Broadcasting Telecasting (Oct-Dec 1963)

Broadcasters produce the spots, Lufthansa produces smiles Last November Lufthansa German Airlines started a test campaign using 11 FM stations in Los Angeles. The goal was to secure leads — and only qualified leads — for a European tour priced at SI, 029 per passenger. The stations broadcast three oneminute spots a day. using copy supplied by Lufthansa (there was no agency involved). At end of three months they had delivered only 64 leads. The FM stations were even less satisfied than Lufthansa with this meager showing. They took their problem to the promotion committee of the FM Broadcasting Association of Southern California, which went to work on it. coming up with six new spots. 50-second transcriptions, plus 10-second live tags. These new spots glittered with glamour, where the old ones had been stodgily factual. "Did you ever dream it would be possible to fly to Europe and back via intercontinental jet visit nine countries and 35 different cities, enjoy excellent hotel accommodations and motor tour through the Old World for little more than $ 1,000?," one transcribed commercial began. It continued with phrases like "lucky guests of the FM Listeners' Friendship Tours" and "superb service and choice continental cuisine"' and "charming little out-of-the-way places that the average tourist never visits." The live tag asked the listener to "write or phone today for a complimentary dinner at one of Rome's most luxurious restaurants plus your choice of a bottle of Chanel No. 5 or a complete styling from an internationally famous French hair dresser." The first week the new copy was used. Lufthansa got 125 leads and before the campaign ended the airline had received a total of 910 qualified leads, all requesting complete literature on the tour. In March, everyone who had written the FM stations for literature about the tour was invited to an evening meeting to see a fashion show of travel clothes, two 20-minute films of European scenes and a sales presentation on the tour. The FM stations received 1,373 additional requests for tickets for that affair, filling the grand ballroom of the Statler-Hilton with qualified prospects for the European air tour. From Bj. Hamrick. FMBASC president, comes the final commercial: "Anyone knowing the difficulty of getting any sizable number of Los Angelenos out to an evening meeting downtown — let alone to a meeting where it was obvious they would get a sales talk — let alone persons who could afford a $1,000 European tour — knows what an astounding demonstration this was of the power FM has to reach and activate upper-middle income prospects." combination of two or more markets with varying counts (e.g.. Hartford-New Haven-New Britain-Waterbury) . Since these "combinations" frequently include markets of varvina size, the billinas ner TV family would not necessari SpotTV Spot TV TV families billings billings July 1962 per family Hartford-New Haven-New Britain-Waterbury 57,927.000 709,000 $11.18 Intfianapolis-Bloomington 6,598,000 680.000 9.70 Johnstown-ARoona, Pa. 2,302,000 574,000 4.01 Lancaster-Harrisburg York-lebanon. Pa. 2,946,000 561,000 5.25 Charleston-Huntington Oak Hill. W. Va.-Ashland, Ky. 2,107.000 425.000 -.55 ITirt-Saginaw-Bay City, Mich. 2,072.000 388.000 5.34 Poland Spring-Portland. Me. 1,753.000 327.000 5.36 ly apply equally throughout each of these FCC-designated areas. For purposes of completeness, these areas are shown below with the spot television billings per family computed on the basis of the largest TV market in each group. Spot TV Spot TV TV families billings billings July 1962 per family Champaign-Springfield Decatur-Urbana-Danville, 111. 1,858,000 324,000 5.73 Roanoke-Lynchburg, Va. 1,225,000 320.000 3.83 Green Bay-Marinette, Wis. 1,331,000 308,000 4.32 Ames-Des Moines 2,473,000 284.000 8.71 Mobile. Ala.-Pensacola, Fla. 1,367,000 270,000 5.06 Paducah-Cape Giratieau, Mo. Harrisburg, 111. 1,008,000 238,000 Lincoln-Hastings-Kearney, Neb. 886.000 206,000 4.30 Austin-Rochester, Minn. Mason City, Iowa 602.000 180,000 3.34 RADIO MARKING TIME WITHOUT IMAGE Maneloveg says major status will come with 'profile' What is radio's image as an advertising medium today? Its image is no image at all. Both question and abrupt answer were presented in New York last week by Herb Maneloveg, vice president and media director. BBDO, at a. CBS Radio Spot Sales clinic. Mr. Maneloveg challenged the radio industry to provide media planners with a "national radio profile." When this is done, he said, radio will return as a major medium. Tf it's not done, radio will slip from the plateau where he feels it is now marking time. Radio people are directing the information in their sales pitch to media buyers rather than media planners, a serious mistake., he said and added that BBDO is '"guessing" at radio's value as an ad medium. He called the radio data which BBDO feeds to its computer for media selection "contrived/' He said: *Wre don't perhaps, give radio a very good exposure score. We estimate that about 60Sfc of radio's audience is actually aware of a commercial message." Mr. Maneloveg outlined information his agency considers essential to an adequate radio study: ■ Coverage of all major markets. ■ Estimation of metropolitan and nonmetropolitan audience by station. ■ Estimation of total audience. ■ Coverage of all time periods showing homes and listeners per quarter hour and demographic data including breakdowns by sex, income, age. ■ Record of in-home and out-ofhome audience. If stations will support such a national study Mr. Maneloveg said. BBDO will help to underwrite it. In the past, he noted, such studies have been neglected because of a combination of agency and station apathy, mainly to the cost of such a venture. He added that BBDO had supported Pulse last year in a Pulse LQR survey that yielded some demographic data but that other agencies had shied away from such research support (BBDO reportedly contributed about $2,000 to the Pulse study mentioned by Mr. Maneloveg). He referred to radio measurement of one research firm as "a quick telephone popularity7 count," and added that although Pulse does give some demographic breaks, this is not enough on BROADCASTING. October 7. 1963 53