Sponsor (Jan-Mar 1963)

own backyards "can outgun, outmaneuver and outsell the outsized outsider" Getschal exclaimed, adding that "a remote agency a thousand miles away has tough going trying to match the job which an on-the-scene, livewire agency does watching availabilities, checking performances, pressing for merchandising, etc." He went on to say that "more and more prudent pennies and instant nickels are successfully battling polysaturated dollars." "Industry is appreciating more and more the fact that when marketing requires regional selling offices those regional selling efforts require regional advertising support with local ad agency principals working side-by-deskside with regional management," Getschal said. "The umbrella of national advertising stays over their heads while the overshoes of regional advertising keep their feet firmly on the ground in the broadcast era." Salesmen in dual capacities. How does Louis E. Reinhold, new president of the League of Advertising Agencies and president of Richmond Advertising Service, an agency billing slightly over $1 million, view the persuasive powers of radio/tv? He had a number of suggestions regarding sales departments of stations contacting small agencies. "It is the hope of the smallersized agencies, which do not have specialized departments for radio/ tv, that broadcast media would offere more in the way of services to guide them toward proper planning and production," Reinhold told sponsor. "I believe broadcast media require men who can serve in dual capacities both as time salesmen and production consultants. Broadcasters, 1 think, should be doing a better job indoctrinating smaller agencies in the values ol their own media. Approximately 30% of the Richmond Advertising Service business goes into various broadcast media, he said, adding that most of it is allocated to radio. "Broadcast media, however, represent a vital means of communication and therefore can not be overlooked when planning any program for a client," he concluded. A past president of the League ll of Advertising Agencies, Alfred J. Siesel, president of Harold J. Siesel Co., told sponsor that small agencies are making constant use of broadcast media. "Broadcast offers the small agency great opportunities in two directions: First is profit because, unlike print, radio/tv advertising technique indicates repetition of a limited number ol commercials," Siesel observed. "Point two: it expands the creative department of the agency because, again, unlike print media, small agencies draw on outside producing companies and their creative departments to produce commercials." The Siesel agency bills around $3.5 million but less than 10% of this sum currently goes into radio/ tv. Siesel said this figure would jump later this year. Siesel is currently on the board of governors of the LAA. Ben B. Bliss, head of the Ben B. Bliss Co., an agency organized in 1946 and now billing in the region of $1 million, also said small agencies are making excellent use of broadcast media. "Very definitely," Bliss, a member of the LAA board of governors, said to sponsor. He noted that the smaller agencies have greater flexibility. "We work the country on an individual market basis conforming with the personalities and the requirements of the individual market," he told SPONSOR. More brain work. "Since the consumer reacts and acts at the point of sale, in a purely local purchase, marketing and advertising (which includes the proper utilization of radio/tv) also must be geared to the appeals that will make local consumers respond," Bliss said. Like other small agency operators, Bliss was quick to point out that the small agency, because of its size, does not become enmeshed in large staff media departments where the buyers are very remote from the markets in which they buy time. "Nor do we become involved with the mechanization of automation and computer thinking," Bliss said. "In other words, the individuals in the small agencies do more brain work. There is no substitute for an individual's judgment." Fifty per cent of the Bliss billing goes into radio/tv; mostly in radio. For full selling impact for their clients, the small agencies can use broadcast effectively, Zal Venet, president of Venet Advertising Agency, Inc., Union, N. J., told sponsor. Venet observed that too many times the only way the small agency considers broadcast, is as an afterthought. Said Venet: "For it is true that it is easier to make a print page up and place it. When pressed, many smaller agencies will admit that they understand the printed page better, and take its measure easier, than the 'mystery' of the airwaves, be they radio or tv." Venet and his colleagues insist that a smaller agency can use broadcast as effectively for sales results as print. He cited the case of Mrs. T's Frozen Pierogies, a frozen food specialty from Shenandoah, Pa., with a $5,000 budget for advertising. Venet bought a sixweek campaign on WOR, New York. It proved "sensational" for several reasons, he said. The agency chose personalities and put to work the audience loyalties of such hardy names as Dorothy and Dick, Al and Dora McCann, Dr. Carlton Fredericks and others. Venet wrapped this up in a strong presell kit and merchandised the spot with chain tag lines and request for a free package to listeners. Venet said the pulling power of the advertising was so great that the offer had to be withdrawn after but two weeks. More than 20,000 coupon requests were received. One of the results was that distribution for the client was 95% of the market in a short time. "The results were so good because the combination of a strong broadcast buy and good print ads make a total selling tool for the client." Venet's thinking is that small agencies must realize that total sell is necessary in today's marketing and a shop cannot ignore the media it does not understand. Said Venet, with emphasis: "If it doesn't, it had better get out and learn, so that it understands the entire media sell." Lester Harrison, chairman of the board of Doner-Harrison, Inc., which bills about $5 million (25% in broadcast) told sponsor that the progress and growth of his agency SPONSOR/ 11 march 1963