Sponsor (Jan-June 1953)

ir appliances veil as own, ntificatton slump in appliance sales. There wasn't any. Westinghouse Account Executive Bill Ritenbaugh of Ketchum, MacLeod, and Grove told sponsor flatly that this "can be accredited to the tremendous political campaign package." I Westinghouse also sponsored 13 weeks of Pick the Winner on CBS TV and DuMont. ) Admiral sold more refrigerators during the Democratic Convention than any previous week during the year. (July 1951 was one of the worst months of the year for refrigerator sales so far as the industry as a whole was concerned.) Philco reported such success in selling radios, TV sets, and air conditioners that in the case of the first two, allocations were resumed, and, in the case of the latter, commercials were removed during the Democratic Convention. Summer months are, of course, good months for air conditioners but Philco did not expect the huge demand that developed. John Gilligan, Philco vice president in charge of advertising, said: "Ordinarily, the radio-television industry suffers from a slump in sales during the summer months. This year, because of the political broadcasts, this slump did not occur. On the contrary, sales advanced sharply. From the first of July to the end of the year, Philco television receiver shipments to distributors were on an allocation basis. "At the conventions, Philco introduced a new multi-wave radio. It had been expected that sales would increase gradually as the public became acquainted with these new sets. On the contrary, the sales response was instantaneous; existing stocks had to be put on allocation to Philco customers." Even competitors of the three appliance sponsors agreed that the political sponsorship delivered a heavy sales wallop. Said a sales executive from one of the largest appliance firms: "The conventions did a terrific job for (Please turn to page 60) 12 JANUARY 1953 Listening-viewing totals of the political conventions 1. Homes watched Ijj/ all radio. TV networks Radio & radio-TV homes reached by radio Radio-only homes reached Radio & radio-TV homes reached by radio & TV Figures extreme inside bars refer to percentage of homes reached within each homes category, liar on right shows that marc than nine out oi 10 radio and TV homes tuned to conventions Average tune-in hours per home reached SO 25 20 10 _iM_Bil — HfiUS m £ 9 I TV homes reached by TV &. radio TV homes reached by radio Radio & radio-TV homes reached by radio Radio-only homes reached Radio & radio-TV homes reached by radio & TV As in chart above, greater convention interest among TV homes is shown. To sponsor, these figures indicate higher relative exposure to commercials in TV homes than in radio-only homes Total tune-in hours for all homes 837tOOOtO0O MILLION HOME-HRS TV homes reached by TV & radio TV homes reached by radio Radio & radio-TV homes reached by radio Radio-only homes reached Radio & radio-TV homes reached by radio & TV This chart is result of multiplying homes figure in Chart No. 1 by corresponding figures in Chart No. 2. Figures indicate greater gross tune-in time in TV homes than radio-only homes SOURCE: A C. Nielsen Co.