Sponsor (Jan-June 1953)

ANAHISTON THE AIR (Continued from page 37) sidered necessar) to educate the consumer about the new product and explain that Super Anahi-t protects against other infections as well as relieves all the miseries of a cold. Basie radio schedule was five announcements a week with greater frequenc) when the need developed. Super Anahist sales are going well enough for the compan) to consider expanding radio coverage about one-third next season. As for TV, Super Anahist got plugs on about 50 stations in around 35 markets. The weekly frequency was smaller than that for radio, and. in some cases. Hates bought 10-second IDs for product identification. (Shorter radio announcements may he used next season to spread the money around and also because it is felt that detailed commercials are no longer needed in many markets.) In addition to the Super Anahist buys, about 85 markets were bought for Hist-OPlus. though the weekly schedule called for fewer announcements than for Super Anahist. In buying spot. Anahist bins one ~| i CANCEL "Due to increased volume through your advertising, we are unable to get out the extra work. Please cancel my advertising as soon as possible." So wrote Stanley Parker, plumbing, heating, electrical contractor of Cicero, N. Y. Mr. Parker explained that he had received over 20 phone calls per day directly traceable to his radio program and was filled up on work orders for four months. A good sales story to a good audience— that's what produces the sales. And WSYR gives you the audience — up to 2 59% more daytime audience families than other local stations according to SAMS and Nielsen. Write, Wire, Phone or 4sk Head ley -Reed -ACUSE 570 KC \/K Affiliate in Central New York thing: audiences. The company and agenc) have no preconceived ideas about the best time of day. If the multiple of audience times cost is reasonable, if the market is one that Anahist is interested in. and. if children don't make up too great a part of the audience, then Bates will bu\ . In TV markets, most of the radio announcements are bought during the da) because best audiences are found then, the agen: \ feels. But Bates will not let a good nighttime spot slip by in such markets merely because it is at night. Bates has no prejudice against network bu\s but both agency and client agree that the flexibility of spot is what Anahist needs. Bud MacNalh . Anahist account executive, explains agency-client thinking about spot: "We feel that we can get a greater total audience through spot than through network, considering our budget. If we had a lot of money to spend, we might consider a network show and. perhaps, have all our products cam it. But. right now. we don't feel that a moderate-budget network program will get us the audience that spot does. "'Furthermore, our prospects are only people with colds. That means, maybe, one of six people tuned in. To avoid waste circulation, we need as great a dispersion of audience as possible. We feel we can get the greatest dispersion for our purposes through spot radio and TV. "'Then, of course, there are the usual advantages of spot. We can pick different times of day in different markets. We can pick the markets we want — and we have some very definite ideas about our markets. We have learned quite a bit about markets since antihistamines were introduced three years ago. While the fle\ibilit\ of spot suggests that the manufacturer of a cold preparation could time his announcements with the incidence of colds in certain regions and with the variations of cold weather. MacNall\ said that, in practice, it won't work. '"It's too complicated," he explained. "We've tried working it both ways in the past : starting off all markets at the s;ime time and varying the jumping-off limes with when it gets cold or when we think it's going to get cold. "We learned what a lot of people alread) know. You cant predict the weather that closely. We could do with stations what some ad\ ertisers do with newspapers, thai is, let the medium de cide when to run the ad. If the weather gets cold and nasty, or if the local health department cold and flu index is up. then the station would presumably let loose one of our ad blasts." Both agencx and client, however, prefer to have more control over the advertising. They feel that a situation might come up where an ad blast i:< ailed for hut the station finds that choice spots happen to be all sold out for that day. What happens? Anahist ends up with an announcement slot it doesn't want or with no announcements when it needs them badly. The Anahist-Bates ad team, therefore, decided on the rough outline of the winter campaign for Super Anahi»t last summer. Minor changes were made as sales developed and as various markets reacted differently. Agency and client always had up their sleeve an idea of what the\ would do with the next $50,000. Generally speaking. Anahist has not peaked its advertising during the season. Frequency of announcements usually has been fairly steady in each market during the cold w-eather. In addition, the air schedule for antihistamines has been bracketed with store promotions directed at hay fever sufferers during the late summer and earl) fall and at allergy sufferers in general during the spring. This year Anahist is running in drug stores the biggest allerg\ campaign it has ever attempted. Drug stores, particularly the chains, are also tied in with Anahist's selling via co-op advertising. Retailers get co-op advertising allowances based on a percentage of their purchases. When it conies to radio and TV. Anahist tries to tie in co-op with its regular schedule, though this can't always be accomplished. Hewitt told SPONSOR that in making decisions on co-op buys, the company finds out if the retailer has a radio or TV show. If he has. the company will ask the retailer to use air rather than newspaper advertising. "Our purpose."' Hewitt said, "in coop advertising is not to channel sales through a favored outlet but to influence sales of Anahist products in the entiie market."" The air commercials for selling Super Anahist. whether used in co-op acU or in direct agenc) buys, stressed the addition of Vitamin C, though it wasn t usualh mentioned h\ name. Both radio and T\ commercials con 84 SPONSOR