Sponsor (1956)

In Los Angeles the friendly 'line'of KMPC DJs pulls in huge audiences and lands prize sales for sponsors 710 kc LOS ANGELES 50 000 wattidays \0000 watts nights Gene Autry, President P.O. Peynofa, I/. P. & for?. Mgr. REPRESENTED NATIONALLY BY AM RADIO SALES COMPANY REYNOLDS METALS I Continued from page 33) selling all the time. Television, as a demonstration medium, is ideal for our purposes. We match our tv techniques to those purposes, and we exploit every advantage we get from our tv audience and our advertising." sponsor estimates that half of an annual $8 million ad budget goes to network tv. The other half is split among national consumer magazines, lui-ino. and trade publications, a small amount of newspaper, women's service magazines, spot radio, point of purchase, direct mail and billboard. "Company management is very tvminded," Boyle says. He thinks it very possible that by the fall of 1957, Reynolds will be in two major network tv vehicles. One would be for the nonconsumer advertising, probably a mass audience show to reach people "educationally." The other network tv show might be a daytime feature, directed exclusively to housewives with all commercial time devoted to illustration of the many possible uses for Reynolds \\ rap. The tv advertising goal of reaching a mass audience has never changed since Reynolds purchased its first network show in 1951. But the means of reaching that mass audience have changed. Reynolds' first network tv show was the nighttime Kate Smith Hour on NBC TV in 1951, with which it remained for one season. In 1952 and 1953, it switched to Wally Cox and Mr. Peepers on the same network. According to Nat Strom, account executive for Reynolds at the Buchanan agenn in New York, "Peepers attracted the best all-family audience of any show on the air at that time. We had just what we wanted — an even audience division among men, women and youngsters." For the 54 fall season, Reynolds continued with Peepers. The next summer, il substituted a summer replacement, the Do It Yourself Show. Originating in California with Dave Willock and Cliff Arquette, the show occupied Reynolds' regular Sunda) night time slot from 7:30 to <"> p.m. on N Bl . This marked the first time an all-out ad\eili-in.j clfurl promoted the coinpan) s do-it-\ oiiim'II line of aluminum parts and components. Last fall, t lie company bought its h i -i film show, the \\ estei n / rontiei series. The adventure drama continues through this summer, and in September will be replaced by the new film series, Circus Boy. Circus Boy will remain in the Reynolds Sunday night time period, and will be carried by 103 stations. Radiotv Advertising Manager Boyle says the company has "great" hopes for the new dramatic feature. "We anticipate a substantially greater share of the tv audience and a more general family appeal so that we'll regain the balance we had in Peepers." The new half-hour series features a youngster in the title role in a variety of circus and non-circus adventures. Plots encompass romance (for mother and sister), adventure (for all), Western (for dad and the kids) and circus stories (for youngsters). "We're going to hit everyone," says Strom, "and we think the show will appeal to everyone. As a matter of fact we expect to crack into the 30's! Frontier has been "in the 20's," reaching some 25 million people weekly. Revnolds has an option on the program for five years, and expects to air a different version every week of the year during that time. "Circus Boy is a natural for exploitation," says Boyle, and the company plans to merchandise this vehicle more intensively nationally and locally than it has ever done before. In-store demonstrations, personal appearances, tie-ins with consumer contests, and a raft of other promotions will take maximum advantage of the $31/2 million tv package. Even though the program formats have varied rather widely in the past five years, the other advertising elements remain constant. Reynolds will continue to advertise the same concepts, products and services that it has in the past. And it will use the same commercial techniques to sell them. Exactly what does Reynolds sell? 1 1 sells several lines of consumer products. The biggest consumer product line is Reynolds Wrap. The aluminum foil (nines in two weights, regular for ordinar\ household use and the heavier for such special-dut) work as freezer food packaging. Reynolds was the first company to introduce a household foil. Broualit out in 1 ()J(). it got its first big push from store shelves to pantry shelves after the network tv schedule was delated in L951. Today. Alcoa lias re-named its \\ ear 102 SPONSOR