Richmond Palladium (Daily), Volume 44, Number 262, 16 August 1919 — Page 10

' ?AGE TWELVE

THE RICHMOND PALLADIUM AND SUN-TELEGRAM, SATURDAY, AUG. 16, 1919.

National Newspaper Ad vertisin How, When and Where to Use It

BY WILLIAM H. RANKIN President, Wm. H. Rankin Company, New York, Washington, Chicago

Competiton to secure national markets has become so keen that individual business firms are eagerly searching for new methods by which to dominate the attention of the public and to dominate it first; searching for methods that will give more intensive sales results than can be obtained by any usual form of advertising. This method has been found it is National Newspaper Advertising. As is invariably the case, the new method was found not only to be an acceptable substitute for the old, but to have certain superiorities over the old method of magazine plus newspapers. The ability of National newspaper advertising to create large volume national sales has already been demonstrated. Many million dollars have already been spent for the United States Government in this way, helping to bring to the Government billions of dollars return. Millions more have been spent in this sort of advertising by commercial firms; and the results they have obtained have been highly remunerative. The thing has been tried out thoroughly. It works every time! One might think at first that to advertise in every newspaper in every city in the United States would cost so much that no advertiser could afford to pay the price. But the expenditure of "so much" money is not necessary. When a concern goes into national advertising it does not advertise in every magazine of national circulation. The advertiser selects a few magazines only; and these he finds sufficient for his needs. By using the same judgment and discrimination displayed toward the magazine field in selecting the newspapers to be used the advertising counselor can prove to the advertiser that newspapers so selected are certainly fully as economical as any, and absolutely the most highly intensive method of reaching the consumer nationally. Suppose we take one newspaper in each of the first one hundred cities of the United States. Of course, unless important reasons interfered, one would naturally select the largest newspaper which has the largest circulation in each of these cities according to the Audit Bureau of Circulation's report the largest, whether morning, evening or Sunday.

Ifs Comprehensiveness How well does the circulation of these 1 00 selected newspapers blanket the United States? The 100 newspapers selected stretch from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the Canadian line to the Gulf of Mexico. Each zone of circulation virtually touches another. Here is the one kind of national newspaper advertising that can be done most effectively and economically. This is the campaign that begins in one center and expands, as events warrant it, until it interlocks with campaigns radiating from other centers. For example: A campaign started in the newspapers of Boston, New Haven, Hartford and Providence expands through the circulation of these newspapers until it meets that of the New York city newspapers on its national way westward. The circulation limits of New York newspapers dovetail in with those of the newspapers of Newark, Philadelphia and Washington; with those of Buffalo, Cleveland, and Pittsburgh; and these, in turn, interlock with the zones of influence created by the newspapers of Cincinnati, Louisville, Nashville, Atlanta, Birmingham and New Orleans. The national newspaper campaign that is started from Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle radiates eastward through the circulation zones of these cities to meet and dovetail in with the circulation zones of Spokane, Helena, Denver, Dallas, Oklahoma City, Houston and Fort Worth and on eastward through Minneapolis, St. Paul and Kansas City, to pass through St. Louis and cross the Mississippi from Canada to the Gulf. From St. Louis the widening radi; ation of force meets and interlocks with that spreading from Omaha and Des Moines, and fuses with the great zone dominated from Chicago. Then, passing eastward through Indianapolis, Detroit and Columbus, it completes the fusion of 200 afternoon and morning newspapers into one national medium, a single mighty medium, with a total national circulation of more than 12,000,000 copies; the great single unit of power in the realm of advertising! By this amalgamation ,a new giant is suddenly born, full-grown. Its name shall be "The National Newspaper Unit.". It stands ready to serve national advertisers as they have never before been served. Thirty percent, of the entire population of the United States is in these 100 cities, or rather centers of influence 30,000.000 people, with a newspaper entering every home. And forty percent, of the combined cirulation of these 100 selected newspapers is among the farmers on the rural mail delivery routes and in the suburbs of the cities in which these newspapers are published.

