Sponsor (Jan-Apr 1957)

TWA SWITCH continued calls and ticket sales, and there's a mathematical relationship for ever) district." He doesn't re\eal these formulae, of course, but one ratio which gives an indication of the importance ol telephone inquiries conies from a typical major sales district. For every one passenger boarded — actually getting on a TWA plane — the local ollice estimates it takes three and one-half calls. I rgenc\ and immediacy are closely related in Keavey's mind. '"We urge people, in our radio copy, to pick up the phone. We have indications that thej do just that. ' In Cleveland recently, when all the dailj newspapers were on strike, the local district manager used radio for the first time. "We don't know exactly what happened," says Keavey, "but it was the best month this district ever had. Whether it was because there were more seats available, or good weather, or radio, we don't know. But it happened!" He's still studying the Cleveland case but, in the meantime, he knows for a fact "the more intensively radio is used, the more phone calls we get." Radio copy is designed to be provocative and to capture attention, to be informative about specific flights and Three-way communication /(lunches airline's air schedules. One link is district manager. This one is M. D. \ icon, New York . . . then to "sell" listeners on calling the district office. All copy plugs exact flights and costs, with about 75% of the emphasis on tourist flights and 2595 on first class. The current copy series, rounding out its second month, "has brought us unsolicited customer comments for the first time," says the domestic advertising manager. "This is most unusual. Rarely do people ever say they saw our ad in the newspaper." What causes the comment? A new series of testimonials, given by "name" personalities (such as Guy Lombardo and Claire McCardell). This is a 40second transcribed commercial which precedes a live 20-second tag (wherein lies the sell). The announcer interviews the celebrity, they chat a bit, TWA gets a plug and then the live announcer comes in with the suggestion that the listener take a winter vacation in Phoenix. This testimonial series has been "very successful, and we hope to continue it for at least a year," says Keavey. The announcements are rotated, and new testimonials are always in production at the agency. Live copy has so many changes the headquarters office can't keep up with the final count! Frequency varies according to the sales district, in proportion to the sales contributed by that district to over-all flight sales. Thus, New York, which accounts for far more ticket sales than any other office, has a far bigger ad allocation. Frequency there is 25 a week on one station, 18 and 19 a week on two more, plus additional schedules on other outlets in the metropolitan area. The balance of spot radio activitv is weighted, however, to hike sales for a lagging district or for one of its empty flight schedules. Radio is used on the recommendation of the local district manager and on that of the headquarters sales office which brings its sales research unit into action on Second link is TWA headquarters domestic ad manager, John Keavey, who plans strategy tor 49 sales distrh is . . . Third link is the ad agency, FC&B, and TWA workers like Dick Romanelli, prod. sup. the decision, too. Its long-range forecasts of air traveling or its short range analysis of TWA's activity and competitive stand are typical of factors taken into account when media are being selected. The district sales level is stressed throughout all operating departments because of the unusually local character of the business. TWA's competition is both national and regional, with many smaller, regional airlines competing for both intra and inter-state travel. These are some of the big reasons TWA looks for "continuous identification and impression," and it runs 52weeks radio schedules, says Keavev. "Historically, airlines have cut down on advertising during such peak sales periods as holidays, when we all have more business than we can handle. But now we want continuity, and we like a highly mass medium which offers a low cost-per-1.000. "This combination is particularlv important in light of the most significant innovation in airline travel in the past six years: the development of tourist fares." TWA likes local personalities to sell these tourist fares, and the concept of TWA quality and service. "We often become identified with stimulating local personalities who, in effect, sponsor us. Radio is still new and exciting to us and Ave also like its merchandising pluses very much even though we do little of this at the local levels ourselves." TWA's domestic advertising strategy is planned by Keavey in cooperation with Ford Sibley, the Foote, Cone & Belding account executive, and Henry Reigner, TWA's over-all director of advertising. Keavey, as domestic specialist, has sat on both sides of the client desk. He worked at Fuller, Smith & Ross and at the G. M. Basford agencies as an account executive on such accounts as Westinghouse and the RFC, before which he worked in promotion and advertising at Liberty Magazine. Today he"s fast becoming a radio specialist. He thinks the people who most underrate the medium "are the radio salesmen themselves. Thev don't know what they've got and thev're cj nieal about others who still have faith in it! As for us, we not only like radio we like what the other airlines are doinii in it!" ^