Sponsor (Nov 1946-Oct 1947)

It was all very satisfying to the vanity of the sponsors -big names and important looking space in key newspapers, but there was always a question deep down in the key executives' minds— did it sell package products like Bab-O. The questions loomed very large in the minds of the Mendlesons, Leon, Sam and Alan, present heads of the Babbitt organization; in the mind of L. J. Gumpert, sales manager, when Duane Jones, stuttering, round-faced, diffident advertising agency man , walked in and tried to sell the Babbitt organization on giving his organization its "worse markets" to prove his de-glamorizing ad-treatment for package products. He was so ingenious, he undersold so perfectly, that he had a couple of Bab-O markets that were in the red, before Babbitt executives knew they had given them to him. And before everyone knew what had happened he had the entire Babbitt account. Then came the revolution. He sold his new clients on giving three-quarters of the country back to the Indians, and concentrated Bab-O advertising in the East and Northeast, the area of greatest population intensity and potential market. For this market he decided upon daytime radio, bought in 1936 the rights to the great publishing success, David Harum, and a new daytime serial was born. The Harum homey philosophy was the ideal antidote to the over-glamourized copy slant that, scattered over the nation, had likewise produced scattered results. After a few what Jones calls softening up months, Bab-O decided to check and discover if anyone was listening. A horse with the unlikely name of Xanthippe was added to the Harum air family -and the audience asked to rename him— on the back of a Bab-O label. Four hundred thousand entries came in. The winner, just for the records, was Town Talk. Then came the first premium offer, a self-liquidating premium, flower seeds, the first use of seeds for this purpose. Nineteen stations pulled 275,000 dimes and Bab-O labels, with a media cost of 3.9 cents per inquiry. Offer after offer followed the seeds but never with a greater frequency than every three months. Best premium pull was silk stockings, which hit a yet to be topped return on which not even Duane Jones will give figures. Top sentimental offer was Blarney stone pendants and charm bracelets. Jones sent to Ireland, had 10 tons of stone dug up from the grounds of the Blarney Castle, and had the stone chipped and made up in the costume jewelry. It set the advertising trade listeners talking — they still talk about it — 'but it didn't top the silk stocking response. The premiums touch off Duane Jones' theory that it's essential to sell package goods and household products with "reason why" copy, but it's just as wise to use glamour premiums to "tease 'em into buying." As networks and Bab-O sales grew, stations were added to the David Harum chain. However, it wasn't as simple as that. No new market was added until Bab-O could have a "front seat" in that market. That meant plenty of spot announcements in an area prior to each local station joining the chain. It meant plenty of dealer selling — dealer merchandise to stimulate retail cooperation with the advertising stimulant. It meant sampling on a large scale— sampling in place of any "three products for the price of two" technique which preceded the Duane Jones entry into the Bab-O picture . . . and the sampling is carefully done, almost always under the supervision of the advertising manager (now Robert Brenner) himself and frequently with Sales Manager Gumpert, as well, hitting each local area. It's almost as important as advertising, points out Gumpert, to educate the retail merchant to put the product where the customer doesn't have to break her back reaching for it. In 1942, there was more money in the advertising kitty and the Babbitt Board of Directors would have loved a little flash to their advertising —but Jones came up with a suggestion of more of the same — of a second daytime serial first on a second network and later on NBC also . . . and he won his point. If the Bab-O organization started looking at Hooperatings, instead of sales, the present management might be out on the street looking for jobs. Lora Lawton recently tagged a 3.2 and David Harum a B. T. BABBITT'S ARTICLES OF EVERT DAT USE PUT UP IN CASES TO MEET THE WANTS OF FAMILIES. 2 ■ ■ ^ii f3Pl||l Lrs ^n!&fe&J^| j . ^tefcjtEfStl B. T. Babbitts Lion Coffee. nismu bitimt u>or B. T. Babbitt's celebrated SOAP POWDER J \ SOAP itHOLD B. T. Babbitt (left), founder of the company that bears his name, B. T. set the pace generations ago, just as the Duane Jo""" started premium selling. The girl and the kitten picture (right) is Babbitt combination leads in household cleaner selling today. The typical of the colored pictures that ran into editions of 100,000. Harper's Weekly (center) is an example of pre-premium advertising NOVEMBER, 1946 15