Broadcasting Telecasting (Jan-Mar 1958)

ADVERTISERS 5 AGENCIES continued LEVER TRYS TWO NEW MEDIA TACKS • Drops Pepsodent radio spot slate; bolsters tv spot • Asks combination rate for toothpaste and Dove soap I ever Bios, has pulled oil what il considers .1 coup in broadcast strateg\ |Ciomi> Circuit, Feb. 101. In swift succession through two of its agencies. Foote. Cone & Belding, New York, and Ogilvy, Benson & Mather. New York, the multi-million dollar advertiser — ranking in the top 10 in the U. S. — by last week accomplished the following: (1) Dropped the entire national schedule ol Pepsodent radio spots which ran in as many as 200 markets and represented an estimated $2.5 million annual investment; (2) Moved rapidly to install tonnage use of spot television, specifically IDs on behalf of Pepsodent toothpaste (At Deadline. Feb. 24). This campaign breaks nationally in about 50 markets beginning next Monday ( most markets on various dates next week and in the Southeast April 1 this year). (3) Worked in a doubleplay that involves still another Lever product. Dove, the company's highly touted "beauty bar" soap. On behalf of Dove, the advertiser similarly purchased saturation, high-frequency spot tv packages in the same major markets [At Deadline, Feb. 17]. In the process, Lever also has engineered — seemingly almost overnight — these initial results and/or reactions: • Alarmed a segment of the tv industry by requesting special package rates for its huge saturation buys (averaging 50 spots per week for four weeks in nearly all markets), stirred resistance by some stations but scored with successful acceptance by most. • Aroused bitterness on the part of a formidable and articulate section of the radio industry including several station representatives and the Radio Bureau of Advertising (story page 48). • Set off pros and cons in judgement of Lever's "new concept" of buying spot tv. the impact of which has some observers likening it to the stir caused in the broadcast industry by the General Foods and Bristol-Myers shared-sponsorship spot tv plan. Basically this is what Lever bought: On behalf of Pepsodent, station identification announcements on run of station basis, averaging 50 per week for four weeks in a total of approximately 50 major U. S. markets. Campaign already was in motion in markets that Lever had tested in New York and on the West Coast but the bulk of the national drive kicks off next week. Agency is Foote, Cone & Belding. On behalf of Dove, the same quantity and type of spots were purchased in the same markets. The Dove campaign kicked off in the middle of February and runs on this vein: eight weeks on. four weeks off, picking up again with eight weeks, then oil four weeks etc.. a total of about 26 weeks in the year. Ogilvy, Benson & Mather is the Dove agency. Between the two campaigns there is this major difference: Lever's Pepsodent Div. asked for the ROS to split approximately 50% in the daytime (before 6 p.m.) and 50% in the nighttime (after 6 p.m.). Reason: Pepsodent seeks mass, all-family appeal. Lever's Dove asked for the ROS to lodge mostly in the daytime hours with only a few fringing into nighttime periods. Reason: Dove aims its appeal more to the feminine audience. Many of those stations which resisted Lever's search for big-package rates — with price sought independently of the stations involved since tv outlets as a rule do not accommodate 50 spots weekly on their rate cards — did not contest the Dove buying to the extent that they fought against Pepsodent. Chief reason expressed to Broadcasting was an apparent desire by Dove to accommodate stations' rate structures, while in Pepsodent's case the issue was not so clear. It was known that Pepsodent was asking for a discounted price for the package that, according to station sources, would amount to 65-70% of the one-time rate published on the card. Some representatives asserted that in markets where the spot "supply" was high, Pepsodent had no trouble in obtaining schedules, but in others, where the market was tight on the supply of available spots, the advertiser had to be "satisfied" with "secondary" stations and/ or schedules. Thus, those stations resisting Pepsodent's buying pattern did so on price. On the other hand, stations or their representatives accepting the Pepsodent business presented various reasons for their actions. According to one official. "Lever's mass saturation buying — even though it requires the setting up of a price for a package that our rates do not accommodate — means millions of dollars to the spot tv medium. We welcome the philosophy being expounded by Lever that spot tv is a good buy and can be inexpensive when purchased in large quantities. It can dispel the strong, prevailing opinion among some advertisers that tv is tremendously expensive." Another spokesman among those who support the Lever "concept" said "Where buying is at such quantity the discounted rates are justified. The Lever action gives positive proof that tv is ideal for mass saturation campaigns, and second to only perhaps radio as a mass, low-cost medium." Many broadcast sellers in New York labeled the Lever buying as possibly a "new trend in tv to saturation buying that existed in radio . . . buying that seeks maximum spread and accounting for the tune-in shift for a product of general appeal, that seeks frequency and repetition and a maximum audience, duplicated or not." Still other tv time salesmen noted that Lever was not insisting on guaranteed time on stations but ROS and a general split. They said stations were not being asked to "reappraise rate cards because of market size or audience but only to make rate provisions for package." Also understood to be in the "grand master plan" at Lever: • In moving into spot tv only major markets have been selected. Thus, compared to its radio schedule, a number of markets have been dropped. At the same time. Lever for Pepsodent is expecting to adjust its market lists if that becomes necessary — but at present the market total is approximately 50. • Originally Lever was planning to purchase tv spots for Pepsodent on a 52-week basis. Except for a few west coast markets, Lever changed its mind and bought on a four-week basis. It is pointed out that Dove goes off the air for four-week periods and it is believed that Lever is permitting itself leeway in certain markets and in time may consider a schedule in some markets that would have Dove on the air for eight weeks followed by four weeks of Pepsodent IDs. This could not be confirmed. • It was indicated, but not confirmed, that Lever plans to put some of Pepsodent and Dove money into hitchhikes on its network tv program schedule as supplementary to the spot drive. The spot radio schedule for Pepsodent was canceled outright at about the same time that Lever started its schedule for Dove, with a search for tv ID availabilities on behalf of Pepsodent already underway. To bring the sequence of events into focus: Lever started testing spot tv in the fall of last year, in New York City and in a few west coast markets. In six weeks on the West Coast. Pepsodent had 200 IDs on television. Results were favorable and Lever renewed for another four weeks. It reportedly now has renewed the business in these west coast markets (Los Angeles and San Francisco among them) for 52 weeks with the normal two-week cancellation clause. Asked by Broadcasting for an accounting of tv spots Lever used for Pepsodent on the West Coast, Broadcast Advertisers Reports (BAR). New York, a monitoring service, supplied the following data: Los Angeles for the week ending Jan. CAUSE of the hue and cry: Pepsodent and Dove, the two Lever products that are at the center of a new media strategy. Though spot radio is out of Pepsodent plans for now, the lines of the jingle that spot radio made famous appear on the toothpaste box: "You'll wonder where the yellow went . . . when you brush your teeth with Pepsodent.'' Page 46 • March 3, 1958 Broadcasting