Sponsor (Apr-June 1964)

i e ncj interest has come, II k rep ^ii I rank Kemp. media director, Compton; Joseph St. Georges, vice president and managei ol media relations and planning, Young <V Rubicam; Dick tones, vice president and media director, and Jack Green, media research director. J Walter Thompson; Bern Kanner, vice president and media director. Benton & Bowles; Jackie DeCosta, assistant vice president and media research supervisor, Ted Bates; Kelly Taegcr. vice president and senior media supervisor, McCann-Erickson; and I om Wright, vice president in charge of media. Leo Burnett. I he agency executives see the computer operation at H-R as a definite aid to obtaining last and upto-date availabilities. Jackie DeCosta at Bates feels the computer will speed up the buying process and might even influence a buy at the start. "But it a better buy came up. we'd take it. We're always looking out for our clients," she says. Bern Kanner at B&B sees computer-processing at the rep level as a way to eliminate some of the paperwork. Another agency executive believes there would be little problem with the agency-rep relationship in working with computers. ••The difficult) comes when the reps need last information from the stations," he says. "The computer is only a tool, and is or is not effective, depending on how people use it," emphasizes Stan Fedderman. supervisor of media computer systems at Y&R. "It's possible nowadays for many rep firms to work efficiently without computers," he says. "We've had some form of discussion about computers with all the large rep firms in the industry," says Fedderman. "We know the whole rep industry is looking at computers." Joseph St. Georges of Y&R has stated that one of the most difficult problems his agency has to face has been the acute shortage of people who understand both computers and advertising. "The fact that H-R will be adding to the industry's talent pool, particularly in the area of people who understand the complex problems of spot broadcasting, is very reassuring. For example, one of the problems which has not been completely solved, due to its complexities, is the storage of rate card data. Hopefully H-R"s development in this area will result in a breakthrough.'' (H-R's 1401 will have four times the core storage capacity of the average 1401 installation.) Of all the agencies H-R has talked with, it has worked most closely with Y&R, because the rep believes E Pellagrin, H-R Television president inform. .Ily discusses the functions and applications of the computer with employees at a meeting after hours Attendance at meetings is optional. 47 it is the only agency which evaluates spot information received from the rep to give buyers more information to buy with, according to Miss Gibson. Although other agencies are using computers for billing and estimating, Y&R is reportedly the only one using the computer in connection with its spot television buying and not after the buying. But regardless of how they use it, many agencies now want more information before they buy, H-R interviews with agencies indicate. According to H-R, demographic information which has been supplied by ARB is now being used in the buying of spot, and agencies want it supplied along with the spots the salesman presents. BeechNut Baby Foods, for instance, bought out of Benton & Bowles, requires data on the 18-39 housewife audience. Further, most of the advertising agencies will want their availabilities in a format their machines can read. They expect to request it on punch cards or tape within the next five years. One agency expects to use H-R punch cards by 1965. In a speech given before the Georgia Broadcasters Association earlier this month. Avery Gibson warned stations of what would happen if the rep industry did not keep pace with the computer age: "Until we go to the agencies with ideas . . . with solid market information . . . with good presentations on our special programing, on the personalities of our station, on the impact of a commercial on our station, on the difference between the impact of a 10-second commercial vs. a minute, on the value of an island position, on the time when frequency is more important than reach . . . until we begin to sell the advertisers and their agencies in the language they are using at the plans level ... we shall not take the giant step forward in creative salesmanship which the computer allows us to take. "Let the machine handle numbers. Unless we sell above the numbers, the punch card you receive electronically from the advertiser maj bo used to set off your automated engineering department, may be used to figure your automated accounting department, and may replace your sales department." ■ SPONSOR