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last March: Contestants, picked by lot from the studio audience prior to air time, are given five dollars each. This money belongs to them, to bid for each question put "on the block" by the auctioneer, "Colonel" Bob Dunham.
The auctioneer "sells" the desirability of each question by telling, in general, w^hat it's about. Contestants may bid up to five dollars for the privilege of trying to answer. When the question is "knocked down" and the answer given correctly, the contestant receives as a reward the same amount that he bid. If his answer is incorrect, he loses this amount.
At the close of the half-hour program, each contestant is allowed to keep whatever amount is in his possession. An additional prize goes to the one who has correctly answered the most questions.
Needless to say, this preview dramatized the program to the dealers and gave them an inside interest so great that they believed in the value of the program before it began to exist.
There was a talk by W. J. Phelan, president of the company, that started the ball rolling. Then we started the real merchandising heat. Posters were shown — envelope stuffers, mailers, bulls-eyes, window streamers, all the printed material that we had developed to publicize the program. We told the dealers of the accordian portfolios, to be shown them during the coming week by the salesmen. We showed them how to display this material, where to put it, and how to use it!
We explained how they would participate in mentions on the program by getting cards
Left .... A typical PHELAN window display . . . Note the round Quiz Auction sticker upper right, and the streamer, top center, advising passersby to "Get your entry cards here."
Center . . . Quiz Auction gets under way in the lavish KMOX Playhouse Studio with announcer Jack Garrison explaining the unusual setup to the capacity audience.
Right . . . The auctioneer, at left, pays off one of the bidders who has correctly answered the question "knocked down" to him in the bidding. Group is typical of bidders participating in the Quiz Auction on KMOX every Sunday afternoon.
into the customers' hands! The listening public participates by sending in questions to be used in the quiz. Each of these questions must be written on an official contest blank obtainable only from Phelan-Faust dealers. (Some 230 were received from dealers the week before the first program was aired. Exactly 485 were received the following week and since then, the count has remained steadily in excess of 900 each week.)
After the complete selling talk, we led them into the KMOX Magic Kitchen where they were treated to a light lunch. When those dealers left KMOX that night, they were waiting for that first program with fire in their eyes! A small survey conducted the following week showed the whole town covered with promotional material displayed, as instructed, by the dealers. That dealer meeting paid out 100%!
Still not satisfied with our merchandising job, we contracted for space in the leading St. Louis newspapers. We developed large impact ads and scheduled them for the opening Sunday. Follow-up ads are appearing each Sunday during the campaign.
Records were cut of a prominent auctioneer
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JUNE, 1941
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