Motion Picture Herald (Apr-Jun 1931)

MOTION PICTURE HERALD May 1 9: DOWN-TO-EARTH COPY NOW IN VOGUE {Continued from page 57) used by many cominercial firiiis that have far more time for prepan'ation. Paramount pictures have been a leader in the use of national advertising for more than 14 years and have profited tna-terially through the stability this form of advertising gives to the company and its trademark. This year the company plans fo spend an increased appropriation for all kinds of adi'ertising. AAA by S. CHARLES EINFELD Director of advertising and publicity Warner Brothers-First National Advertising is news. The first man to make this statement was looked at askance as if there were something wrong with him. Today the statement is universally accepted. Advertising has assumed an importance that cannot be measured. There is more money spent on it in this age than was spent on the needs of the federal government during the days following the Civil War. Advertising has grown by leaps and bounds until it has now reached its golden age. It is the dominating medium in the hands of every individual throughout the whole world who has anything to sell. Without it the biggest and strongest concerns would wither into dust. It keeps the world alive and on its toes. There is not a big manufacturingorganization in the world which does not budget a certain percentage of its earnings each year for advertising purposes. Firms which a few years ago did comparatively little advertising now appropriate sums that run into seven figures. Warner Brothers Pictures are today among the heaviest advertisers in the country. Annually the company and its affiliates, First National and Vitaphone Corporation, spend millions in calling the attention of the world to its product. It is strange, however, that with the influx of brains into the advertising profession, for profession it is, there remain in it so many men who do not fully realize the full power of printer's ink. They miss fire, get on the wrong track and fail to get results. The object back of every one of our announcements is the sale of something the public wants. Any salesman who attempts to sell what is not wanted is doomed to failure. The crux of the matter in the picture industry as well as in the merchandise field lies in finding out just what the public does want. This requires vision. Once the public needs are correctly diagnosed it is up to the advertising man to go to work. The avowed policy of Warner Brothers, First National and Vitaphone for the coming season is the exploitation of stars. The company believes in the dominance of personalities. For the use of its stars the production departments must provide stories that will please the ever-vary ing taste of the public. To do this the production chiefs must keep their fingers on the pulse of the people in order to find out just what it is the public does want. As a matter of fact, the production departments must go further — they must anticipate the tastes of the people and be a step or two in advance of the trend. What is true of the production de[)artment in keeping in advance of the times is also true of the advertising department, if it is to properly function. The advertising department must take the finished product and sell it for what it is worth. It is well known now that advertising to have weight must be basically sound. In other words, it must be sincere and honest. This is one reason why advertising has such a great pull. In launching our next season's product we mean to advertise it through one of the most comprehensive campaigns that we have ever put into operation. We believe in the use of printer's ink, something which will be made clearer than ever in this campaign. Very often it takes courage to use an advertising appropriation to put over a theme that is new to the public. But an advertising man without courage is not an advertising man. We insist that all our advertising be interesting, attractive and informative. The world is awakening to the fact that advertising can be made cheerful, buoyant and also dramatic. To the average motion picture company what can be more important than the accessories gotten out to advertise the pictures it produces? The WarnerFirst National advertising departments concentrate on not only getting out a fine line of accessories, but in seeing to it that the exhibitor for whose benefit they are destined is made to see in attractive ads just what kind of help is ready at his hand with which to reach the public. No man is impervious to skilful advertising. Catch his eye, interest him and then prove that what you are offering is just what he wants. Once convinced it is amazing to what lengths he will go to get what you are selling. Proof of this is all about. We got it of a Sunday recently when during a terrific rain storm crowds stood in a driving rain waiting to get into our Broadway theatres to see the pictures we had on view. How illuminative those lines were ! And how they proved the power and efficiency of our advertising! A good campaign is worth its weight in gold. But it is not left for every advertising man to plan one. This is what makes advertising so