Sponsor (Jan-June 1956)

In spot radio, Shulton aims for (1) a weekday audience and (2) a weekend audience. A staunch adherent to weekend schedules of saturation strength, Shulton buys weekend time through the year to reach motorists as well as people relaxing in their homes. It stresses weekends in hotweather months to hit hardest for Bronztan because of seasonal needs and the swarming of motorists to beach and sun areas. This year, its weekend schedule alone provides for 20 weekends of saturation advertising in 25 markets (with five weekends devoted to Bronztan) and eight weekends of advertising in 21 additional markets (in which three weekends plug the sun tan lotion). The stick deodorant gets the bulk of the stress during the remainder of the schedules. The Bronztan schedule follows a successful introductory campaign for the product last year. At that time, when a minimum order was placed in magazines, spot radio pushed the introductory effort. "We saw results from this short, isolated campaign immediately," says Ad Manager Maxine Rowland. "We traced sales gains fast as dealers re-ordered the item." The 1955 Bronztan campaign centered on only 14 markets (contrasted with the 46 being used this year), and hit the airwaves early in the season (1 May in Southern states, June in Northern) for a fourweek saturation push on five consecutive weekends. Although more weekend markets have been added this year, the market pattern remains about the same: from 12 to 25 announcements aired from Friday afternoon, after about 4 o'clock when drivers start taking to the highways, through Saturday to mid-Sunday afternoon, when they start returning home. In addition to these intensive weekend-only schedules, Shulton aims for the weekday, Monday-through-Friday audiences with a continuing, yearround pattern of radio announcements in 13 markets for 52 weeks, and in 33 markets for 26 weeks. The 26-week schedule is timed to coincide with the spring, pre-Father's Day gift season and the fall and pre-Christmas period. Pre-Christmas gift buying accounts for almost a fourth of the firm's annual sales, and its announcements then are aimed at both men and women because women do much of the gift buying. Weekday radio has from five to 12 announcements weekly, per market, divided between two periods — early morning and late afternoon. Joseph D. Knap, Jr., media director of Wesley, believes these periods, with announcements rotated in them, can best serve the client's needs. "We figure we are reaching men at those times. In the morning, we're most interested in alerting men to our shaving products because it's then that they're thinking about shaving, starting to do it or just finished. And, in the late afternoon, we're reaching them as they drive home from work or as they get home after work. In every market we use, we've made a detailed study of the work habits of white-collar men as well as factory workers, and we know when we can reach them best." The buying strategy is similar in spot television, although the numerical weight of radio announcements is much heavier. Tv announcements are slotted primarily in the evening and nighttime hours, with Shulton preferring prime times because of the all-family composition of the viewing audience. "At this point," says Knap, "we don't think morning tv reaches men — and they're the ones we're most interested in. They may hear tv in the morning, while they're getting ready for work or eating breakfast, but I don't think they really watch it." Because of the quality of the Shulton package design and gift set design, television is used to visualize this attractiveness. Tv announcements concentrated into two winter periods. One is usually a nine-week campaign starting in late September, and the other a four-week drive preceding Christmas. Announcements are spotted in the top 30 markets at a variable saturation rate during the nighttime hours. During the second, or pre-Christmas gift buying, phase of the fall-winter push, tv announcements move back into the daytime hours, when women are watching. Tv commercials are shorter than those used in radio (where minutes are standard), and a 20-second format is adopted because of its versatility and maneuverability. Copy is geared to the company's quality concepts. Jay Perine, account executive at Wesley, puts it this way: "Our copy describes our sales approach — hard sell in a soft-sell package. We use a class approach, but at the same time we have successfully sold the masses with it." Old Spice products have specially devised sea motifs in all air media copy and all media advertising has continuity in themes. A sea chanty jingle has been used successfully for three years to promote the Old Spice men's lines. Tv copy hinges on art work with animated captain, bo'sun, ship drawings, etc. as complements to the chanty jingle. "We've used the popular sea chanty for three years now," says Miss Rowland, "and it's still fresh and well received by radio listeners. We'll continue to use it indefinitely, changing only some of the verses as we introduce new products or as we change copy themes." All Shulton copy, in the opinion of Account Executive Perine, "aims for high motivation and low irritation!" Product copy on the spectaculars remains the same as that used in other phases of the broadcast activity. Half of the commercial time allotment on the specs, however, is institutional. Shulton, backing up its broadcast advertising and its all-media activities, merchandises its promotional investment intensively to the trade. It alerts its dealers (largely department and drug stores) to all upcoming advertising schedules, and gives them specific suggestions for local-level promotion and possible tie-ins to the advertising effort. It offers a vast array of point-of-sale and window materials, and encourages a maximum of dealer cooperation with special contests, competitions and awards. -k -k -k "—and I just heard KRIZ Phoenix advertising baby carriages." 28 MAY 1956 113