Sponsor (July-Dec 1952)

ers can be fairly certain that time will be available to suit his purpose. Sponsors have used Today for short-term saturation purposes as well as for longrange sales campaigns. NBC also has two quarter-hoHrs of Gabby Hayes (5:15 to 5:30 p.m.) and the possibility exists that there may be openings in the Kate Smith and Howdy Doody late afternoon shows. At CBS, the sustaining soaper The Egg and I is open for single quarterhour buys across the board on weekdays, and there are also openings in the Garry Moore Show. The Godfrey Time show in the morning may have two quarter hours left by the time you read this and, if Lever Bros, doesn't pick up its option on Art Linkletters' Houseparty, there will be two quarter hours available there, too. CBS' Quiz Kids, Sunday between 4:00 and 4:30 p.m., has alternate weeks for sale. Participations Q. Is participating sponsorship popular among big advertisers? A. Yes. Edward I). Madden, NBC vice president, disclosed in a recent speech that I 1 ) 48 of the 50 "leading ' advertisers are using TV and (2) 36 of the 48 on TV are using some form of participating sponsorship. He also said that 35 of the second 50 are on TV, and 19 of these also use some form of participating sponsorship. Q. Are there advantages to advertisers in participating sponsorship? A. The NBC-Hofstra studies hinted at certain conclusions about participations that fit in very nicely with the trend toward such advertising. It was indicated that while viewer recall iacreased as the advertising increased ( in terms of length of time ) , the percentage of increase lessened after a while. To put it in simple terms, if the advertiser doubled his program length, viewer recall would increase but not in the same proportion. The increase, for example, might be only 50% instead of 100%, although there is an additional factor here involving an increase in penetration. The conclusion to be drawn from this is that an advertiser might do better to sponsor two half-hour programs than one full hour program. Dr. Thomas Coffin, supervisor of program research at NBC. points out that participations produce more sales effectiveness per dollar spent, according to figures in NBC's TV/Today study. Q. Are there any disadvantages to participating sponsorship? A. Other things being equal, there is unquestionably a loss of impact if. for example, an advertiser switches Irom sponsoring a full half hour to sharing the time land not buying any other TV time) or sponsoring the same program on alternate weeks. Sponsor identification is lost also. In the case of two different shows alternating during the same time slot with two different advertisers there is the further danger that viewers will forget which program is on during a particular week. This was pointed out in an Advertest Research study last year. The study, however, concluded that, despite this disadvantage an alternate week TV show can be "a strong audience builder and an effective advertising vehicle." Q. Is participating sponsorship here to stay? A. The pressure behind the growth of participating sponsorship — the high cost of TV — will continue and participating sponsorship will grow with it. Additional TV markets are bound to mean additional (josts — there's no getting away from that. The final effect of all this will undoubtedly be to push TV toward the "magazine concept" of advertising. This means that TV program content will be completely created and controlled by the network. Advertisers will buy "pages" or segments of time where they feel they can get the best audience for their product. During the day, for example, a network may set up "departments" or block programing with one block aimed at the children's market, one at the women's market, etc. And advertisers will buy into one or more of these departments, depending on the audience he wants to reach and how much he can afford. Q. Are there other ways to use TV beside alternate-week programing and participations that 14 JULY 1952 WAVE-TV in KENTUCKY! in AUDIENCE! Every day of the week, 10.9% more homes tune to WAVE -TV than to Louisville's second station! ( According to scientific survey made by Dr. Raymond A. Kemper, Head of the Psychological Services Center, University of Louisville, in WAVE-TV area, March, 1952) WAVE-TV CHANNEL 5 NBC • ABC • DUM0NT LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY 4» Cr3=»FREE & PETERS, Inc. Exclusive National Representatives 145