Morning Newspapers It is generally conceded that the morning newspaper, in most cities, is the one that is given the most careful reading by business men. For this reason, advertisements directed to men are, in most cases, preferably published in morning newspapers. A national campaign in 100 selected morning newspapers having 5,928,687 circulation, would cost as follows: 5,000 lines, one time, in 100 newspapers $44,699 500 lines, ten times, (once a week, for ten weeks) . . $44,699 50 lines, double column, 100 insertions $44,699 (Daily for three months, or weekly for a year and 1 1 months). Full page, one time, in 100 newspapers $21,456

Afternoon Newspapers Champions of the evening newspapers point out that the evening newspaper reaches the home and stays there. Not the father alone they show us, reads the evening paper, but also the mother, sister and brother all read the home de-livered afternoon paper. A national campaign in 100 evening newspapers having 6,315,557 circulation, would cost as follows: Full page, one time, in 100 newspapers $22,632 5,000 lines in the same newspapers ...... $47,186 10,000 lines in the same newspapers $93,209 20,000 lines in the same newspapers $196,269 50,000 lines in the same newspapers ...... $479,172 The circulation of this list of afternoon papers is 6,315,557. daily; and when you stop to consider that by using a 50,000-line schedule in these cities you would use ten full-page advertisements, forty quarter-page advertisement, and still have left 10,000 lines which would permit of a double column, 50 lines, advertisement twice a week throughout the entire year, you can readily see the extraordinary possibilities of such a campaign.

Sunday Newspapers There are a great many advertisers who perfer the Sunday newspapers for their advertising; and those who have that preference can buy a full page in the first 1 00 newspapers in the country, for a national campaign, for $26,568; 5.000 lines. $55,000. 10.000 lines. $108.000; 20.000 lines, $250,065; 50.000 lines, $533,701. The total number of subscribers reached is 7,339,463. Surely, if you will compare this circulation with that of any other national medium, you cannot help but be favorably impressed.

The Timeliness Feature

Most advertisers in national magazines are able to forecast weeks and months in advance just what seasonable arguments they wish to make in favor of their products on the publication date of any magazine and are therefore able to prepare effective "copy" in time to meettbe mechanical requirements of the magazines whose "closing dates" are usually weeks in advance of the date of publication. By using newspapers, "copy" exactly pertinent not only to the hour but to local conditions can be prepared; and sharp blows can be struck with an immensely telling effect in the business world as in military campaigns. In the case of many articles, this element of timeliness is an absolutely essential feature, adequately met by the newspapers alone.

Prevention of NonDistribution Waste

While the newspaper campaigns outlined in the foreground are designed to cover the country from coast to coast, many merchandisers will prefer to select newspapers in such a manner as to cover certain districts more thoroughly, in which their distributing facilities are well provided for; and to omit the use of newspapers in other districts, in which their sales distribution has been built up to a lesser degree. Such selection of territory for intensive cultivation cannot be made by the advertiser who uses national magazines exclusively. The magazines themselves provide figures showing the distribution of their circulation. The advertiser perceives that, in order to reach certain sections in which he is prepared to make sales of his product, he must pay for circulation in districts which are of no immediate value to him. National advertising through newspapers carries with it no such wasted expense. The advertiser need select no newspaper whose circulation does not go hand in hand with his own sales facilities. A quarter-page advertisement always attracts attention. A full page advertisement in a newspaper compels attention. It can't be "buried." All advertisers are striving today to dominate in particular mediums, but there is no way that can dominate nationally in national advertising, so well as to dominate in national newspapers as well as in local newspapers. The recent work done by advertising men, first for the Red Cross, then for Smileage, and for the Liberty Loan, and for the "18 to 45" Draft, has taught business men that the new, big thing in advertising that is, the "dominant plan" to reach masses of people is a fullpage advertisement in the daily newspapers.

