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r A Price?
Cash is the Advice of ;WFIL, Philadelphia, Pa.
vertiser must pay, therefore, presupposes programs of good music, drama, comedy, variety, and news. The consistent broadcasting of good entertainment designed to appeal to the masses seldom fails to produce sales results commensurate to the advertiser's efforts to satisfy the masses.
Some radio advertisers substitute cash for entertainment and actually "buy" the audience with cash like buying votes. I refer to the usual cash award program, full of cash hand-outs, but empty of entertainment. Cash award programs draw^ a transitory audience of dial-twisters, who twist the dials with one hand and cleave to the telephone with the other hand, eternally hoping (usually in vain) to be awarded a cash prize by the studio announcer.
Sure, an advertiser can build a Hooper or Crossley rating as high as the Heavyside layer, by "buying" an audience with cash, but this is an expensive purchase of advertising. Let some other advertiser offer the listener a dollar more, or stop the flow of cash entirely, and listenii^ stops. The audience vanishes as quickly as it was acquired. Moreover, the listener's mind is so absorbed by the lure of cash— and otherwise disinterested in the program because of the absence of worthwhile entertainment, that brand names and product names are soon forgotten. Under these circumstances the radio campaign has failed in one of its prime purposes; namely, to make an indelible product impression upon the minds of the listening public.
JANUARY, 1943
Results from cash award programs are not much unlike reactions experienced by some newspapers which stimulate circulation by giving away flat irons, clocks, insurance policies, and a variety of other premiums to subscribers who will buy a year's subscription. Usually the same subscribers expect a premium each following year and if they don't receive it, are often offended and subsequently drop their patronage of that particular newspaper. The results are not dissimilar to results experienced by radio stations wdth sample-dispensing women's programs which are devoid of entertainment. The same habitual sample-snatchers attend most radio women's club meetings for hand-outs. However, stop the flow of free samples, audience interest dwindles, and the good will the advertiser thought he was building among the audience is no more. The loyalty of the audience is unshakeable only as long as entertainment prevails.
Sample, prizes, premiums, and cash awards, per se neither build loyal audiences nor permanent good will for the advertiser. The basic ingredient of the successful and economical commercial radio program is outstanding or unusual entertainment. The advertiser who makes certain his radio programs contain the basic ingredient, regardless of cost, will spend less per listener by selling more of the advertised product per dollar expended.
In the end, it is more economical to sell with entertainment than to buy with cash.
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