Sponsor (Oct-Dec 1962)

"SPONSOR-SCOPE Continued If Y&R is looking for general acceptance of its new plan for availability submission, the agency, it would seem, has quite a selling job to be clone on some of the tv reps with heavy stakes in top markets. SPONSOR-SCOPE garnered this impression last week from a cross check of the key reps. The reps who said they didn't warmly cotton to the idea of turning in their availahilities by rote for feeding into a computer advanced arguments such as these: • The system suggests preeminence for the cost-per-1000 factor. • Overlooked is the fact that a single rating doesn't tell the full story of a spot's value and efficient evaluation comes from knowing all the qualitative elements, something for which Y&R's new availability submission form doesn't provide ample room. • The machine cannot replace the judgment which comes from personal contemplation of various nuances that are not even contained in demographic data. • A rep can't represent his station with utmost capacity if budgets are kept secret and he is barred from pitching for all, half or less of the schedule. Sidelight: Y&R communicated its plan by individual letter to reps rather than calling them in for a collective session on advice of counsel. The advice was an outgrowth of the Petke litigation against the agency, which resulted in a $125,000 settlement. Lorillard's Old Gold Spin Filter (L&N) would like to get into radio sports on a sizeable scale for 1963. Reps who've been quizzing their stations on that score report that they're finding very little with which to encourage the brand's pursuit. With local stations sports ranks as much a premium commodity as it does in tv and a beer or oil account can always be found in line waiting for a sports spot to open up. The hours of viewing in October, according to Nielsen's count, were off an insignificant three minutes as compared to the like month of 1961. This time the average viewing per home came to 5 hours; 4 minutes, whereas a year ago it figured 5 hours; 7 minutes. The difference was mostly in the shank of the evening. Sealtest, through a traveling contacter out of Aver, is trying to get local rates from radio as well as tv stations. Radio reps report that Sealtest's success so far has largely depended on the reaction of the higher positioned station in the market. If that level of station holds out firmly enough it's able to get the schedule on a national spot basis. Sealtest plans to use six to eight flights in either media during 1963 and it has bid for the local rate on this premise: it's entitled to the same price allowed a local or regional dairy on the theory that they are as much a competitor as a national distributor. Some of the Madison Avenue agencies with extensive buys in nighttime spot carriers are deeply disturbed by the report that CBS TV is giving serious thought to eliminating billboads from all multiple sponsored programs of that type. The source of that contemplated step: frequent wrangling between agencies and the network's commercial acceptance department over the tendency of copywriters to embellish the billboards with descriptive and other phraseology. Apparently CBS TV's abolition advocates figure that this problem will be solved if the minute participation buyers have no billboards to argue about. Say the disturbed agencies: if we can't get the added glamor of these billboards we might as well recommend that these client convert to selective spot. 20 SPONSOR /10 DECENfBER 1962 '