The Moving picture world (May 1920-June 1920)

1468 THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD June 12, 1920 Showmen Praise National Advertising Policy of Famous Players Corporation THE name of Paramount pictures is universally known. For six years it has been constantly before the public, spread across the length and breadth of the United States in a most ingenious, a most carefully planned, a most widespread and a most successful campaign. When the policy of nationally advertising Paramount pictures was first inaugurated many pronounced it a foolish waste of money. Hundreds of thousands of dollars were expended the first two years. Rival producers and distributors declared that the plan never would succeed because it carried no direct appeal to the exhibitors. But Famous Players-Lasky has kept on, each year increasing its appropriation and increasing its space in the national magazines, building up from week to week, month to month and year to year, an ever-multiplying clientele for the motion picture and selling, coincidentally. Paramount pictures to that clientele. A Most Successful Plan. That this policy has been most successful needs no further proof, Famous PlayersLasky officials hold, than that furnished by the fact that American exhibitors are now taking in an annual gross revenue, according to Government statistics, of approximately eight hundred million dollars and that something like eleven thousand theatres in the United States are now numbered among Famous Players-Lasky customers. Aside from the straight human appeal of the copj', which is prepared by some of the most expert copy writers in the country, there are two big elements which have made the Famous Players-Lasky national advertising a decisive factor in bringing about the results cited in the paragraph above. One is the fact that the campaign has been continuous from the time of its inauguration. The other is the slogan, always implied if not directly stated: "Look for the Paramount or Artcraft trademark.' "Keeping everlastingly at it brings success" is the motto which has guided the Famous Players-Lasky policy. Intermittent advertising never sold a constant product. On every sheet of poster advertising, on every lobby display, on every newspaper mat or cut advertising Paramount pictures the identifying word "Paramount" is conspicuous, thus linking every theatre playing Paramount pictures with the national advertising campaign. The recognition of the value of the Paramount name and its enhancement through the Paramount national advertising is rapidly becoming universal among exhibitors. Concrete evidence of this recognition is constantly being brought by letter to the attention of Famous Players-Lasky executives. Within the past thirty days attesting letters have come, unsolicited, to the home office. Unsolicited Praise. For example, Elwyn M. Simons, of the New Family Theatre, Adrian, Michigan, wrote as follows : "I liked your advertisement, 'The Luxury of Being Certain,' so well that I could not help writing that these advertisements you people are printing in your national advertising are bringing me lots of money. When your first ads began to appear I saw the advantage I would hold over any future competitors if my theatre were known in Adrian as 'The Paramount-Artcraft Picture House.' Consequently I started in five years ago to use that trademark in all my ads. To tell you the story of the results obtained by using 'A Paramount Artcraft Picture' would be relating my success in the motion picture business here. ... So continue the splendid work. I think so much of your advertising and tying up my advertising with yours that from now on to the end of the year I am planning to book only your pictures as fast as they are released. . . . I don't worry any more about the rent because I own my own home and a summer bungalow and an automobile and am financially interested in many undertakings. I am the same business man today tiiat I was when I didn't have a nickel, only wiser and better off. That tie-up with your national advertising made for me all the money I have today." Ed C. Paull, head of the Gus Sun Amusement Company's string of theatres in Ohio, wrote : "The Paramount-Artcraft pictures trademark is absolutely necessary in promoting good pictures. In fact, it is the trademark that stands Paramount." J. L. Johnston, of the Lyric Theatre, Minneapolis, writes that in booking up his theatre's advertising for "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" with the Saturday Evening Post advertising of the same production he added a big asset to his theatre's publicity. All the Lyric advertising carried a small box statement as follows: "This is the photoplay you have seen advertised in the Saturday Evening Post and other national magazines." Showmen Get Big Benefits. C. F. McElravy, general manager of Memphis Enterprises, Inc., who has general supervision over the affairs of seven of the leading theatres in Memphis, Tenn., wrote: "As the advertising end of our particular business is in all possibility one of the most essential today, I wish to take this opportunity of saying a word in reference to the extensive national advertising done by the Famous Players-Lasky Corporation. There is little doubt in my mind that it is one great thing by which every live wire exhibitor may receive great benefits if he takes advantage of the opportunities afforded by this national advertising. For instance, we know that the large number of magazines in which the Famous Players-Lasky are running advertisements are read by millions of people. The writer feels that a certain percentage of these millions are in Memphis, and that by using the name 'Famou.<! Players-Lasky' or 'Paramount Pictures' in local advertisements there are more or less benefits derived from it, for the simple reason that practically every man, woman and child has heard or read of the name 'Paramount.' I do not hesitate to say that every exhibitor doing as we have done and are doing will find it of material benefit to his business." And Phil Gleichman, manager of the Broadway Strand, Detroit, wrote in part to President Adolph Zukor as follows: "At the beginning of the season I made a contract with your sales department for fifty-two weeks of Paramount-Artcraft pictures at higher rentals than we have ever before paid for pictures, and although the great majority of these pictures have been away above par I firmly believe that the consistent use of your trademark and the statement that 'This is a Paramount-Artcraft picture' has done more to put the pic tures over than anything else, and with th result that the poorest week this season has been several hundred dollars better than the best week heretofore. "I firmly believe from the success we have had this season that we could advertise 'now showing a Paramount-Artcraft picture' without mentioning star or title and do a very satisfactory business." Estimate 50,000,000 Readers. An approximate circulation of 12,000,000, with readers conservatively estimated at 50,000,000, has been reached at regular intervals through the past year by the Famous Players-Lasky national advertising. Including the Saturday Evening Post, Ladies' Home Journal, Country Gentleman, Pictorial Review, Woman's Home Companion, Collier's, Christian Herald, American Magazine, Red Book, Motion Picture Classic, Photoplay, Picture-Play, Motion Picture Magazine, Film Fun, Photoplay World, Photo Play Journal. Theatre, Vanity Fair, Shadowland, Boys' Magazine, St. Nicholas, Boys' Life, American Boy and Lone Scout, the list of publications is a truly imposing one. All advertising in these magazines is of full-page dimensions. Supplementing this space special full-page advertisements of individual pictures have been run in those magazines in which the stories originally appeared, as for instance, "The Woman Thou Gavest Me," by Hall Caine. in Hearst's; "The Miracle Man," by Frank L. Packard, in Munsey's ; "The Dark Star," by Robert W. Chambers, in Cosmopolitan and "The Dark Mirror," in McCalls. Moreover, at various times, specialized circulation has been gained for individual productions through the utilization of so-called class publications. For instance, every educational magazine of importance was used in the special advertising of "The Copperhead." Three Stars That Will Shine in Forthcoming Paramount Releases. Left to right: Charles Ray, Enid Bennett and Douglas McLean.