Sponsor (Jan-June 1956)

mot radio More than half of firm's annual ad budget now goes into radio negligible role, radio has grown to a point where it will account for 55'/ of GMAC's 1956 advertising budget. Radio spending is up 600' < over 1954. As in the past three years, objectives of the campaign are threefold: "1. To make the public more aware of the GMAC Plan as a helpful, considerate, time-proven financing service suited to the needs of Americas family market. "2. To make the public more aware of the fact that the benefits GMAC has to offer are available only through GM dealers who use the GMAC Plan. "3. To reach the public before < redit is arranged through a bank or some other credit source." Not the least of these objectives is the desire to keep GM's dealers happy. It was. in fact, dealer read ion which encouraged this sudden acceleration in air advertising. Until GMAC's solo effort in New York four years ago. the subsidiary had dun;' no advertising since the war. One reason was that cars were in short supply for several years following the war: liecause of the shortage, too. dealers needed little help in the competitive financing market. A second reason, one which ; i least argued againsl using radio, was the comparatively small proportion of auios with radios installed. According l<> the Automobile Manufacturers Association, only 35.5' < of the cars on the road had radios before 1946. Between 1946 and 1952 the figure had risen to 67%. Of the 1953 and 1954 models, 75.5^ could boast am reception. \ study In Advertest Research for CBS Radio in November 1954 (sponsor Fall Facts Basics issue. 11 .Iul\ 1955) makes the comparison more dramatically : In 1946. it state*, there were 7.5 million <ar radios; in 1955. 29 million. The figure for all model years on (he road dipped this year lo (>2.!!. sa\s AMA. explained in part probabh l>\ the shortage during the Korean skirmish. As the cars of that period begin to disappear in the next year <>i two, and if the current upward trend continues, the late 1956 and 1957 figures should Masterminding GMAC's sales and advertising campaign an Public Relations V.P. Willcox B. Adsit i Icli i and Silo V.P. William '.. Schick, shown with life-size point-of-sale display < limb to new peaks, auto mi n believe. When GM dealers in Philadelphia heard the WNEW announcements in 1953 thev too wanted to climb aboard and GMAC added WIP to its schedule the following summer land renewed lot ihe winter), along with W.I KB. Detroit. A month later KB1G. Los Angeles was added and. last year, WHDH. Boston. Print media has also been used, including pages in full color in the Saturday Evening Post; Sunday newspapi i supplements such as This Week, Parade and American U eekV) : farm papers, including Better farming, Town Journal and I'rogressive Farmer. According to William G. "Jerry" Schick, vice president in charge of sales for GMAC, it's difficult to measure t lie success of the campaign to dale. True, ihe corporation's 1955 annual report shows a II'. increase in retail \olume from the $2.4 billion in 1954 lo $3.6 billion last year, and a rise in net income from $33.!! million lo $35.2 million. But this includes financing on other GM products: I rigidaire, Delco appliances. GM diesels. -It does state that outstanding auto credit in the U. S. is now over $14 billion, up $4 billion over 1954 and $8 billion over 1952. And Schick, who estimates the time buying I the auto kind ) market at 60' /< of sales, [Please lain to page 105) 16 APRIL 1956 37