Sponsor (Oct-Dec 1960)

competitive brands. The lower-budget brands, hard put to carry the cost of network minutes can now increase their reach and frequency via the newly available 20's, 30's and 40's. provided they can deliver their message in these shorter periods. Block Drug plans to string out its announcements this way: opening billboards; Polident (minute) ; program; Nytol (minute); program: Minipoo (30 seconds) ; closing credits; Rem (30 seconds). Or the last two products will break down 40/20. Whitehall's variation on the theme calls for a 30-60-60 lineup with a 30second hitchhike. Appreciative of the added flexibility, agencies nonetheless show concern that an increased number of announcements can cut down the value of programs. "How many times can you break up a show?" was the rhetorical query of one top agency media man. Said another, "The audience isn't timing individual commercials, but they surely notice the number of different ones and begin to think of dial switching when too many come along." He added that the fourth comercial comes so close to the chainbreak as possibly to create the impression the local station is triple-spotting. "That way, if you preserve the program by withholding the final commercial until after the credits, you may be robbing Peter to pay Paul, shifting the onus to the local station." As for possible effects on spot business, stations and reps do not show a great deal of concern over the ABC plan as it now stands. "It is a further break away from the traditional way of selling network, and does appear to be a move into the spot field," says one rep, "but so long as the shortened commercials are kept in the same quarter hour, it should present no real problem for spot." The possibility that ABC might eventually allow scattering of the commercials shorter than a minute has occurred to many at the station end. "It's like pregnancy," is the vivid simile of Fred Houwink, general manager, of ABC Washington affiliate, WMAL-TV. "Once these things get started they keep growing." Houwink is not worried about the health SPONSOR • 3 OCTOBER 1960 of spot business in a market the size of Washington, though he's not sure what effect ABC's plan might have on smaller markets. His main concern is the increased number of program interruptions, which he fears can make a "mess and shambles of the daytime audience." By far the severest critics of the ABC plan, both from a programing and spot business standpoint, are the other networks. NBC's daytime sales director James Hergen sees it as a further breaking up of network shows and therefore degrading. His network on "rare" occasions accepts 30's back-to-back for two related products of the same advertiser, and is reluctant to do so, but considers separate shorter commercials as more disruptive to the programs. Hergen calls network sale of 40's, 30's and 20's competition with spot advertising. He says his network is not currently considering separate commercials shorter than a minute, and anticipates ABC will have difficulties with its affiliates on the matter. CBS. one of whose officials calls the ABC plan "stealing spots from local stations," likewise contemplates no move in this direction. Last month NBC did take steps to counter ABC's provisions for scattered minutes. Two Mondav-Fiidav shows, Dough-Re-Mi (10-10:30 a.m.), and Here's Hollywood (4:30-5 p.m.), and one Saturday morning show. Shari Lewis, are included in the newplan. For the weekday programs, advertisers can buy a quarter-hour and instead of placing all three commercial minutes therein, run one or two on his major day and the remainder on any other day within a two-week period. The shows are not interchangeable for commercial purposes. The Saturday morning program is available for one minute each on three consecutive weeks. "The vast majority of our advertisers don't have a need to spread out their commercials." points out Hergon. "They're interested in reach, but want frequency and prefer owning a quarter-hour. However, there are exceptions, and we've instituted this new plan in hopes of bringing back some advertisers, for example Brillo. who were wooed away by the 'THREE, NOT FOUR, PROGRAM BREAKS' FOURTH COMMERCIAL follows closing credits, so there are only three 'jerks' in the actual program, an improvement over piggybacking, says Ed Bleier, ABC daytime sales dir. chance to buy single minutes per day on ABC." CBS thus far has limited its daytime scatter allowance to a minute or 30-second cross-plug for every quarter-hour purchased and no change is in work at this time, according to daytime sales director Joe Curl. The network does permit piggybacking. the feeling there being that this practice produces no extra break. Outside of the rival networks there apparently is no substantial fear that {Please turn to page 52) 'NO PROBLEM FOR NATIONAL SPOT' SPOT ADVERTISERS won't shift to network because of this plan, notes Frank Kemp, Compton media v.p. If they want blanket national coverage they aren't in sp?'