Radio annual and television yearbook (1952)

BAB'S REALLY IN BUSINESS! By WILLIAM B. RYAN, President, Broadcast Advertising Bureau, Inc. NINETEEN HUNDRED FIFTY-TWO will mark .the Broadcast Advertising Bureau's first full year as a completely independent corporation. We feel that this calls for a restatement of aims and an elaboration of activities. First, a little background information. The BAB is an outgrowth of the Broadcast Advertising De s^J partment of the National Association of Broadcasters. In June of 1949 it was established as a Bureau of that organization and then in April 1951 Ryan started functioning as a separate corporation. It grew out of radio's need for an independent, alert and progressive promotion Bureau. Upon becoming an independent and autonomous corporation this past April, BAB had two immediate objectives: 1. It had to organize itself and redefine its objectives in order to be in a position to immediately render service to the entire industry. 2. It had to increase and extend the number and variety of services formerly provided. Both of these were accomplished. Here's a report of how the BAB is accomplishing these aims. Services are distributed within the two general categories of national and local promotion. The distinction between the two can best be arrived at by an analyzation of the individual projects. On the national level, BAB promotional activities concern themselves basically with spot and network advertisers. This is being accomplished through a series of projects designed to present radio's impact to national advertisers, national chains and associations, and national-local advertisers. For instance, a series of special presentations on radio's values are now underway and include those scaled to the needs of specific industries. Plans also call for a basic presentation on radio and another dealing with the farm market. BAB's national promotion department is also instituting regular communication with advertisers and agencies in the form of two direct mail pieces, each to be issued twice monthly. Advertisers receive a sales letter containing special data pertinent to radio sales while agencies are earmarked for a "Kiplinger-type" newsletter on radio advertising activities. In the field of basic research BAB is not only collecting and evaluating extant materials, but also plans a series of studies to learn the true value of radio coverage, saturation and sales impact. There will be a pilot study to determine the size of the extra-set market; a test to determine the sales impact of radio vis-a-vis other advertising media in the packaged goods and heavy appliance field; an interim report on all material now extant on all out-of-home listening plus automobileradio coverage and listening pattern, to be followed in the spring by a national sampling of car-radio listening. In the competitive aspects of radio sales, BAB will publish a salesman's handbook containing basic facts of newspaper readership. Preparation is also underway on a second edition of a previously BAJ3distributed volume on magazine countyby-county circulation statistics, with a comparison of radio-magazine penetration on a national basis plus an additional presentation containing all information available on the trend, pattern and size of radio listening in radio-TV homes. Local promotional activities will include a continuation of several services instituted to stations during the past year; the revision from a quality and quantity standpoint of many ohers, plus the addition of three new projects. BAB's local promotion falls into two basic categories: 1. Regular releases on a weekly or monthly basis, and 2. Special projects. The first category includes such wellreceived services as BAB Salesman, Retail Information Folders, Co-op Cards & Bulletins, Local Business Sales Aids, Sales Opportunities, Library Bulletin, Radio Gets Results, Reports and Copy-Minded Selling Aids. . . . while BAB's plans in the special project field include a master presentation containing a summary of all salient reasons why local merchants should buy (Continued on Page 74) 41