Sponsor (June-Sept 1960)

! SPONSOR-SCOPE continued Tv will play a bigger role than ever in the battle among the electric shavers f< this year's Christmas trade. A marked difference in media strategy: Norelco's big gun will be eight successi weekend spot announcement blitzes (300 rating points per market), whereas Rei ington, Schick and Sunbeam will put their promotional faith entirely in network programs. Norelco's allocation of weight: 65% of the investment in the top 30 markets, s counting for close to 30 million tv homes, and the balance in 70 markets which add up around 12.5 million homes. The estimated breakdown in tv expenditures and commercial home impressions for Christmas selling season: BRAND ESTIMATED EXPENDITURE EST. HOME IMPRESSIONS Norelco $1,500,000 900,000,000 Remington 750,000 140,000,000 Schick 1,200,000* 250,000,000* Sunbeam 970,000 210,000,000 Network involvement: Remington, Gunsmoke; Schick, Witness, Face the Nation; Si beam, What's My Line?, Untouchables, three minutes; Naked City, eight minutes. * Schick will also use a spot tv campaign starting 12 September, but the expei tur and weight are being closely guarded. ther Judging from the murmurs of concern heard among affiliates the past two weeks. could be a row in the making over the spread of tv network spot carriers. National spot has been slow in unrolling for the fall and trade people who have been < tour report that stations are asking whether this might be attributable to the fact th the carriers have been recruiting quite a number of the spot perennials. What stationmen say will ignite the issue : if their national spot billings, exclusive of ety tion money, falls unreasonably short of what they were last year. Among the recent migrants from selective spot to spot carriers: DuPont am freezes, Carbide anti-freezes, Peter Paul, Burlington Hosiery, Dow Wrap, Mentholatui Studebaker, Van Camp, Vick's, Gold Seal, Knox Gelatine, Plough Chemical. The slowness of fall spot buying in volume has been aggravated by the fact tfaj tv stations took a heavy loss via convention preemptions in July. Sellers can expect Esso to come up with new plans for spot tv and radio aroui 15 September; so SPONSOR-SCOPE learned from Esso admanager Bob Gray last week. What this implies: Esso will go on handling its advertising as an entity for some til to come despite the fact that it's become a division of Humble Oil. If two deals that sellers of the Blair Group Plan are working on reach the closm stage, spot radio will be able to acclaim it's as high as ever on the totem pole asj national merchandising medium. The Blair Group campaigns would put Eastman Kodak (JWT) down for around $1.5 if lion and Shell Oil (headed for OBM) for at least $3 million a year. Under the plan the copy is prepared in cooperation with Blair's own writers. Figured starting for Kodak: in time to catch the Christmas trade. Apparently tv stations think that advertisers have gone overboard with t| split, or piggyback, type of announcement. Gillette had one in mind for Toni and Papermate but found the opposition to acce ance a little too stiff; so the proposal has been junked. Last year Gillette found the piggyback acceptable, but in this case the products compatible, Toni for the kids and Toni for the older groups. Paradoxical side: the twin announcements would probably have to be spotted adjacj to a 20. anrl Toni has been emphatically against triplespotting. SPONSOR • 15 AUGUST 111