Sponsor (July-Sept 1961)

Record Details:

Something wrong or inaccurate about this page? Let us Know!

Thanks for helping us continually improve the quality of the Lantern search engine for all of our users! We have millions of scanned pages, so user reports are incredibly helpful for us to identify places where we can improve and update the metadata.

Please describe the issue below, and click "Submit" to send your comments to our team! If you'd prefer, you can also send us an email to mhdl@commarts.wisc.edu with your comments.




We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.

Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.

I ' 111 £ 1",W •""• )' FILM commercial features Milt Kamen and Ronnie Cunningham as couple with new Fedders. He installs it, she makes him move it to other window. She's just asked him to move it back. the \ation, and Person to Person. all CBS-TV. "We selected a broad variety of fiiows and time periods in order to reach as many different types of people as possible," points out Theodore J. Grunewald. senior v.p. at Fedders" agency, Hicks & Greist. The accompanying spot tv schedules for distributors were established cither by Hicks & Greist or through distributors' agencies. In New York, for example, a total of 168 commercials were placed, all on WCBS-TV. Local campaigns utilize the same commercials as appear on the network shows, but in many instances they're cut to 50 seconds to allow time for dealer mentions. Fedders' network radio lineup consists of 90 five-minute news programs spread over a nine-week period on Mutual. News was chosen because ii prompts "intense" listening which carries over to the product message. notes Grunewald. The programs' commentators. Frank Singheiser in the morning, Gabriel Heatter at night, deliver Fedders' commercials personally which lends prestige, Grunewald feels. In addition to the 60-second commercials, 30 seconds of each news program are set aside for cut-ins at the local level. The handling of these slots is left to the discretion of Fedders distributors, who make them available to appliance dealers ajid can use them as incentive for more dealers to enter the Fedders fold. Fedders gave the trade plenty of time to get ready for the tv-spearheaded giant ad campaign. Back in January, the distributors were summoned to New ^ ork for an orientation. They were verj enthusiastic about the forthcoming support, Muscio reports, and returned home to put on their own shows for dealers, who likewise caught fire, as their orders showed. Hicks & Greist added further fuel to the pre-season fire by arranging for IBM to assemble a list for each distributor showing every network participation scheduled to hit his area. W ith an entry for ever} show involved, on every station with a signal in a particular area, some of the lists were over a yard long. "litres a wa\ to merchandise broadcast advertising with real impact," states Grunewald. "When they unfold that long sheet of paper crowded full of scheduled tv exposuns, distributors and dealers are bound to be impressed. Ami based on earl) season indications, the consumers are impressed too. Heading into the campaign with SPONSOR 10 JULY 1961 .( Mi'i i ill I \ nch-estimati d share of bettei than 50%, i ■ room conditioners are aski d for more often than ever, accordin sampling of dealers bj the I I be company's New i ork disti ibutor, who surveyed dealers in his area aitei a two-da) hoi spell, found thai 7_" , of air conditioners sold ovei thai period were Fedders. v\ ithin its network h campaign, Fedders utilizes three types of comnercials live, tape, and film. "We're oul to gel the fullest possible benefil from the medium," in the words of I I irks & Greist executive produ Richard H. Rendely. The live commercials appear on the Paar program, with an average frequene\ of three nights per week. Here the emphasis is on believability, with some sacrifice of detail, the latter achieved in film and tape commercials on the other shows. Hugh Downs does the honors, running through the rapid installation in well under the advertised 77 seconds. "That's the height of believability." Rendely point out. "Downs is right there, he installs the air conditioner in no time, and the audience knows it's for real." Each of the Fedders commercials concentrates cither on the rapid installation or the Climatimer. As Rendely puts it. "We sell one feature at a time, giving it the full treatment, rather than burden the viewer with too many copv points."' "While the live treatment mav not be the best for Climatimer commercials, for which passage of time is a helpful selling technique, they're handled live on the Paar show to take advantage of the personal attractiveness of its principals, Rendelj says. Throughout the rest of Fedders' net tv lineup, film and tape do the job. To bring out ever) intricate detail of the rapid installation, film is employed, produced b) VPI. The camera moves in close to show exactly how the side pieces are (lipped into place, in the window frame, first one side, then the other. Another \ ttal element to these commercials, both for timer and installation, is comedy, furnished 1>\ Milt Kamen and Ronnie Cunningham. For the timer commercial, taped I>\ Videotape ("enter, the) pla) single people i Please turn to page 60) 39