Mr. NALLE. Six weeks ago they had a lot of time, but suddenly they don't. It changes almost overnight. Mr. MACDONALD. When did your program first go into effect? Mr. NALLE. Our first television commercial was May 6 and first radio was May 2. Mr. MACDONALD. A year ago? Mr. NALLE. No, sir, just 6 weeks ago. I am sorry, I said "May," but it is March. We started in March. Mr. MACDONALD. Wasn't time pretty easily available at that point? Mr. NALLE. We think that we bought at a pretty good time, but it is not available right now according to the advertising media. Mr. MACDONALD. Well, you are buying contracts and I hope you don't buy them daily? Mr. NALLE. No. Mr. MACDONALD. When did you sign the contract? Mr. REATH. We made our buys on the networks in the last 2 weeks of February. It is under contract for the full 13 weeks, that we are protected, and though the price may rise in the market, we still have it bought at the original price. Mr. MACDONALD. I don't understand your point that time is tough to get, according to the networks I happen to know that time was being sold at cutrates at that time. Mr. NALLE. You said the networks are complaining about the fact of a lot of available time; and they did then and not now. Mr. MACDONALD. We are going far afield on that. Mr. REATH. On your point about the 30 and 60 seconds, in 1969, 89 percent of all commercials on television were 30 seconds, network television, and the trend has stayed that way through 1970 so far. Mr. MACDONALD. How long are your radio spots, longer than the TV spots? Mr. NALLE. Never longer than a minute, sometimes 30 seconds and sometimes a minute. Mr. MACDONALD. You think you can do an adequate a job of selling, or on changing a career in a 30-second to a 1-minute commercial? Mr. NALLE. We don't assume these prospects are going to hear one message. We think that the combination of messages is going to give them a pretty good idea. Mr. MACDONALD. They get the same message fairly regularly, don't they? Mr. NALLE. Yes. Mr. MACDONALD. Once they have heard it, I don't think they are going to go home and just think about that particular message that they got. If you keep going back and back and over and over the same thing, it loses its value after a while. Mr. NALLE. Well, the Anacin Co. used the same commercial for years without changing it and they had a great success story. So that is a debatable point. Mr. MACDONALD. Well, you do not really change your career because you buy Anacin or aspirin, or whatever other kinds there are. You are not selling aspirin. Mr. NALLE. I don't mean to imply that. Mr. MACDONALD. But you are selling a career. What puzzles me is why the Army is willing to put up over $10 million in one 30second spot or a 1-minute spot. Mr. NALLE. One problem is it is hard to buy anything over 1 minute and we think we can tell parts of our story in each of the series of commercials. Mr. MACDONALD. Thank you very much. I have to go to the floor. Mr. Van Deerlin will take over. Thank you. I will be back. Mr. VAN DEERLIN (presiding). Mr. Nalle, did the Army ask a presentation for this campaign from a number of agencies or is your ongoing representation of the Army the reason you were selected for this campaign? Mr. NALLE. We competed for renewal of the contract and this particular campaign occurred after we had been awarded the renewal of the contract. Mr. VAN DEERLIN. How much leadtime did you have to exercise in the preparation of this campaign? Mr. NALLE. I can't tell you specifically. I could look it up. Mr. VAN DEERLIN. Roughly. I mean when did you receive notice you were going to be doing it, and start preparing the spots and getting them out? Mr. NALLE. We knew that we had some commercials available that had previously run in public service time, so we were ready to run some of the spots at the inception of the program. I think we had 30 days. Mr. REATH. About 30 days to begin to produce new material that came onstream as we built the intensity of our program during the first month. Mr. VAN DEERLIN. The motif was new, "The Army wants to join you." This is the approach? Mr. NALLE. Yes, it was. Mr. VAN DEERLIN. Can you provide the committee with a list of the stations, the broadcasters, that are sharing in this campaign? Mr. NALLE. Yes, sir. Mr. VAN DEERLIN. I would appreciate your doing that. Also I would like to know how many of the licensees rejected the business. Mr. REATH. To my knowledge, sir, there have been 22 stations which are members in some cases of a broadcasting group like Westinghouse, which has taken a position, and WGN Broadcasting in Chicago and a few independents beyond that, to my knowledge, 22. 62-C04-71- -5 |