Sponsor (Apr-June 1961)

SPONSOR-SCOPE continued Judging from the flow of phone calls to New York media directors, a lot of tv broadcasters must be asking themselves, "How best can we cash in on those up coming 40-second station-breaks?" The question, apparently, most asked in those advice-seeking calls is what rate the station might adopt if the breaks were made available in 40-second segments. One director who presides over one of the biggest tv bundles in spot gave it as his opinion that it wouldn't be wise to make the 40-second rate double the 20-second rate. A formula for the prime 40 he did suggest was this: harnessing it to the efficiency of the late minute rate. To wit, if the station, say, charges $100 for a late minute and the prime 40 delivers twice the homes of the late minute the rate for the 40 might be $200. The advertiser would thus sacrifice 20 seconds of his commercial to get the broader audience. Another bit of advice passed to the inquiring station men: if you're going to offer a 40second rate get it established as soon as possible for the fall, because interested advertisers, who as a rule do their commercial-making several months in advance, can adapt the 40second while the minute commercial is being produced — at a minimum of cost. Another question prompted by the advent of the ABC TV 40-second break whether the affiliates will actually be able to provide for two 20-second commercial without tacking on the I.D. to the second 20 or clipping off a bit from the network show. CBS TV had anticipated this proviso by setting the break at 42 seconds. Sidelight: ABC TV will probably find a goodly number of agencies preferring the second 20, even with the I.D. attached, because, as they see it, most viewers by this time have already turned the dial for the new show. (For round-up on debate stirred by the 40-second break see article, page 35.) :: 24 Business forecasters in major agencies are now saying that the fall outlook shapes up even better than their recent expectations. The ingredients spurring their added optimism: 1) President Kennedy appears to be going all out to wean over businessmen to his side via liberal credits, liberalization of taxes, etc. 2) Business will respond to this within the next 30-60 days in terms of capital investments. 3) Appliance sales have taken a substantial spurt and other hard goods are starting to move into an uptrend; Buick has just had its two best sales months since '55. All this, say the agency prognosticators, will show up in commitments for advertising this October. Now it's American Oil, via D'Arcy, that's looking for a two-minute spot tv rate — something that B&B explored in behalf of P&G once and got nowhere. As happened in the case of B&B, D'Arcy has got all sorts of answers in regard to what rate stations would be inclined to ask if they took the oil firm's two-minute commercial. (It's an excerpt from a dealer meeting movie.) Among the station responses: (1) the five minute rate; (2) twice the minute rate; (3) two times the lVk-minute rate; (4) IV2 times the minute rate. Johnson & Johnson (Y&R) is testing on the west coast a somewhat novel radio commercial in behalf of its baby powder. The plan: 10 seconds on the hour between 7 a.m. and 4 p.m., with the e.t.'s winding up a quickie for the product with a time announcement. The schedule: 40 spots a week, four days a week. SPONSOR • 15 MAY 1961