The Exhibitor (1960)

THERE IS nothing more appealing to jaded newspaper men than a chance to publicize a film via some different type of art, and this excellent caricature provides just that. or monopoly on it. There is no showman who cannot take someone’s idea— a ticket-selling idea— and exploit it to a greater advantage than the man who originated it or who previously used it. Not that there are any new ideas in show business— they are just bigger and better, like the pitch man who developed his showmanship and selling tlirough trial and error. We have someone’s previous experience and their successes to build on without wasting years and waiting for another crowd to gather at the crossroads. Don t let anyone tell you that you can get as much punch out of a small ad as you can out of a large one. It’s like giving your girl the mink tails instead of the mink coat— it’s still mink, but it doesn’t sell anything, or you don’t get anything. I m a great believer in full page ads— cooperative ads, in my case. Utilize people who may be glad to cooperate with a several million dollar picture which they have made no in¬ vestment in but with which they can ride along, benefitting from tremendous impact in your neighborhood by being in the ad for just a share of lineage, art work, and engraving cost. He is not buried with the taverns and whiskey ads but becomes a part of a full page — clean, beautiful art work, mostly taken from your press book. It need not be expensive. In many cases, you can consistently run full page, cooperative advertising for less money than your one shot ads cost you. But this cannot be accomplished without the effort on your part of doing a little more for the picture and for our busi¬ ness. In many communities, a full page cooperative ad would be a rarity and could create something special in that evening or morning edition of the newspaper. People would say it must be a great picture and worth seeing to invest that amount of money. From “WHERE THE BOYS ARE” you have a multitude of cooperative types— just sit down and analyze the press book page by page. Don’t order mats from National Screen by telling them you want an assortment of mats in varied columns and varied inches in height. Don’t say that you have “x” number of dollars in your budget and that’s all. There are no two pictures in the same week with the same theme, the same stars, or the same production budget, so there should be a difference in your advertising budget. It’s either worth the maximum advertising dollar, or less, depending upon your evaluation of the picture to be sold. If you do use the same budget for each picture, you are not making a fair appraisal of the product, because the producer or the distributor did not tell you that his last picture cost him over two million dollars and this one cannot cost him any more. There should be nothing set by precedent. You cannot be creative by regu¬ lating your budget any more than your time, but you can take your maximum budget and put it to work in cooperative newspaper advertising where you give a man a share of your advertising space on the full page and an extra bonus with an A-board in your lobby. Perhaps you can put his name on the special “WHERE THE BOYS ARE” guide, as shown in your press book, page 12. Make up a complete advertising proposal, put it down in blaek and white, and call your man for an appointment or ask him to come to your office. He may be very happy to get away from his employees, complaining customers, or a dis¬ gruntled mother-in-law. His chance to get away from it all and sit down and be encouraged with prospects of increasing his business with the cooperation of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s beautiful picture, “WHERE THE BOYS ARE.” Tell him that he, for his money, will get a well rounded advertising pro¬ gram including newspaper, lobby ( in many cases your screen ) , and handbills for “x” number of dollars. Only you, yourself, will know how much this traffic will bear. Over and above this, he does not have to lift one finger— you don’t put him to work doing one thing for you. You become his advertising agency and all he has to do is to stay in his store and be there to fill any orders that your efforts have been able to create for him. You must tell him there is no cure-all or any adver¬ tising medium that will solve any one problem in any one given business, but you will offer and assure him that what you do promise will be fulfilled 100 per cent plus, and his name will be seen in more places for his dollar than he would have been able to accomplish with the same money before or after this promotion. I believe that any picture that has the potential that “WHERE THE BOYS ARE” has should have a full exploi¬ tation in a promotional campaign. By this I mean not just how much money is spent— that is not always the important thing— but how it is spent. As the old saying goes— all your eggs should not be in one basket. For instance, here is a low cost stunt that could be used. Run a want ad in your college newspapers or in the classified ads of your daily newspaper, such as this: “WANTED!! The first hundred College students! If you can prove you ever spent a spring vacation at Fort Lauder . . . in the issue of \ BEN DOMINGO, Manager Keith's Memorial Theatre, Boston, Mass, tells how he would sell . . . Unlversars , "THE GREAT IMPOSTOR" 26 MOTION PICTURE EXHIBITOR January 18, 1961