Sponsor (Jan-June 1953)

overcoat. You're willing to pay more for one than for the other because of value received. Same with media. Even if you determine how much it would cost you per dollar to reach 100 readers as against 100 listeners or viewers, the result wouldn't mean they are all alike, for 50 of one may be just as good as 100 of the others. Actually the buyer and seller determine the cost of media. If the buyer won't meet the seller's price, the seller must come down." According to Politz, who spoke with sponsor's editorial director at great length on this topic, you can try to compare media only on the basis of what they have in common: (a) audience and ( b ) sales produced. And the second is harder to determine than the first. So you, as an ad manager, conclude that circulation, audience, readership, and ratings mean different things to different people. Although the air media definitely bold an edge in mass audience reached, you recall what a dozen researchers have said respectively : "You can never assume that one listener is worth one viewer or one reader." And: "There is no way at present of comparing the strength or value of an impression received through print with one delivered by radio or TV." And thirdly, you remember this elementary economic fact: Your magazine reader is in the top economic twothirds from the standpoint of purchasing power, but your radio listener generally buys as much of the mass-consumer items, whether they be Toni kits or Ex-Lax. Some comparable data: Having disposed of audience and cost, you're now faced with the problem of com paring media from the standpoint of (1) revenue; (2) exclusive features; (3) disadvantages. You jot down the figures on expenditures in each medium. Newspapers lead in total dollar volume ($2.45 billion). If \ou consider wealth and age alone, newspapers could be called King of Media. And magazines are Queen if you compute national advertising only l magazines drew $614 million last year). But air media have two records 1" be proud of: local radio has climbed 1580c since the war to lead all othei older media in rate of increase i although radio over-all shows a much smaller rate of growth I. and T\ has skyrocketed 476' < in four years. You wonder whether it would be a misnomer to call radio the Princess of Media, in view of its charm and youth, and TV the squawling brat that's suddenly grown into the Crown Prince of Media, destined perhaps someday to be King. Every medium enables the advertiser to communicate with an audience or it wouldn't exist. Is one superior to another generally? Researcher Alfred Politz. among whose clients are some of the biggest corporations in America, put it thi> ua\ to SPONSOR: "Every medium exists because it fulfills a need. Each supplements the other. If it were objectively true that Medium A is better than Medium B. then A would destroy B." Yet he agrees that under certain circumstances one is superior to another, that each has qualities peculiar to itself, that the wise advertiser is one who knows what they are and can take advantage of them. Exclusive qualities: Every other researcher not connected with any one medium agreed with this. Here is a consensus of what the experts told sponsor were the exclusive qualities of each medium: 1. Newspapers — onl) medium primarily devoted to new-. 2. Direct mail — only medium which can precisely pinpoint a customer. 3. Radio — only medium which enables you to do something else while listening; only exclusively "ear medium. 1. Magazines— only medium giving you national coverage with full color for advertisements. 5. Television — only medium giving you motion, combining sight and sound. 6. Business papers — only medium with little waste circulation. 7. Outdoor — only medium capable of applying ad pressure continuously. Each therefore, you conclude, has something to give that the other can't match — or not quite as well. l»i.vfirfr«nJ«»;«*.s: What are the chief disadvantages of each medium? Here is what the experts say: 1 . Newspapers — high cost of national coverage. 2. Direct mail — enormous waste. 3. Radio — no eye appeal. 4. Magazines — little local coverage. 5. Television — no national coverage, high program cost. 6. Business papers — restricted to trade. 7. Outdoor — limited copy. You skim over the numerous pages of notes you've made on which media to use in launching your food product I Yognuts, made of corn and condensed \ogurt l . You remember the board of directors always wants a recommendation based on sound thinking. Or. in any Every summer day there are 602,000 or more visitors in our primary coverage area 4 MAY 1953 Easy Listenin' ! Have you seen the new "Pulse of Boston Area" survey? WHDH is first again with a completely projectable rating to 1,423,500 radio homes. Ask your Blair man for the story! WHDH BOSTON 50,000 WATTS OWNED AND OPERATED BY BOSTON HERALD -TRAVELER CORP. REPRESENTED NATIONALLY BY JOHN BLAIR AND COMPANY 89