Sponsor (Oct-Dec 1964)

usses credit card aurirHg the nightly 11 p.m. news show, part of package targeted at young executives on their way upv World map in background is softkey suggestion of American Express* global SI M credit cards As part of its advertising 'case history' in the making, travel company gives 'whys' behind its first tv campaign geles "we're probably a little bit behind, but we're growing." The company's use of advertising is helping turn the trick. One problem in selecting media was finding the right vehicle for telling the AmExCo credit card story. The company felt it had too much to say to limit itself to the short emphatic statements that prove most effective on billboards, for example. "What we offer," the friendly and articulate advertising manager continues, "is a service. There's no tangible product — apart from the celluloid card, itself — and so we need to be able to tell our whole story." It's a commercial story well worth telling. "First," Ad Manager O'Brien says, "we wanted to feature the usage you can get from our credit cards in the California area." This suggested 60-second tv demonstrations of credit services in restaurants, hotels, shops. (Note, in actual fact, 15 commercials were scheduled to be made by KNXT, three for rotation on a daily 1 1 p.m. news report and three each for four special half-hour shows.) "Second," the client executive continues, "we've just made a great breakthrough in airlines service and there's another whole story in that." The company's "Sign-and-Fly" plan offers extended payments of three, six or nine months to air travelers. American Express has just contracted for such credit service with American, Pan Am and Eastern airlines, has also signed with Delta and Braniff and, earlier, with Continental and Western. Key to the plan is that the traveler has no credit forms to fill out, in keeping with the well-known American Express motto, "Unquestioned Credit." "And," O'Brien adds, "it incorporates the lowest interest rates ever offered in the travel market." Since the "Sign-and-Fly" plan is being sold to vacationers as well as business travelers, tv again seemed a good medium for zeroing in on the dual-target. Thus, the tv audience and its demographic composition became another critical factor in the Los Angeles buy. The sponsor feels its real business potential lies among youthful executives who earn $9000 a year or more, who are usually college alumni and young-marrieds with growing children, home-owners who're likely to travel, etc. — the typical but elusive Mr. Up-andComing. Since Los Angeles is the second largest U.S. market, very likely the fastest-growing one and a strong corporative magnet for young, new businesses, O'Brien's earlier words echo with meaning: "It's the market with our greatest potential — and in the most concentrated area." Important to note, however, is another fact: The Credit Card Division is a newcomer to television. As O'Brien explains, the Travelers Checks Division had bought some spot a few years ago, and the overall corporation had been in on oneshot coverage of the Master's Golf Tourney (in which credit cards were mentioned). "But," he clarifies, "this is our first tv campaign." Invited by AmExCo's agency, Ogilvy, Benson & Mather, to state its case for an L.A. buy, CBS Television Stations mustered Ray Beindorf, KNXT general sales manager, on the West Coast and Bob Cole, national sales account executive, on the East. Their job, of course, was to establish the importance of tv in Los Angeles in general and, specifically, of the CBS-owned KNXT. Their presentation, keyed to American Express needs for a mass October 26, 1964 49