U. S. Radio (Jan-Dec 1959)

^ HOMETOWN U.S. A. commercial clinic Music and Humor Underscore Commercials Listeners Remember Like bacon and eggs, music and humor appear to be a pleasing pair to the American public, at least as its two favorite ingredients in radio commercials. In radio, however, the two do not necessarily go together. Of the top 10 spot radio commercials— in a recent survey sponsored by John Rlair & Co. — nine of the 10 contained music and five of the 10 featured humor. This compares favorably with the previous Blair survey released late last spring. At that time, seven of the 10 included music and six of the 10 used humorous approaches (see What Makes a Commercial Effective? August 1959) . Honor Roll The latest study, which is the firm's fifth report on commercials, produced the following winners. Listed in order with their agencies, they are: • Clark's Super 100 Gas (TathamLaird Inc., Chicago) • Coca-Cola (McCann-Erickson Inc., New York) • Ford Motor Cars (J. Walter Thompson Co., New York) • Ballantine Beer (William Esty Co., New York) • Hoffman Soda (Grey Advertising Inc., New York) • Pepsi-Cola (Kenyon & Eckhardt Inc., New York) • Eastside Lager (Young & Rubicam Inc., Los Angeles) • Piel's Beer (Young & Rubicam Inc., New York) • L&M Cigarettes (Dancer-Fitzgerald-Sample Inc., New York) • Hamm's Beer (CampbellMithun Inc., Minneapolis) Comparing the results with the previous Blair poll, there are three repeat winners in the top 10 — Piel's, L&M and Clark's. Four advertising agencies step into the winner's circle for the second consecutive time — McCann-Erickson, Ta tham -Laird, Dancer-Fitzgerald-Sample and Young 8: Rubicam. Because the interviews for the most recent survey were held in August, hot advertising months for liquid refreshers, seven of the 10 winners were beverages. Young & Rubicam appears to have the sterling touch with golden brew. 1 he agency's Los Angeles and New York offices were cited for their commercial efforts on behalf of the West Coast's Eastside lager and the East's Piel's beer . This fifth survey represents a significant departure in technique. In prior Blair polls, the Pulse Co. distributed about 3,000 interviews primarily among agencies, advertisers and listeners .This time, Pulse surveyed only the listening public, conducting 1,500 interviews in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Phila Jerry Birn (right), head of the creative group developing the winning Clark Oil commercials at Tatham-Laird Inc., Chicago, receives transistor radio from Tom Harrison, vice president and manager of John Blarr & Co., Chicago. Tom Cinquina (center), Blair account executive, beams approval. A special plaque also was awarded to the winning first-place spot. dclphia and Detroit. The number of families surveyed was in proportion to the population of each city. For the poll. Pulse did not use its usual aided-recall technique. Instead, interviewers asked this question: "Which radio commercials do you remember hearing in the past week?" Art McCoy, executive vice president of John Blair & Co., states that the markets selected are not only the five largest markets, but also the key markets for most national advertisers. "They are the great marketing battlegrounds, where consumers are exposed every day to the heaviest advertising barrage. So any radio commercial winning attention and top recognition in these cities has to be outstanding," declares Mr. McCoy. Winning Ways Here is a capsule rundown of the techniques used in these award-winning spot radio commercials. The first-place winner, Clark's, is the only one that used dialogue completely, except for musical punctuation at the close. Its spot series involves humorous repartee. Coca-Cola used music and humor as did Ford cars. Ballantine's winning commercial used music. Hoffman employed music and humor. Pepsi-Cola featured music and dialogue. Eastside Lager used musiconly, Avhile Piel's presented music and humor. L&M employed music and dialogue, as did Hamm's. The Blair organization points out that Clark Oil & Refining Corp., the top commercial choice among listeners, used only spot radio in its advertising. • • • 48 U. S. RADIO • November 1959