Sponsor (1956)

ever and are almost completely ignored. Mitch Miller's tips on musical commercials include the observation that "an appealing spot must have all the appeal of a good pop record." His and don'ts ;u\i\ up this waj : Do — keep It simple, make it colorful, make the music add to over-all effect and emotional impact. Don't -overload with facts, and don't take the excitement out of the final performance b) over-regulating the perfoi mers. Robert <^. Lewis in a recent talk before the Boston Advertising (Huh (ailed di-k jockeys and radio-tv personalities "star salesmen" and stated l hat as such the) should really know (heii i n < .< I ii < t . Lewis lielieves air -ale-men should see the product in its manufacturing stages, visit stores where it is sold, talk to consumers. Rayco auto seat covers win recently used as basis for a "Little llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll Iodine' cartoon strip. . . . One-minute spectaculars with dancing girls, choreograph) and hard-sell cop) won the Advertising Association of the West's Certificate of \ward for the Lest one-minute local film commercial for KTVT. Salt Lake City. . . . Du Mont's Electronicam Film System has been leased b) Signal Productions, \ew ^ oik. Signal is first firm to take advantage of plan that makes equipment available in the producer's own studio. NETWORKS Shriner cancellation drops variety shows to 1 1 CBS TV's Herb Shriner Slum i the second major nighttime program to fall h\ the wayside this season. Shriner joins NBC's \\ alter \\ inched on the tv casualt) list to make a score of two down in the variet\ show category. Only 11 weekly-scheduled variet) -how remain in network program schedules. The Shriner Shou will he replaced by a new quiz, Nothing Hut the Truth. starting I!! December. Pharmaceuti cals will continue to sponsor the Tuesday 9 to 9:30 slot. CBS will work on a new program format for Shriner. Color radio i the I heme for ABC merchandising mailing in behalf of Bark &. Tilford which sponsors segments of // hen (i (,'/// Marries and Whispering Streets on the network. The color tie-in: colorful stories on the air and the sponsoi product. 1 intex. . . . Carter Products has signed for the Tuesda) evening segment of the NBC Tl Sews -how giving it SRO -lain until the first of the year. In Januar) the 7:45-8 p.m. new show adds American Can Co. as alternate Monday segment sponsor leaving onl\ one alternate segment open each week. Mermen will use new "LadyIn-Waiting" copy theme on tv Mennen will use it "early bird" ad approach on NBC TV's Robert Montgomery Presents program when it starts sponsorship on 28 January. The new slant in advertising is geared to sell Mennen's Lain products to expec NCS BRINGS RATING PROJECTION HEADACHE TO FORE \n effort is underway to revive the SRA formula for projecting radio ratin--, usuall) given for metropolitan area only, to the station's full audience. The problem ol projecting ratings has been a perennial one but interest in the subject has been revived with the appearance ol up-to-date coverage data provided b) Nielsen Coverage Sen ice No. 2. \ thorough airing of the problem was held al the radio workshop of \l!l second annual conference at New ^ in k City's I lotel Embassador 2(J November. \\ . Ward Dorrell, head of research al the Blair station rep In in. brought up the Nl« \ formula aftei .i numbei ol speakers pinpointed the difficult) ol finding out w hat a stal ion total audience was. \ numbei ol those attending the workshop ex pressed interest in the bu inula. I he SRA loi inula work at Follows: suppose a station iii a "home count) of 100,000 home shows a program rating ol 5, or 5,000 home-. Assuming the station has a regular NCS audi ence in that home count) ol 50,000 homes, the station would be assigned a "correction factor" of 10 (50,000 homes divided bv 5.001) homes reached b) the program). The station is then credited with JO'* of all its regularlyleached home-. In other words, it is assumed thai the same -haie of a stationregular NCS audience listens to a program bevond the home count) as in the home county. (For a fuller explanation, see "Needed: a wav to project ratings," sponsor, L8 \lav L953. i \\ bile il i> understood that a radio station ma) attract greater listening be) ond the met ropolitan area i where SRA radio audience projection formula may be revived tv penetration mav be less I . SUV has laken the position that this formula is the "least bad" of the man) projection formulas thai have been used in past years. George Blechta. A. C. Nielsen v. p. who attended the workshop, maintained that the Nielsen Station Index, which gives total station audience figme-, makes the formula unnecessary. The gist of answers to Blechta was that (1) NS1 onlv cover a limited numbei of markets. (2) inaiiv stations "don t like" NSI, (3) the -ample outside NS1 area is too small to pick up an accurate indication ol station audiences. \ numbei ol those attending the intimate work-hop session, which waled bv Samuel Thurm. media direct 01 ol Lever Bros., expressed dissatisfai lion with the currenl state of radio research and there was frequent reference to the need for qualitative research. Another tv workshop speaker. Bud Sherak. KM research director, warned against the biases id promotional research, lie said that, "Aparl from instituting a systematic program ol research evaluation, one other thing that might be done ... is to appeal to the indiistrv to curb -oine of the less disciplined promotional research activity." ^ 58 SI'OVSOH i! in a i:\iiikh 1T>(>