Year book of motion pictures (1932)

is offered during the current week. These names can be selected from the mailing list, which is an incentive to patrons to get their names on the list. A good idea is to scatter the names through the program announcement, with a panel on the front page calling attention to the stunt. □ — Menu Stunt A cooperative advertising plan can be worked out with a local restaurant. Two of the waitresses, picked for their attractiveness, distribute several hundred menus daily in the downtown district. They are printed for your current picture. Some of these are stamped with an offer of a free ticket when accompanied by a check from the restaurant. □ — School Papers High schools and colleges are strong for school papers, and the weekly or even the daily is an important part of the school life. Generally they are started off with a rush when school opens, but they lag as the season passes and the obvious stories are all written. That's the time for the wise manager to come to the relief of the worried editor, whose chief headache is getting his staff to function. Most managers know enough about the newspaper game to help out with suggestions for stories, but one manager goes a bit further. He offers a pass each week for the best written article and a double pass for the reporter who turns in the most copy for the week. He worked this the greater part of last season and has started it again this year at the urge of the new editor, who was a reporter last year and knows how well the idea worked. In return, the paper runs a quarter column or more about the coming attractions and frequently adds a cut. Better still, they do not demand a paid ad, since the manager knows the staff well enough to assure them that the home office will not permit other than newspaper ads. □ — Handling Programs Through the leader of the local Boy Scouts, you may be able to have members assigned to regular weekly distribution of your programs. They each have a certain route, and deliver the programs from house to house. The boys participating get a season pass. In this way you reach a lot of people who do not ordinarily patronize your house, or do not pass your theater. And with such a special distribution going right into the homes, you have a good argument to interest merchants in advertising in your program. □ — Honoring Graduates . On the occasion of the high school graduation, mail a personal letter to each of the graduates, congratulating them. A pass to the theater is enclosed, to cover a special gradua tion party. It can be arranged with the school authorities to have the class attend the theater in a body. They are bound to bring someone along, so the stunt pays for itself. A little Stage celebration might be arranged, with several local speakers, in honor of the graduates. □ — Mothers' Day On Mothers' Day, each woman is presented with a white carnation to which is tied an appropriately worded card. The value of the stunt is in doing it without any previous announcement. The women will appreciate the surprise as well as the gift, as it comes unannounced. Tie this up with the newspaper securing the names of mothers with the largest families, and offer these families free admission on this day. □ — Special Discount This is always feasible in a big industrial center, where large numbers of people are employed in factories. In the pay envelopes is placed a special discount card to apply on a coming attraction. Upon presentation of the card at the box office, it is duly honored. □ — Baseball Stunt Special score cards are distributed at the grounds before the baseball game. The cards carry copy on your feature, as well as a coupon bearing a number. At the end of the seventh inning, the umpire calls attention to the winning numbers, which are posted on the score board where all can readily see. These numbers entitle the holders to a free ticket when they present the correspopding coupon at the box office. □ — Direction Arrows Use on a big feature that you have advertised extensively. Tack cards are printed in the form of arrows with red lettering. These are posted in the neighborhood, covering all roads leading to the theater. The cards read: "To (name of feature)." □ — Word-Coiners A swell plug for a jeweler who can be sold the idea. He gives a wrist watch to the person making the longest list of words from the letters composing the name of a watch he is handling. Manila cards slightly larger than postcards are passed out to the public from the store and the theater. Half of the card carries a display announcement stating that the star of your picture wears this type of watch. The other half of card announces the contest. Contestants turn in their cards to the theater, with the words they are able to think up written on the back. 698