The Moving picture world (January 1920-February 1920)

884 THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD February 7, 1920 They All Say Here it Pays to Advertise The border is simple and effective. In the display we show Mr. Addison has worked it to the limit, but in most instances it is used to border the entire space. It pays to get a distinctive border. One looks for the border and can always locate the advertisement. One corking good stunt Mr. Addison recently pulled was an advertisement writing contest. Ten dollars in gold were offered for the best written advertisement by a nonprofessional. The management printed the title and a few pointers some days in advance. Entries were received from 172 patrons. The judging was done by the advertising managers of the department stores, the best displays being used for the regular advertising the others being shown in a window. Mr. Addison offers to send the dope to anyone who writes, but any exhibitor can work the scheme from what we have printed here, it would seem. The chief value of the stunt is the attention every one gives the details. The entries represent only a very small percentage of these who gave the advertisement careful study. Probably the whole town knew all about that particular picture, and at a cost of only ten dollars. Try it and see how it works for you. —P. T. A.— A Double Decker Proves "It Pays to Advertise" DEMONSTRATING that it pays to advertise, H. A. Albright, of the American. Butte, Mont., took a double page for the play of the same title, hooking up other concerns, but taking rather more space for his own announcement than is usually taken up by the house management, to prove his own belief in his theories. This slogan lends itself well to the hook up page and can be worked in almost any town, but Mr. Albright got a double page for his space and he put the picture over. For the same play he advertised for a lost key to be returned to the office of the newspaper for a ticket reward. In this connection a predetermined number of keys were "lost" in various parts of the town, each fastened to a tag stating that this was the key referred to in the want advertisement and that a pair of seats would be given for its return to the office of the paper if accompanied by a clipping of the advertisement in question. This helped the paper boom its lost and found classified advertising, and got Mr. Albright more free space than the seats cost him. The tags were plain manila baggage tags and so few were used that they were typewritten instead of being printed up. This idea is an excellent one to try on almost any picture where it is desired to work in with a newspaper, and in every town with more than one paper there is always one eager to boom its classified advertising department and it will be easy to persuade the advertising manager to come in with the necessary space. Where there are many classified advertisements, a good variant of the scheme would be to scatter small ads, giving a clue to the hiding places of the keys, which would ensure all of the advertisements being read. In this case the keys should be hidden in places where the eager public could not do property damage. When the stunt was first worked by the English papers, with money rewards, the interest was so keen that much damage was done to property by the excited searchers. This can be avoided by a proper planting of the keys in places where grass cannot be trampled or shrubbery broken dowii. —P. T. A.— Used Club Women to Get Over Second Week Run BECAUSE they held "Soldiers of Fortune" for a second week at Loew's Euclid Theatre, Cleveland, E. E. Bair did some intensive advertising for that feature. His Srnday announcement was 12o linos across l.'.c page, right at the top. The upper portion is hand lettered, but :he v.'ork is clearly done and this seems to be one of the few instances v/herc the hand lettering is to be preferred to all-type. = IT PAYS TO ADVERTISE rr PAYslAND PAYS BIG i WISHER POSTER ADVERTISING CO. PAPERING A^fD PAINTING RIDDELL'S IWAIXPAfERl FURNITURE ON CREDIT Beautiful Bran Bed B. Kopald Co. "IT PAYS TO ADVERTISE" BRYANT WASHBURN LOIS WILSON PATHE NEWS— BURTON HOLMES TRAVEIS— PARAMOONT HUGJUlNE TONWHT STCVENS CLEI ELEI CUIB ~| VOICES J This is a special announcement and the hand lettering calls attention to that fact. The lettering is so large in the original that it is not difficult to read. In a smaller space the hand, work would have been out of place, even in a ""^iuiw p^^oruTv in announcing the continmJ pres^ataSail aesi wt^ d ffto f^lenfious on<J HWfa-<JabomlQ THcturi^ation of Richard Harding Davis' iJbldierTg/^ Fortune A Cross Page 125 Lines Deep from Loew's Euclid, Cleveland special announcement, but there is no crowding here and the work is wc'l handled. All of the matter below the title is in type, italic faces bein^ ased t,he better to harmonize with the general style. This hand .'ettorfn^ might not have worked with u new attraction, but where the film has already been advertised for a full week and is presumably sold on argument, the use of the formal announcement is good form. In the smaller spaces the space jn the left is given to the opinions of the Cleveland clubwomen. A special morning performance was given for their benefit and they were asked to write their Loew's Euclid Richard Harding Davis' "Soldiers of Fortune" __ M LOEiV-sTu'CLID Mr. Albright's Double Decker. Two Smaller Displays from E. E. Bair. opinions. Some of the comments of the women most widely known were picked up for the advertisement and, of course, interested other women. This is a new angle for "Soldiers of Fortune" and gives the Boy Scouts a rest. If you have the film and the chance, work both ideas and as many others as you can devise. If a special morning performance will cost you ten or fifteen dollars and bring in a dollar more than it costs, it is good business. You make the dollar and you ;?et an ; dvirtisenicnt that w'll run on past the showing of any particular film. You cannot work the idea too often, but you can use it once a month if you can think up a suitable excuse. P. T. A. Keeps the Sheriff Away.