Sponsor (Sept-Dec 1958)

Record Details:

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LOOK WHO BUYS THE SPAGHETTI ^ La Rosa uses Tom Sawyer technicjue: gets kids to do job for them in crash program to broaden consumer base ^ Contest featuring non-kid items on children's tv shows pulls 75,000 entries over six weeks in 10 states BSroadening a product's consumer bas« usually means a long process of consumer education. But here's how one advertiser — V. La Rosa & Sons — is doing it on a crash basis by getting kids to work on adults for him. This sponsor practically lifted a chapter out of "Tom Sawyer" in its current strategy for getting its Italian food products into wider circulation in its 10-state marketing area in the Northeastern U. S. There's room on kids' tv shows to plug basically non-kid items such as spaghetti, reasoned marketing and advertising v.p. Vincent S. La Rosa. (Moreover, product protection is no headache if the product is non-kid.) All that remains is making the job of selling the parents attractive to the juveniles. So La Rosa turned to this Tom Sawyer strategy: • Create a sense of urgency. • Associate it all with play. A contest centering on La Rosa's trade-mark — a rose — was devised to link the brand name to something visual. Contest theme: Name the La Rosa rose. Entry fee: the cardboard rose from a box of any La Rosa product. But this was an item that parents, in the last analysis, would be most involved in using. Hence, to involve parents in the contest, too, a 1959 Ford became grand prize. (A year's supply of spaghetti and macaroni was offered as an added bonus.) Second prize: a miniature batteryoperated Thunderbird. Third prize: a Remco "treasure chest" of electronic toys. Then to provide winners for each area, every station personality involved would award 51 prizes: a "treasure chest" plus 50 "rocket guns." To highlight the three prizes, a 60second film was made for use on tv shoT/s. In it, the parents get into a 1959 Ford, a boy gets into a miniature Thunderbird. After maneuvering around, they drive up to the "treasure chest." One problem that added spice to the film: the 1959 Ford had not yet been introduced when the contest kicked off (19 October), so the car was hooded with only slits so the driver could see out. After the car had been introduced, the film was still used with a slide showing the car's actual appearance. The contest began on kid tv shows in eight markets with trade promotion pieces as well as grocery trade magazine advertising alerting the retailer. Involving parents iupermarkets tested strategy