Sponsor (1956)

system. One of Deckinger's i following this lead, was the push which started the iding to the e\olution of the all-media buyer. At this point, three months later, the swing is half-way complete. But how do you convert from one medium to all? Ih.xs do you amalgamate the traditional advertising opponents of print and airy How do you swing a buyer steeped in the knowledge of getting a 111', showing in outdoor to the intricacies of a flight pattern in spol television? How can a timehuyer, whose concepts are all geared to the supremacy of air media, he convinced that a seven-jet plane in a skywriting formation might do the necessary trick in terms of consumer impact? Grey's answer as to how all this can he accomplished is likewise in the classic tradition : evolution rather than revolution. That's why there's no rigid target r ARTICLE IN BRIEF Grey Advertising Agency in New York moves into an all-media buying system. Flexibility in a 57-person media department permits buyers to work vertically and horizontally, as print specialists learn to buy broadcast media, radio-tv buyers learn space concepts date by which time every air buyer will have become a print specialist, and every space buyer will be equally comersant with radio and television. The media department — and all 57 persons in it — is geared to getting the conversion finished as soon as possible— but it isn't rushing. Every activity on every day of the week — and ofttimes on nights and weekends, too — is guided by the department's over-all aim of making allmedia specialists out of its buyers. The conversion extends beyond the buyers, too. It's Deckinger's aim to How to get more all-media thinking into buying l All-media buyer system: Several agencies, led by Y&R, began moving toward total integration as long as four years ago. In these agencies the buyer makes budget recommendations, plans media strategy, recommends how the budget should be divided among media. He actually buys for every medium, thereby achieving a greater perspective over the client's needs, objectives and sales problems. Agencies operating in this way include Y&R, Dancer-Fitzgerald-Sample, Leo Burnett, Guild. Bascom & Bonfigli. Buyers practicing this agency approach, become equally conversant with the concepts and the buying techniques of all media; are better equipped to match the media buy exactly to the specific needs of the client. Proponents feel that diversification leads to more creative buying and sounder buys. 2 Associate media director system: I naer this type of organization the individual buyers are specialized, but they work on a number of accounts under an all-media man. who's an associate media director. The media director can then depend upon several all-media associates to do the planning and strategy formulating for grouj) of accounts, lb-cent converts to this system include ,|. Walter Thompson and I'oote, Cone & Belding. Other agencies thai have an associate media director system include Kenton & Bowles, BBDO, Compton, McCann-Erickson, Kenyon & Eckhardt, Cunningham & Walsh, Needham, l.ouis \ Brorby. Vrgumenl in favor of specialization in buying hinges on theory that buyer knows his work best when he can concentrate in limited field ol activity, and become an expert in one medium. broaden the knowledge, the experience and the competence of everyone on his staff. The all-media buyers — there are 10 of them at this point — are the kev to this expanded specialization. But others who are working toward the day when they will be of equal worth to either a time or space buying effort are the assistant media buyers, the estimators and the secretaries. Everyone is in on the conversion act — and everyone will benefit from it, says Deekinger. "We're aiming for an over-all media perspective, and we want all of our people thinking through a client objective or a media problem. They cant do this if they're print-only or air-only buyers, because then they lose perspective and fight each other. Main agency media departments, he contends, are primarily media relations departments. "But we like to stress two other facets, too, as important as media relations is. We are strong on planning and analysis. We want good heads, not just those good at meeting people. They must put meaning and feeling into the raw numbers, and that's what our people are doing." Therein lies his second basic objective in the development of the allmedia buyer: the broadening of that Inner after he or she has been converted from a one-medium to an allmedia specialist. Growth on both these scores is perhaps a bit easier for Grey than for many other agencies, because Grey's media department — and its billings — have soared astronomically in the past three to four years. Four years ago, the bulk of the clients' budgets was in print. And as recently as February l(),*)o. the agency had only one radio and television Inner, Helen Wilbur. Miss Wilbur, now a media group supervisor and broadcast media coordinator, then had a timebuving department which included an estimator and a secretary. Today, agency billings total some $40 million on 70 different accounts, some small and some large. But broadcast billings have zoomed in proportion to the agency's growth, accounting for about one-third of this sum. Broadcast billings are still on the rise, says Deekinger, and this, too, points up the need for quick conversion of the former all-print buyers to .ill-media buyers. But b'>w do yu do this quickh ? STUNS!!!! 15 DEI EMBER L956