Motion Picture Herald (Mar-Apr 1947)

TRADE FOLLOWS THE FILM: RANK'S NEW WORLD THESIS Overhaul of Organization Tied to Program Linking Pictures to British Goods London Bureau J. Arthur Rank, Britain's leading showman, may well become Britain's leading salesman. An overhaul and concentration of the whole of the Rank Organization's propaganda and advertising departments has resulted in a program underlining the fashion in which trade follows the film. Already linked with the textile trade and fabric manufacturers, the Rank Organization has gotten further recognition and comfort from Government circles here. Seeing the film as the ideal propaganda medium, manufacturers of all the country's staple exports are being encouraged by Whitehall to link up with Mr. Rank and his overseas selling organization. Significantly, Mr. Rank's newly-announced top advertising man is Sidney Wynne, son-in-law to Erest Bevin, Britain's Foreign Secretary. Twofold Aim in Series Of Newspaper Ads First evidence of the new Rank advertising program is a series of advertisements which last week made their appearance in the country's most important newspapers. Two of the ads are reproduced on this page. The series has a two-fold aim : prestige building for the Rank Group and the underscoring of the close relationship between films and trade. One of the first announcements, for example, points out how Mr. Chang of China comes to want his British bicycle — he saw it in one of Britain's films. The campaign is planned to last at least a year. The new campaign is certainly the most expensive, not to say expansive, prestigebuilder ever promoted by a British film company. Its sponsors have worked in its preparation not only with the Government's Board of Trade, but with bodies like the Council of Industrial Design and the Federation of British Industries. Official authorities and industrialists alike have hopes that an alliance between films and industry may become a formidable help in Britain's struggle to reestablish her economic and commercial stability. It may well develop into a worldwide beat-up of trade in alliance with the nation's screen output. At least, that's the plan. Tieups Already Made with Textile Industry Rank's people already have made many link-ups with the textile trades, taking as their lodestone the admitted excellence of British fabrics. Clothes are designed in Rank productions so that that excellence He's making history ! As recently as five years ago only a handful of people seriously thought that British films could recover and develop, so soon, into a national export of many times its pre-war value. Yet when the Two Cities film He/try V came to Broadway, New J&t~\ Yorkers stood in queues to see this great British fjf^tjrfg picture By the end of 1946 Henry V had already ' ^^"^jijr remitted to Britain more than $400,000. I /\ ) 1. ARTHUR RANK ORGANISATION LIMITED Shown here are two evidences of the Rank Organization's new advertising campaign to boost British films as salesmen tor British goods. TANDEMS FOR TIENTSIN British goods are ' in the window ' when British films are shown to the world. That's how Mr. Chang of China comes to want his British bicycle. When important British films go into production nowadays, manufacturers and the Board of Trade and the Council of Industrial Design all cooperate. In this way (with no loss at all in entertainment value) films can at the same time be worthily representative of many British industries. J. ARTHUR RANK ORGANISATION LIMITED may be recognized. They have now established a Fashion Publicity Bureau through which agency they hope that the work of the London fashion stylists may achieve recognition. Getting the Rank Organization into the position to assume this new leadership has taken considerable inquest into the methods of merchandising the whole of the products of the Rank Group. The Rank interests have been acquired rapidly and in enormous quantities. Now there has been a general sorting out of interests and a new assignment of duties — making for a more integrated and organized company. On March 24, Mr. Rank announced that henceforth every bit of his organizations publicity — in every category — will be controlled directly and exclusively from his executive headquarters. Dennett Will Scan Ads Of All Rank Product He. has John Myers as director of all studio publicity, with a particular eye on the servicing of the Jock Lawrence Organization in America. John Dennett, hitherto Odeon advertising manager, was named advertising director, to oversee the output of every single item of advertising on every single item of Rank product — from features to lenses. Sidney Wynne, formerly Rank's personal public relations officer, will coordinate the work of both Mr. Dennett's and Mr. Myers' divisions. The inquest, which resulted in these appointments, the first step toward the tightening of the merchandising of all Rank prod ucts, was conducted in conditions of considerable quiet and undertaken at the instance of John Henry Davis, managing director of the Rank Organization and commonly regarded as Mr. Rank's own nominee to the Rank Regency. It also betokens the close integration of the financial structure of the Rank Group — nominally capitalized at £60, 000. 000, but evaluated on the London Stock Exchange at considerably more, than twice that sum. Allied of Iowa and Nebraska Holds Two Meetings Allied ITO of Iowa and Nebraska held two regional meetings last week, one at Bloomfield, Iowa, the second at Osceola, Iowa. Both meetings were conducted by Charles Niles, director of the Caravan, and T. J. Evans, executive secretary of the association. At the Osceola meeting a resolution was carried unanimously by which the exhibitors refuse to play any 50 per cent pictures. Both meetings discussed checking problems in particular and other matters concerning exhibitors in general. First New Rank House Is Built in Canada The first house of a circuit which J. Arthur Rank's interests are planning ro build in Canada has been completed at North Sydney, Nova Scotia. It is the Odeon, seating 570, which opened last week. It is operated in partnership by A. 1. Garson and Odeon Theatres of Canada. Ltd. MOTION PICTURE HERALD, MARCH 29, 1947 19