is "The Vanishing American," which asks what has happened to the man from Missouri. Burnett says auto customers put their heads under the hood less and less and ask fewer questions, noting, "People are putting their trust in their buying instincts rather than in their cerebral sagacity." The Burnett copy flows on to column three and the clincher in successive clipped paragraphs: "Advertising is the reason. "Advertising of a certain, peculiar, particular, modern kind. Advertising that does not outwardly try to convince or. persuade or argue or compete. "It is the kind of advertising that is making selling history today in other fields. "It has yet to make its impact felt upon the automotive world. "It is thoroughly understood by only a few. And only a handful can make it work. "They are men who know this simple fact about today's new-car buyer: "It's not so much what he thinks as how he feels. "P. S. One of these days some manufacturer is going to unleash the power of this new, modern selling force for an automobile. We would like to help him." agency is engaged in more than advertising work for the client and is expected to perform a "counseling service" to the client's marketing effort. Thus, demands and conditions have changed. Nevertheless, he declared, actually not too many of the top national advertisers are "unhappy" nor considering a change of agency. He said that B&B, in looking into these situations, finds that most advertisers find it "better to resolve" problems with their own agencies than to go through the "agony of an agency change." Mr. Bolte observed that many agency shifts are caused by industry diversification. Thus, new products offered by the client sometimes create a competitive situation or conflict with those products already being handled by the agency. Mr. Bolte answered a query on who at B&B makes the decision "on what media will be used," stating flatly that the "recommendation always is developed by the media department," though he outlined the various steps through which the recommendation must go within the agency before it is finally approved by the plans group. B&B, he also stated, expects its media people to be "creative and objective." In his formal talk, Mr. Bolte explained at length the changes in operating procedures within a company which modify a firm's advertising objective. His advice: To timebuyers — Help both clients and media representatives by obtaining all information "that will have any significant effect upon the client's advertising strategy." Sources, he said, are account executives within the agency and agency management. Give media representatives who call every bit of information that does not violate a client's confidence but can help the representatives prepare "the most effective program or schedule available to achieve the client's objectives." If you don't have this authority, he counseled, then arrange an entree for the representative with an executive at the agency who does. He said, "I look upon our timebuyers as the door through which all pertinent information is passed to media, so that media may work most effectively — and through which all pertinent information passes from media to agency management — so the agen cy can work most effectively for its clients. If this flow ... is stopped in either direction, I believe the function of the timebuyer is impeded and the effectiveness of the agency is impaired." To media representatives — just the reverse. Before submitting recommendations, get all the information you can from the timebuyer or whomever he has designated. A representative trying to sell his medium without such information "is flying blind." Cigarette Patterns Changing, Says Gruber Cigarette advertisers, most of whom spend close to two-thirds of their annual ad budgets in combined broadcast media, are in the throes of "a long-term revolution ... involving not only marketing patterns but the very products themselves," a leading cigarette manufacturer declared last week. Lewis Gruber, president of P. Lorillard Co. (Kent, Old Gold, Newport and other tobacco products), in a year-end report, predicts "another record year" for 1958 in which the filter and mentholated cigarette market will continue to flourish at a stepped-up rate. Basing his estimates on statistics provided by the U. S. Dept. of Commerce and the reports of private tobacco consultant Harry M. Wootten, Mr. Gruber noted that retail cigarette sales for 1957 are expected to top the record-high of $5 billion. Among the changes wrought by the "revolution" cited by Mr. Gruber: (1) continuing sales decline of non-filter regular size cigarettes which in 1938 represented more than 98% of all cigarette sales and now account for only 37%; (2) decline of nonfilter king size brands from 1954's 30% in terms of sales to less than 20% today; (3) rise in sales of filter brands from less than 1% in 1951 to about 40% six years later; (4) growth of the metholated cigarettes from less than 4% (1955) to an estimated 7%; (5) increase in the number of cigarette brands packaged in hard-pack-flip-top-boxes : only 5% of all brands used this package in 1956; some 13 brands representing 15% of all cigarettes made now feature this new package. According to Mr. Gruber, whose company sponsors a number of tv network programs (CBS-TV's $64,000 Challenge, NBCTV's Court of Last Resort, CBS-TV's Assignment Foreign Legion — the last to be replaced early in January by Richard Diamond, Private Detective) and which caused considerable talk in agency circles this year because of Kent's almost fantastic success [Advertisers & Agencies, Sept, 2], 1957 may well go down in tobacco history as the year in which "the industry met its greatest setbacks, yet scored its most significant gains." MR. GRUBER Broadcasting December 23, 1957 • Page 35