Sponsor (July-Dec 1951)

i apart from time costs it did a year ago. to go as far as Spot TV availabilities Spot TV programing' t Q. How can an advertiser keep down his costs for spot TV? A. It all depends on what you re using. These are some of the more frequently-offered suggestions by ad agencies and reps: // you're an announcement user — Shop carefully for availabilities. Don t buy on the basis of ratings alone. Tryto find, with your film producer, cheaper ways of getting the same effectiveness out of a film announcement or station break. Investigate marginal time periods, and daytime TV possibilities. // you're a program user Stay away from pretentious overhauling of successful local TV programs; they're usually being done on a tight budget and your costs may go up without added effectiveness. Examine new programs, and new program types carefullv: you can sometimes turn up a real buy. Don't just play it safe and use only what everybody else uses. Remember that there's a law of supply and demand and that TV offers unusurewards to the creative sponsor. STATION MANAGER AVAILABLE (due station sale) • j». Civic minded * Family man * Excellent recurd * Finest references Prefer East Henlics cunlidential Box 47 SPONSDH Q. What will the availability situation be this fall? A. It will be at least as tight as last year, and in the major TV markets even tighter. However, the turnover in availabilities will be greater. In other words, if you or your agency are shopping for local TV time or programs, you may find the immediate situation this fall extremely tight. Then, if you stay on the chase, you'll find that good openings will be showing up periodically. This is due to rate hikes, which have started a kind of TV musical chairs, causing manyadvertisers to move into less expensive time, marginal hours, and cheaper programs. Many advertisers will also stay on in their premium times, but cut down the frequency. All this means that an advertiser shouldn't be frightened away from spot TV this fall by the seeming lack of availabilities. Stick around. They'll probably show up if you're persistent. Q. Where is it best to start looking for good spot TV availabilities? A. Chances are they'll occur most frequently in locally-built participation programs, especially in daytime hours. A sizable number of TV stations are concentrating much of their program efforts on this type of show in an effort to catch some more of the spot business that is going begging for lack of time. Some agencies and advertisers, conditioned to thinking of spot TV in terms of station breaks and announcements, will have to overhaul their thinking and timebuying methods as a result. Q. Will it be easier to clear spot TV program time than network? A. The outlook for fall, based on a SPONSOR checkup of leading reps and stations, is "yes.'* Its not that stations will have the extra time kicking around. But. the station's "take-home pay" on a network program buj is an average of M) cents in every network dollar charged in the base lime rate. ( In .1 spot I \ liu\ . the station's "takehome pay" is an estimated 54 cents in the base snot time rale. In other words, stations make more money on spot. and arc more inclined i<> clear difficull time for sponsors. Q. What are the main fall trends in local-level programing? A. From a special SPONSOR survey of TV stations on this question, this pattern emerged: ON THE INCREASE— News shows are gaining steadily in popularity with local video viewers, and are picking up plenty of local and national sponsorships. This is due, in part, to the high interest in war news and the fact that TV news techniques are now becoming more accomplished. WTCN. Minneapolis, for example, pointed out that "a very healthy increase" had appeared both in their total of news shows and advertisers. Good local participating programs, usually live musical-variety shows, are on the upbeat; are very popular with local sponsors giving them a big play. Notes WAAM, Baltimore: "The buik of WAAM's business on participating shows is from the local advertisers, with the national sponsors heavy on station breaks and nationally-known adjacencies." Reports WBKB, Chicago: "WBKB has increased in number of clients on participating shows." WTVJ. Miami, reports: "With an average of 200 different local sponsors using WTVJ each month, we have found it necessary to open up a lot of participating programs. Advertisingwise, the trend is to participating shows." Also due to be around this fall will be more feature film programs, more local sports packages, more audienceparticipation shows. ON THE DECREASE— Except in random cases, the audience is wearing a bit thin on TV wrestling, one of the pioneer program types. Commercial educational programs that are based primarily on "talk" rather than visual appeal are lessening. Q. Are there any noticeable trends in daytime spot TV programing? A. "l es. There's a trend toward building local TV programs that is very similar to the daytime trend in network programing. TV stations have not hit upon the same kind of easy formula that the local disk jockey represents for radio stations. But. the participating program, often a showcase built around a popular local personality akin to radio's "morning man." is be 140 SPONSOR