Sponsor (Sept-Dec 1958)

Smart advertisers take the KOA-Radio route to the Rocky Mountain West. No other medium in this rich Western market can compare with KOA for: COVERAGE: KOA travels into 302 counties of 12 states ... covering over 1,100,000 square miles and populated by approximately AVi million people. POWER: KOA's pov/erful 50,000 watt voice is heard throughout the West . . . reaching listeners on bofb sides of the Continental Divide. ACCEPTABILITY: KOA program ming is carefully planned for listener enjoyment. Since 1924, KOARadio has been a respected friend to Westerners. They have learned to depend on popular KOA and NBC personalities and programs for informative and entertaining mg. SALES: The KOA-Rodio route is the West's best way to sell your product to over 4 million potential customers. Remember, it's results that count! GET ON STAY ON*KOA-RADIO! It's the only station you need to route your product directly to the entire Western market. nohono/// by Henry I. Christal Co., Inc. I Commercial commentary continued . in 34-year old bodies than almost anywhere else in the world. And creativity, in the big shops where these old young men work, suffers fearfully as a consequence. A second, somewhat more flattering reason for the low grade of creative work on many large national accounts, is that such advertisers try, with typical business efficiency, to sort out and accentuate the Ponderables — those elements of advertising which can be measured with some degree of exactness. There's nothing wrong with this. It's just good business to try to develop sound marketing plans and strategies, and to base them on facts, research, careful budgeting, and precise media buying. For the truth is (and until you learn this about advertising you haven't graduated from kindergarten) a sound, carefully planned campaign, even though dull, can usually lick the pants off brilliantly imaginative advertising that is rooted in quicksand. P&G, to my own personal knowledge, has frequently beaten the brains out of its competition with some very mediocre copy. But this in itself does not constitute an argument against adverti.sing creativeness. A truly great campaign is always a combination of brilliant planning and brilliant creative work. That's the most efficient way to advertise. And it's also the most fun. Needed: A Creative Revolution In recent years we've heard a lot of whooping and hollering about the importance of marketing in the ad agency business. We've seen both media and research emerge as powerful, policymaking factors in agency operations. But while this has been happening, the creative departments of many large agencies have been sitting on their hands in bewildered frustration at their sudden change of status. If I had to predict the next big development in the agency business, I'd bet on a "creative revolution" in the next 10 or 15 years. It will happen because it has to. The day of the old fashioned "copy genius" has passed and I, for one, say good riddance. He was, in many cases, a stuffy poseur with a vastly over-rated reputation built on a handful of flossily written print ads. He was pompous and prejudiced, and difficult to work with and terribly limited in scope. But so far, the silhouette, or profile, of the new type of agency creative man, has not yet emerged very clearly. Obviously they are going to have to be built around the dominance of tv, and the importance of tv techniques. Obviously, too, they're going to have to be integrated far more closely with media, marketing and research, than they have ever been before. But in addition, they're going to have to develop brand new techniques for training people in "disciplined creativity" — the ability to come up with imaginative new ideas that are precisely on target. And the ability to execute these ideas with all the resources and technical skill of a thoroughly schooled and disciplined craftsman. When such a "creative revolution" takes place (and I'll give you five to one that it happens) then you're bound to see better advertising by the biggest advertisers than you're seeing now. Meanwhile, though, I wouldn't worry about it too much if I were a medium-sized agency or advertiser. You still have an enormous chance, while the big boys are floundering around. If you can strengthen your marketing and maintain your creative superiority, you can take sales and business from them — any day! ^ f • 13 SEPTEMBKR 1958