Sponsor (Nov 1946-Oct 1947)

Broadcast Advertising Promotion Medium not bring Mild: no «-;ish anil iiuuipowcr lies MB hands Timebuyers, account executives, and newbusiness men sat in on this placing of NAB's broadcast advertising department under the microscope. Thirty-nine agency men and 16 sponsor employees were the panel. Sponsors and agency men alike feel that the promotional efforts of radio directed at selling broadcast advertising are inadequate. As they see it, the inadequacy starts with the NAB and extends on through the networks. Sponsors are far less outspoken about this than agencies. Most of the former don't care whether they're sold radio as an advertising medium or not. A few advertising managers, usually located in fields where the competition is using radio, cry for facts and figures. They are called upon by their bosses to supply information on what broadcasting is doing for their competition— data difficult to obtain. Agencies criticize the "success stories" which NAB releases to stations as being for the most part endorsements — or else just the froth of the story. "They're good conversation material for light salesmanship," is the way one timebuyer put it. Most critical of the efforts of the NAB bureau of broadcast advertising are agency radio director* whose job it is to sell account executives within their own shops on the efficacy of the medium. Account executives, within their own four walls, are traditionally sold on nothing (but in the offices of the sales or advertising managers of their clients no one would believe that). When the radio director suggests an air campaign he is frequently greeted with an "Oh, Yeah!" and asked for facts and figures directly related to the client's products. Quoting from pertinent "Results from Radio" or "Radio Gets Results" NAB releases, he finds that he can answer only about 20 to 50 per cent of the account executives' questions about each case on which NAB has reported. Radio directors of agencies may not all be super-executives, but they have learned from bitter experience to have a complete tale to spin, or not to start spinning. Admittedly, air-advertising case histories are not available for the asking. It would take intense digging for NAB to report the full story in every "result" presentation. While conceding this, agency men still contend that a partial report is only good as something with which the industry can pat itself on the back — not sell. Promotion men in radio say that Frank Pellegrin, director of broadcast advertising for NAB, knows the job to be done and does it efficiently within the confines of a meager budget. What was done by his department for department store advertising on the air is indicative of his understanding of the problem that faces every prospective user of broadcast advertising. Department stores were not using broadcasting. They believed that what they had to sell had to be seen in order to rouse the buying urge in customers. The fact that G. Fox in Hartford and a number of other department stores scattered throughout the country had sold successfully on the air was overbalanced by the fact that countless department stores had Broadcast Measurement Bureau used time, some of them for years, and found the medium wanting. Even department store owners of broadcasting stations had not used the medium too successfully, with Lit Brothers, Frank and Seder, and John Wanamaker in Philadelphia all finally selling their stations, as did Gimbel Brothers in New York. The NAB bureau of broadcast advertising did for department store understanding of radio what is required in many fields of broadcast advertising. Through the assistance of Joske's in San Antonio, the NAB did a project study which put broadcast advertising under the retail selling microscope — developed a project study for every retailer to see. What was done via radio at Joske's had been done in part at Wieboldt's, Chicago (sponsor, December 1946); J. N. Adam, Buffalo; Princess Shops, Baltimore; Higbee's, Cleveland; and Polsky's, Akron. But no department store had done all the things that Joske's did — nor had any store integrated its broadcast advertising in to the over-all store operation as did Joske's. {Please turn to page 80) More Independence for radio's coverage reporting group asked The panel on the subject of NAB and BMB included six advertising managers and three lesearch diiectors of sponsors, three sales managers, and 14 advertising agency executives. Sponsors and advertising agencies want the Broadcast Measurement Bureau to continue to flourish and expand. Most agency men feel that during its first two years the organization has sat back on its haunches and awaited the reaction to its first report instead of proceeding as an active organization which expected to stay alive. Agency men and sponsors also place the blame for this partly on the NAB, for while the BMB is a tripartite organization (NAB-AAAA-ANA) as far as its board of directors is concerned, the budget is 100 per cent underwritten by broadcasters and NAB represents that underwriting. This means in effect that no matter what the feeling of own radio leadership, say sponsors and agencies, is as it should be, since the information delivered to agencies and sponsors by BMB is coverage information about what radio has to sell — time. Both agency and sponsor representatives know that there is a feeling among certain stations that since the advertisers want information about what they're buying they ought to bear part of the cost of the BMB. Neither of these groups go along with this station thinking but point out that since all that any station has to sell is listeners it, the seller, has the responsibility of making available to the buyer full information on its commodity. Agencies and users of the medium, especially those who use spots, state that without BMB or its equivalent the growth of spot broadcasting would be retarded and that national spot advertising placement would never come into its One advertising manager of a agency and advertising men on the BMB board, the research organization's continuance actually is in the hands of onethird of the directors. All the executives of BMB are radio men too. Hugh Feltis, John Churchill, and Philip Frank, the key men, all came to the research organization from stations or networks. This great pharmaceutical house which spends over $800,000 per year for spot radio put the general feeling bluntly. He stated, "We just couldn't go on buying time based upon power or mail maps, Nielsens or Hoopers. The time was certain to come when competitive situations would (Please turn to page 81) SEPTEMBER 1947 35