interesting and is bringing it into the realms of art. AAA by GLENDON ALLVINE Director of advertising and publicity Fox Film Corporation In the decade that I have been li'atching — and nn-iting — motion picture advertising , I halve seen it set the pace for down-to-earth copy for commercial advertising. The institutional stuff and prestige copy, so dear to some advertising agencies, has gone into a decline as immediate sales results have been demonstrated with direct merchandising copy. A comparison of cigarette advertising today with that of several years ago illustrates the point. They have come down to earth ztith the movies. In our exhibitor advertising as zvell as in that directed to the public, we have always realised that mass appeal is more important commercially than art and copy appreciated only by the cultured few. There used to be a tendency on the part of non-tlieatrical advertisers to sneer at motion picture methods. But those zvho came to scoff liave remained to pray. We have a new product once a zveek, and we put more merchandising effort and advertising intelligence into selling that new product every zveek than go into many large soap or soup campaigns in the course of a year. Exploitation and showmanship is just our nomenclature for the dramatic adz'ertising methods which are being adopted by other industries. AAA by GORDON S. WHITE Director advertising and publicity Educational Film Exchanges Because the primary purpose of advertising is to induce a desire to buy the commodity advertised in preference to the competitor's, it is necessary to make commodity, whether it be a suit of clothes or entertainment, as attractive as possible from standpoints of satisfaction and value. Just as no alert merchant will overlook a single selling point in his advertising, since a seemingly minor one will intrigue some people perhaps not otherwise interested, just so no exhibitor will neglect to take advantage of the box office swelling-powers of the short feature. As director of advertising for a short feature company for several years, I have hammered away persistently at the importance of playing up the short comedy in advertising and exploitation, as it means extra dollars to the box office. For two reasons, I sincerely believe it is now more important than ever before to tempt movie patrons with attractive programs of which variety is an inherent element. Satiation has resulted from long double-feature programs, and the trend now is inevitably in the other direction, with diversity of ofiferings replacing long feature programs. Those who have had too much of the "double feature" may be weaned back to the theatre with a well balanced program. Again, the drawing of short features 1 1 has been tested many times past. 1 appeal of such names as Mack S nett, Andy Clyde, Charlotte Ore wood, Terry-Toons, Ford Sterli;i Bert Roach, the Chimps, etc., from (. own organization, and Laurel ai Hardy, Our Gang, etc., from other d ganizations is certainly not to be i nored by the exhibitor who wishes derive the maximum benefits from li program. AAA by MICHAEL L SIMMONS Director of advertising Sono Art-World Wide Pictures, In Showmanship in modern motion pi ture advertising calls upon the mei chandising skill and resources of th exhibitor to an unparalleled degree. I the background of his experience mu be an accurate knowledge of the pre\ erence of his patronage plus an abilil to analyse the product which he t\ selling. He must ferret out those ele nients of appeal in any picture zuhici are most likely to capture the imaginv tlon of his potential audience, and up on these he must place the greates emphasis in his advertising. His ex perience with his own locality zuill die fate the angles wliich are of major in terest. Today's trend in advertising merchandise generally is relying increasingly for its effect on an immediate; eye-appeal. The success of the tabloid newspaper provides a striking example for the guidance of the advertiserand especially for the motion picture; shozi'man. Pictures, rather titan text,] eye-appeal, rather than rhetoric is thi persuasive weapon of the day. The effect must be swift, immediate — sensational, if you zmll, but it must operate primarily through the use of znznd illustration. What can be more logical, then, than for the shozmian to adapt for advertising purposes the essential quality of the entertainment that he sells to the public? In other words, advertise pictures with pictures? If, as an example, automatic refrigerators can be put over to the public through aseries of ads dominated entirely by an interest-getting photograph, it must be obvious tJiat a talking picture can deliver its sales message zmth even greater force thrcmgh similar means. With a product that calls upon the resources of all the arts for its making, zmtl'i theatres tliat represent the idtirnate in comfort and luxury, the motion picture advertiser enjoys a unique opportunity to display his individuality in merchandising his entertainment. An intimate knowledge of audience reaction, added to a mental slant that is just a step ahead of the obvious, should enable the alert showman to reap rewards commensurate Zi'ith his ability.