Sponsor (Oct-Dec 1964)

• One in five families has a total gross income of over $10,000 per year. • The world's current crop of trained scientists is so huge that it totals 90 percent of all the scientists who have ever lived. These facts underline the growth and change that are integral parts of our business life. Changes in the agency media function have been no less dramatic. In fact, the growth in the agency media departments and their place in the advertising spectRim have been even more spectacular than that of similar service areas in general business. This dynamic evolution can be seen by reviewing the changes that have taken place since World War II, an era when the media function grew out of proportion to the tremendous growth experienced by the agency business in general. The Pre1950 Media Department. The next time that you talk to a media salesman who looks (but probably won't admit to being) 40 years of age or older, ask him what it was like to call on a large agency's media department in 1948 or 1950. Perhaps you will be surprised to learn how much the media function has changed. The pre-1950 media salesman ordinarily called on the account executive and then, perhaps, went to the media man for the actual order or contract. In those days, the largest agencies had three or four persons in the media department, as opposed to today's 200 to 300-man operations. And the "seat-of-thepants" and "judgment" buys of years ago arc a far cry from the tools that the platoons of media specialists use today. What have been the specific changes in the agency media picture during the last 15 years? The factors are today taken for granted, yet they were unheard of not too many years ago: • Commercial television. • Rating systems for tv. • Use of "Media Group" system. • Refined demographic measurement of broadcast media. • Written and heavily documented media plans, and demand for close media sales coordination. • Color tv. • Total audience studies for wide range of publications. • Regional print availabilities, and special opportuities, e.g., HiFi Spectacolor. • TvQ and other measurements for program audience prediction. • "Media planner" designation. • ADP (Automated Data Processing). • Pay tv. Three Basic Reasons for Change. All of these specific innovations Reviewing campaign strategy are (l-r) Mike Keenan, Fuller & Smith & Ross associate media director; John Nuccio, vice president and media director, Bernie Rasmussen, associate media director. are merely indicative of the tremendous change that has taken place in the past few years. These changes are symptomatic and the result of three basic facts of media life: 1. Because of population increases and product innovation, the absolute amount of dollars invested in media by advertisers has grown dramatically. 2. Related to the above, the greatly increased marketing knowhow and the increasing complexity of media measurement data that are now available. 3. The increasing concern of advertisers for "accountability" brought on by decreasing cost-profit ratios. These are the facts. With them in mind, can we guess what it will be like to be a timebuyer in the 1970s? I think that we can, but initially, let's examine tomorrow's media department. First, the new media department will be larger and represent an increased proportion of an agency's total personnel. The continuing trend toward the more "professional" media approach and true "full service" departments will place increased responsibility on the media function. More advertisers will want detailed analyses of proposed media expenditures, and correlations between these plans and sales data. Pressure will increase for accountability; more clients will want to know how it can be done better. The answers to these questions call for more people and for better trained people. Second, media departments will depend to a great degree on automatic data processing systems. The mass of data now available and the increasing flow of new information will call for efficient methods of data handling. As one media man has said, "Those long, green sheets will be a thing of the past." The collection, inter-relating and analysis of mountains of facts is expensive "people work," but inexpensive "machine work." In addition, machines will be used extensively — as they are now in many cases — for certain strictly clerical functions, such as estimating, coverage studies and billing. The larger agencies no doubt will rent or purchase ADP systems. The smaller agencies, because of the capital 42 SPONSOR