Sponsor (Jan-June 1953)

clients, the traffic department arranged shipping schedules for the finished product, the legal department approved the name and the listing of ingredients on the package, salesmen set up displays and arranged for sample orders and. to polish it off, the home economics people sent out press release-, and photos of cocoanut bars to food editor-. By 1 July 1952, the new product was nationally distributed, about a year after the idea was first mentioned. Some of the products get more air support than others. For example, 55 60' i of the budget for Premium crackers is allocated to radio and TV, while the percentage figure for Ritz is about one-third, which is similar to Nabisco's over-all media allocation. A large slice of Ritz ad money goes to magazines, which are credited with having a lot to do with its success. Generally. Nabisco allots about 2.'!' . of sales for the advertising of crackers. In the case of cereals, the percentage of sales going to advertising is higher. One big reason for this is the need for strong, persistent merchandising; of cereals. From 1949 to DONTBE FOOLED ABOUT ROCHESTER IN ROCHESTER 432 weekly quarter hour periods are Pulse surveyed and rated. Here's the latest score,— FIRSTS. . STATION WHEC 254. . 7. . STATION B . .147. . . . 5. . STATION c . .22. . STATION D . . .2. . STATION E . . .0. . STATION F . .0 TIES . . 1 . . . . .1 . . . . .0. . . .0 s ation on \unsel only WHEC carries ALL of the utop ten" daytime shows! WHEC carries NINE of the "top ten" evening shows! LATEST PULSE REPORT BEFORE CLOSING TIME BUY WHERE THEY'RE LISTENING: WHEC NEW YORK 5,000 WATTS '•pffnlaiivt: EVERETT McKINNEY, Inc. Ntw York, Chicago, LEE F. O'CONNELl CO., Let Angela, Son Francisco 1951 Nabisco sponsored Straight Arrow for Shredded Wheat on MBS three times a week. Aired on more than 400 stations, the show probablycost Nabisco well over $500,000 a year. Nabisco went in heavily for premiums on the show. A West Coast contest to find a name for Straight Arrow's horse pulled 40,000 entries and boxtops. Nationwide, an Indian head-band premium brought in 500,000 requests and box tops. Nabisco started with the show on Don Lee. brought it to the national network early in 1949. By the fall, it was radio's top-rated kid show with a Nielsen of 7.5 in October. TV began cutting into its metropolitan audiences, however, and Nabisco also felt after a while it wanted to make more of a play for adults. (Nabisco went after adults with Straight Arrow to a limited extent by presenting the show once a week at 8 p.m. Its two other stanzas were at 5 p.m.) After dropping Straight Arrow, Nabisco took Shredded Wheat, along with some sweet goods products, over to television. For the 1951-'52 season Nabisco bought Kukla, Fran and OUie on NBC. Brand advertising However, while Nabisco was satisfied with the show, some fresh thinking was going on about air strategy. Nabisco had gone in for more marketing research after World War II and discovered that consumers often bought such products as Fig Newtons and Oreos without knowing they were Nabisco products. Nabisco realized that if their ideas about strong brands carrying the weak were to work, better identification of i:s entire line was needed. Hence, the redesign of the packages and the spot TV campaign to spark impulse buying. In contrast with most of its TV announcements, the Shredded Wheat video announcements are a minute long. Recently promoted to the kids was a Nabisco Shredded Wheat package with all the accoutrements neces>ar\ for a "TV show." The package itself contained a TV "screen" and inside were finger puppets, props, a script, and even commercials. The promotion went over very well and the agency is working on two others for its Shredded Wheat this year. TV announcements spoiled around kid shows are used to push such promotions. Godfrey, naturally, also gets the iiHTchandisin" treatment. He is used 86 SPONSOR