Broadcasting Telecasting (Apr-Jun 1958)

ADVERTISERS & AGENCIES continued PGW FORECASTING HOT RADIO SUMMER • Slump is myth, salesmen say • New kit offers proof for am Advertisers ought not to put their spot radio plans into the deep freeze during the summertime. And. for those who have a few radio plans frozen for the time being, the summer period is just the time to defrost. A drive for new spot radio business on the basis of the summer's attractiveness comes from Peters, Griffin, Woodward, station representative. PGW looks, too, to the advertiser already using spot radio and is urging him to maintain schedules and perhaps to increase. The whole PGW pitch is contained in a new kit, called "in the Big New Summerlime." The firm's radio salesmen are being equipped with the kits to aid them in their selling rounds at agencies and to advertisers. This week the salesmen met with Robert H. Teter, PGW vice president and director of radio, at a "Summer Clinic" to go over the problem of the "Myth of the Summer Slump," which Mr. Teter says the evidence in the kit "explodes." Basically, the material prepared by PGW attacks the myth by stressing statistically the importance of the summer months — June, July and August — in consumer habits and buying. PGW cites National Industrial Conference Board figures which show that half of the people take their vacations at times other than the summer (50% in the summer, 20% in the fall, 20% in the spring and 10% in the winter). Very few families, according to NICB, are away "all summer" and 80% of Americans are away from their homes and jobs for less than three weeks out of the entire year. Thus, says PGW, "the balance of the summer is like any other time of the year. . . . People go to work, buy things they want, enjoy themselves." Chief difference, the station representative notes, is that people spend more time outdoors and they drive their cars more and "radio goes with them wherever they go." In pointing up time spent with radio, PGW includes figures showing the total time individuals spent with media (from a Sindlinger & Co. survey). Radio, according to these figures, has the highest "score" for June, July and August compared with other media. Another set of figures (taken from Pulse) emphasizes radio's use in and out of the home in such widely separated markets as New York, Chicago, New Orleans and Los Angeles. Compared are both winter and summer listening according to average quarter-hour sets in use from six in the morning to midnight. In each of the markets, the summer average topped the winter figure. Other sets of statistics probe various markets in the U. S., showing further summer and winter listening comparisons and radio summer use growth; increase in summer travel on the highways (with emPage 40 • May 26, 1958 phasis on the fact that 87.5% of the more than 5 million cars sold last year were radio-equipped); 25.7% of annual retail sales in the U. S. are made during the summer months (Commerce Dept. figures). PGW notes that 32% of all radios travel with people in the summertime. Cited are surveys of the percentage of portable radios taken along on weekends and on weekdays by certain groups to outdoor events and the percentage of these portables in use. In specific fields (food-grocery stores, hardware-appliance retailers, gas stations and lumber-building material dealers), PGW observes that retail sales during the summer months go over the average for the nation. Against all these "summer facts," PGW asks the advertisers to "check your media objectives." MYOMIST and the people who launched its campaign on WRCA-TV New York (I to r): Jay Heitin, sales manager, WRCA-TV; Shari Lewis, m.c. of the Hi, Mom show; Ted Braude, account executive, Joseph Katz Co.; Harry W. Bennett, senior vice president, Katz; Josie McCarthy, culinary expert, and Alfred Kovnat, Parry marketing chief. Tv gets a hot prospect as Myomist goes national Attention, tv station sales managers: there's a new spray wafting your way which may leave you breathless in more ways than one. Called Myomist, the new antiseptic oral spray — which is packaged by Parry Labs, New York, in a small (2% -inch high) portable, infantry-blue plastic squeeze bottle, — is hellbent on achieving national distribution within 60 days and is banking primarily on tv to put it over. To date, Myomist has been introduced in only a few selected markets, but where it has made its bow, its impact has been clearly felt. Precisely how successful its sales have been in the six months Myomist has been sold no one can tell, least of all executives at Parry Labs, who know but won't talk. Conscious of the threat of a Bristol-Myers or Colgate-Palmolive — both of which have had long-established, intricate networks of distribution and marketing pipelines — Parry, founded only late last year by a nucleus of ex-Helene Curtis employes, also has instructed its agency, Joseph Katz Co., to keep "absolutely mum." But station people who have watched Myomist debut in their market are unreservedly enthusiastic about the product's progress. Myomist "premiered" in Cleveland last January on WEWS (TV) and WJW-TV; shortly thereafter, it popped up in Washington, using all four stations there — WTOPTV, WRC-TV, WMAL-TV and WTTG (TV). Then it tested Chicago on WNBQ (TV) and WBKB (TV), switched to Philadelphia's WFIL-TV. But not until a fortnight ago did Myomist truly get underway. It signed a 52-week schedule on WRCA-TV New York under that station's "Double Dividend Plan," agreeing to spend no less than $325,000 at the outset. It also bought supplementary time on WPIX (TV) and WABC-TV New York. Next week, Myomist should enter Baltimore, using WMAR-TV there. From all indications, Parry Labs' buying strategy can best be called erratic; aside from WRCA-TV, it has bought no set schedule in terms of 13 weeks. In some of the above markets, it went "in" and "out". The reason: Myomist is a pioneer product. While it may be "competing" with other oral hygiene preparations, it has no peer in that it's a mouthspray that one may easily carry around on one's person, thus has "no track record" it can follow. So far, Parry Labs reportedly is spending upwards of $1.3 million in five markets, 85% in tv spot. It is understood to be considering barter but when questioned, a Parry executive said that most of its time purchases will be "for cash." While its number one market potential is with the businessman • who can't gargle or brush his teeth after a garlic-flavored luncheon session — thus using early morning and late night tv — Parry Labs will make a concerted effort to "reach" the groom-conscious teenager. It is presently considering buying its first network participation in ABC-TV's American Bandstand. Quo vadis Myomist? Notes one leading station representative: "With over $1 million being spent in tv in only a handful of cities and apparently meeting with phenomenal consumer reaction, can you imagine what they'll [Parry Labs] be spending in only a few months' time? Why, this may be the Lestoil story of 1958!" Broadcasting