Big business men have observed, through newspaper advertising, the cost of selling a $ 1 membership in the Red Cross reduced from the average of sixteen cents, without advertising, to less than seven cents per dollar member by advertising. That was done with full-page newspaper advertising, used in a dominant way that is, seven full pages in each of the seven daily papers in the City of Chicago. The original plan was to secure 150,000 members for the Red Cross of Chicago, but, because of this dominant newspaper advertising, paid for by patriotic Chicago business men, at the end of six weeks we had secured 41 6,000 members an object lesson in the economic value of newspaper space when properly used! It is estimated that more than $130,000,000 will be spent in national newspaper advertising during the year 1919. A very much larger sum than that will be spent in newspapers by local merchants. When all national advertisers wake up to the value of national advertising campaigns in newspapers the $130,000,000 will jump to $300,000,000 almost over night. This new method. National Newspaper Advertising, that made the United States war-activities promotion so successful, is now being put into use for commercial purposes. In the"City of Chicago there is running now a "Build Now" campaign a campaign of full-page advertising in every daily newspaper in the city of Chicago, backed up by consistent smaller advertising copy. In less than thirty days after the campaign commenced an item appeared in thetaewspapers showing that during the month of April there had been more building permits issued than in any month during the past five years. "Copy" for this campaign is now being sent out nationally, and chambers of commerce and building associations are being asked to father and pay for the campaign in their individual cities. So, in answer to the question "How, when and where to advertise in newspapers nationally)" we recommend: First, that a campaign be placed in the first hundren cities of the United States, where a total circulation of approximately 6,000,000 is to be had in the morning newspapers, 6,500,000 in the afternoon newspapers, and 7,400,000 in Sunday newspapers. Then select a local territory where your goods are on sale and where you are sure you will get the maximum results per dollar spent that is to say, where your salesmen have already sold the dealers and your goods are on sale and work that intensively, with special advertising in the newspapers of that locality, the dailies and the weeklies. During a recent investigation, we found that local dealers in the smaller towns have the following preference for advertising media: They believe, first, in advertising in their local newspapers; secorid. they believe in large city newspapers to back up a campaign in the local towns; third, national magazine advertising. There is no power that will do more to take your goods off the shelves than advertising in the local newspaper in their towns especially if such local advertising is backed up byNational Newspaper Advertising. There is no better way to get your goods on the dealers shelves than through such advertising, and you will find the publishers of those newspapers wield a decided influence and that the dealers in those towns listen to the local publisher and do everything in their power to place on sale goods advertised in the local newspapers. To get from national newspaper advertising the best results the advertiser should conduct a campaign of this sort for at least a full year, and, preferably, for three years. It would practically eliminate all chance of unsatisfactory results from a newspaper campaign if the campaign were carried through for twelve months. Insertions at least twice a week, with a judicious combination of large and small size copy, should be used. Other factors being what they should be, such a campaign guarantees success.

Now Is the Time to Advertise in Newspapers Today is the day on which you, and every other American business man who is anxious to develop the fullest market for his products should act. Consult today with your advertising agent as to the ability of national newspaper advertising to serve you. Or, if you have no agency connection, write to the Newspaper Division, American Asociation of Advertising Agencies, Metropolitan Tower. New York, for counsel. The Association has a membership of 1 1 7 Advertising Agencies, with headquarters from coast to coast. For you, national newspaper advertising will enable you to broaden your audience to a tremendous degree, without additional cost; it will enable you to reach that augmented audience swiftly; it will cement your advertising effort with your sales facilities, eliminating wasted effort in advertising; it will enable you to dominate. The day of national advertising through national newspapers is here!

This newspaper is represented by the American Association of Advertising Agencies, (117, in nearly every city from New York to San Francisco and from Minneapolis to New Orleans), Metropolitan Tower, New York, and is a member of the American Newspaper Publishers' Association, World Building, New York. The Advertising Department of The Palladium will be glad to co-operate direct with any national advertiser or through either of the above organisations.