The Billboard 1913-06-21: Vol 25 Iss 25 (1913-06-21)

JUNE 21, 1913. The Billboard ADVERTISING THE STATE FAIR By A. J. BREITENSTEIN. Secretary Montana State Fair cultural and natural resources lead the na tion, and the visitor at her state fair is amazed at the wonderful array of exhibits that meet his eye. To secure exhibits for the state fair in such a state has not been the greatest task of its management, but rather to secure the visitors, to bring the state fair so forcibly before the eyes of the farmer and the merchant, the miner and the stockman; in fact, before every one in the state, and to do this in such a manner that they will want to visit it, is the biggest and eternal problem of managing this big event. Montana, with its boundaries stretching five hundred miles from east to west, and three hundred or more from north to south, the third largest state in the Union, had, according to the report of the Census Bureau, only 376,000 inhabitants in 1910. It is the problem of bringing these farmers and stockmen four and five hundred miles to see this great show, and also of keeping them there during the week, that has made the advertising game probably more keen in Montana than in any other state, for we have in our state the vexing combination of a great expanse of territory with but few to people it. There are methods and methods in advertising; but the eminent experts in publicity and advertising agree that the game oan be handled in a scientific manner, and that each industry, show or event must be treated in the way that will make it appeal most to the people whom it should reach. While the state fair is the exhibit room of the great resources abounding within its domain, yet for that week it is also the playground of the state. It is the place where visitors come to be amused and entertained as well as instructed. The secretary of the fair is on the alert for the sensational; for it is the everlasting curiosity and desire of the American people to see “something new.” The greatest array of agricultural exhibits on earth will rest in momentary seclusion while throngs will rush to the open air to witsess some daring aviator flirt with death. Montana is like the rest. Each year we have endeavored to seeure some stellar attraction. From four to six years ago we advertised auto races, and limited entries to drivers of the state, for additional interest was always secured by the touch of local color. Then aeroplanes supplanted the auto, and during the past three years we have had such noted aviators as “Bud” Mars, Cromwell Dixon and Ted Maroney. Cromwell Dixon made three flights each day during the season of 1911, and his sensational and wonderful work in the air was probably the greatest attraction in the history of the fair. On Friday of fair week, he crossed the main range of the Rockies, only twenty miles distant from the fair grounds, and establisht a world’s record as the first aviator to fly across the great continental divide of the nation. This feat was well advertised for months in advance, and the increase of over ten thousand in admissions for the week testified to the success of this attraction from an advertising standpoint. In 1912, a contract was signed with Miss Harriet Quimby; the Montana public had witnest practically every feat in the art of flying by men, and now an added touch was to be given in sensational attractions by having an aviatrice perform the daring accomplishments. But her disastrous accident in Boston in July last, resulting in her death, made this impossible, and by rare chance we secured Ted Maroney to fill her Place. Now, Maroney is a Montana aviator; he built his own machine and learned the flying game himself not a hundred miles from Helena. He had made over forty successful flights during the season without an accident of any sort, and these facts were heralded in every corner of the state. We again drew the people. But sensational attractions do not alone bring the much-needed admissions. Every year we secure a number of high-class vaudevil and similar attractions, which we think will please and draw. In order to protect their fairs from cheap and faking acts (which is one of the greatest factors toward “killing” any fair), the secretaries of the state fairs of the Northwest formed the North Pacific Fair Association, for the purposes of arranging their dates so that a Northwest circuit might be formed. This is of great advantage to the concession and attraction people, as well as to the fairs. While it permits the fairs to put on five and six high-grade vaudevil acts, and draws the best concessionaires in the country, it also allows these showmen to formulate a regular cir I has been the boast of Montana that her agri cuit, and proves of financial profit to both. Without this association, our finances would permit of probably only one or two such acts, while now we are able to put on quite a few each year. At the 1913 meeting, which was held only last week in Salem, Oregon, it was decided for this season to make a departure from the regular procedure of former years. Instead of sinking several thousand dollars into an aeroplane or hydroplane attraction, which it seems no longer will appeal sufficiently te the public to bring out the needed thousands, this year an endeavor will be made to secure more regular high-priced acts, This should prove a boon to attraction men thruout the country. Next to sensational and other like attractions, a big drawing card for our fair has been visits by distinguisht celebrities of the nation. Every year we have induced at least a number to attend. In 1909, for instance, President Taft paused on his swing about the Western coast to spend a day and to address those in attendance. With him that day was also James J. Hill, the “Empire Ruilder” of the Northwest. Another year, Louis W. Hill, of the Great Northern Railway, and Howard Elliott, of the Northern Pacific, attended the fair and lent their presence to its attractions. Sam Blythe, the genial author of Who’s Who and Why, now a Montana farmer, addrest the fair in 1911. In addition to these, we have had experts in all branches of regular and dry-farming. We have had famous actors who were near successfwi business men. Governor Norris has always attended each year. Last year, in an effort to secure something new for our fair, we originated and created the Cowboy Band of Montana. On the Riverside Ranch, near Helena, was a good band, composed of cowboys. They attended the fair, played every day, not only in the grandstand, but thruout the grounds and in all of the exhibition buildings. They were drest in all the characteristic parafernalia of the Montana cowboy, shaps, fancy handkerchiefs, sombreros and all. and when Montana sent her exhibit to the Minneapolis Land Show, in November, it was accompanied by the band, and “Bill’ Pruit, the cowboy baritone. The band took Minneapolis by storm, and it was the