Sponsor (Oct-Dec 1964)

from Abbott Laboratories in behalf of Preem and Sucaryl. Abbott's commitment: 468 commercial minutes over 52 weetcs, totalling about $1.8 million. One thing the three networks have in common daytime-wise: they'll be going into the first 1965 quarter in the healthiest state they've ever been in. Each can boast of having but a handful of available commercial minutes for that quarter. Hard days for the switch pitch Tv rep salesmen with switch pitches on their mind are becoming a frustrated lot. The reason for their dismay: their inability to get decisive action on switch pitches from three of the more important spot agencies. The reps couldn't understand why these agencies didn't respond with alacrity to a chance to upgrade a client's spot position until they did some behind the scenes digging. They found that the buyers weren't indifferent to the opportunities but rather to the buyers' own frustration from these intramural plights: (1) ever mounting paperwork; (2) frequent turnovers in the department's personnel; (3) lack of clerical help to process the spot switches. Ayer goes west to buy for west Only if, as a seller, you've been conversant with N. W. Ayer's buying syndrome over the many years will this recital strike you as offbeat. The agency's doing its buying for Hills Bros.' Coffee for west coast stations actually on the west coast. It's been virtually a tradition of Ayer to perform all spot transactions in the Philadelphia office. Now and then it did depart from this norm and collect availabilities through the New York branch. Pick afternoons for older women If you're a tv advertiser and you're main target is the older housewife, it would seem that the afternoon makes your best bet as to time. The older women are rather light viewers in the morning. But the younger lady of the household is an entirely different breed of viewer. She's got the tv set going in substantial ratios, regardless of the hour of the day. Obviously, she finds the time, even though she's got the bigger and younger broods. That perhaps is "the" phenomenon of daytime tv. You'll find other deductions to make about the housewife daytime audience in the following lady of the household viewing pattern, based on the complete NTl reports for September-October, 1964. TIME SEGMENT UNDER 35 YRS. 35-49 YRS. 50 PLUS YRS 9 10 a.m. 28.4% 13.1% 6.5% 10 11 a.m. 26.1% 14.0% 10.9% 1 1 Noon 27.1% 17.1% 15.1% Noon 1 p.m. 33.1% 22.8% 22.7% 1 ■ 2 p.m. 34.1% 23.7% 26.5% 2 3 p.m. 31.6% 22.1% 28.0% 3 4 p.m. 33.6% 25.1% 28.5% 4 5 p.m. 37.3% 28.9% 22.9% 5 6 p.m. 41.8% 35.8% 20.2% Giving the advertiser his due Advertisers over the past five years have controlled but a smidgeon of the programs on the tv network's nighttime schedules. The two reasons: ( 1 ) network reluctance to grant a choice period to anything they don't control; (2) preference among advertisers generally for spreading the risk over multiple programs. Nevertheless, the advertiser who takes a chance on his own judgment is deserving of a posey whenever the opportunity presents itself. That opportunity can be found in the latest Nielsen Top 10 roster. To wit, four of the Top 10 programs are advertiser-controlled, namely. Bewitched, Gomer Pyle, Andy Griffith and Lassie. Adding sheen to the posey is the fact that Bewitched and Pyle are the only season's newcomers in the Top 10. JWT tagged Bewitched for Quaker and Benton & Bowles had its finger in the Pyle show as well as the Griffith series. Compton looking for computer pals Compton media chief Frank Kemp's latest mission: to induce a number of agencies to join his shop in centralizing a computer operation. Basically, it's a co-op idea. First, a group of agencies would agree to divvy up the rental on a computer with its prime function to be the determining of media selection. The next step — and this is probably where the headache will come in — would be to decide collectively what data was to be pre-fed into the computer. Sophisticates would prefer to have this function described as December 7, 1964 CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE' 25