sensation of that show. From Minneapolis it went to the Land Show im Chicago, and from there back home. This year attractiv offers are already flowing in, and this is an example of how the necessity of the moment created an attraction that appealed, and from that moment it was a success. But these attractions are merely the working material, the putty, so to speak, of the publicity artist. For the purposes of publicity, we have confined ourselves to the use of the press, bulletins from time to time, novelties, moving picture films of former fairs, posters, billboard work, and to the distribution of state-fair information by personal visits of the secretaries and directors to the various public gatherings of the state and to the several county fairs. For the past several years we have had a publicity manager, who handled the press exclusivly. A weekly news latter was sent to every county and rural publication in the state, and a press clipping bureau gave us the returns, and incidentally showed us where co-operation was lacking, if any. Further correspondence with the paper generally remedied this lack of co-operation. The large dailies handled a story every day. Every co-operation was given by the newspaper men of the state, and this means of reaching all the reading public was a controlling factor in the interest taken in the fair. While local papers felt duty bound to support an event that of necessity proved of such commercial asset to the immediate locality, yet every paper thruout the state gave splendid service. They received nothing in return for their public-spirited work, other than the usual press courtesies granted at the fair. Magazines. both local and national, likewise gave splendid assistanee, and articles from time to time interested exhibitors from without as well as within the confines of our territory. Supplementing the press publicity are the regular premium list issued by the directors, together with special bulleting at various periods during the season. Early in the year, a Farmers’ Planting Bulletin is sent to every farmer and horticulturist in the state, advising them of the premiums to be offered in their division. These bulletins act as a guide to the planters, and results in unifying and simplifying the agricultural exhibits. Special premiums are offered, in regular classes, for newly introduced crops, and thus a They made a hit, | premium is placed on the initiativ faculty of the farmer, in inducing him to introduce and grow new crops. A bulletin on special premiums is issued as well, giving in detail the offers made by the many associations and firms interested in the production of some particular crop or in the general development of the state. During the season many racing bulletins find their way to all horsemen of the Northwest to give them an outline of the offerings at the meet held during thé week. The greatest publicity leverage in the racing game, however, has been the expressions of satisfaction passed to one another by the horsemen, and scattered broadcast thru other circuits; every possible protection has been given the horsemen as well as the public, and the poliey of the square deal to everybody has radiated father and penetrated more deeply than could any of our bulletins. Probably the greatest personal factor in dissembling information and creating interest in the smaller and outlying districts are the traveling men of the state. Each received from the fair management last year a handsome leather drinking-cup holder, and they were supplied with sanitary drinking cups. Saturday was designated as United Commercial Traveler’s Day at the fair, a special handicap was offered, and the closing day of the fair exceeded in attendance the similar day for several years past. Like ali state fairs, we deal a great deal in specialties and novelties. In seeking novelties, the cry is again for “something new and catehy.” We realize it must appeal to those who are to receive the message we intend to send. If the novelty can be useful and lasting as well, so much the longer will it be before the receiver and the longer and stronger will the impression be that he receives. School children are one of the greatest factors in distributing information and attractiv novelties, such as pencils, rulers, whistles, cups, “hummers,” etc., were dealt out generously to them thruout the state. We distributed a hundred thousand attractiv lapel pins, small and neat, to all the traveling public. In 1910, it was a small golden key; in 1911 it was a neat horseshoe, and tast year the design was a small monogram, “M. S. F.,” for Montana State Fair. These naturally proved very popular. With the necessary novelty advertising is also the posters and billboard work. We have endeavored in this line to concentrate on one particular poster-picture, and to have it generously distributed, particularly in public places. Local artists have furnisht the talent, altho in 1912 we selected a handsome poster from one of the leading lithographing firms in the country. A small reproduction on envelopes have furnisht another means of advertising. In order to increase the attendance from points three and four hundred miles from Helena, special trains have been formed. This past year, Beaverhead county sent to Helena their “‘Governor’s Special,” a handsomely equipped train, with thirteen Pullmans, diners, and having a capacity of several hundred people. This train was stationed near the entrance to the grounds, and remained there three days during the fair. This year similar trains will be run from five or six of the leading cities of the state, affording convenience to the visitors while in the city. These trains are supplemented by regular daily increast service on all railway lines converging at Helena. In 1912, we brought a tribe of the Blackfoot Indians from their reservation in the state, and establisht a regular Indian village on the grounds, where daily exhibitions of dances and races were pulled off as an attraction. The added opportunity of seeing their quaint life appealed to many who had not the opportunity of viewing them at home. Finally, it must be remeinbered that a great deal of advertising and publicity falls to the lot of the secretary and the directors themselves. Attendance at meetings of various associations thruout the state, of stock and horticultural enthusiasts, as well as at the county fairs, is almost a necessity, and a general acquaintanceship invites greater co-operation in the matter of attendance and exhibits. The complexity of the game adds zest. We have always endeavored to stick to the policy that no feature of the fair was successful, no advertising or publicity novelty was worth while, unless it appealed to the public. While the Montana State Fair is the greatest educational institution of the state, where for a week its great granaries of natural wealth and resources are on display, (Continued on page 83.)