Prizes of $15, $10 and $5, respectively, were offered for essays on the picture written by schoolchildren under sixteen. There was also a similar competition for adults. All this was announced in their daily, and schoolteachers in and around London were circularized, advising them when and where the picture would be shown in their vicinity. They were asked to kindly bring it before the notice of their pupils, which they did.
Motion-picture exhibitors availed themselves of the opportunity to run the film for three days and Saturday matinee free, owing to the advance advertising accorded the picture and its attractive qualities. At the Saturday matinees the children attended in full force.
I understand, on very good authority, that the fifteen hundred feet (one and a half reels) cost $750 to produce, while the six positive copies used for circulation purposes were furnished for the inclusive sum of $600. The campaign was such an advertisement and circulation stimulant that its evening companion, the News, followed it up by inaugurating a series of weekly children’s matinees, admission being in return for a coupon cut from the paper. Theaters were bought out for each separate occasion, the amount varying according to capacity and location. The program comprised six reels of educational and comedy films, a house in a different locality being bought out each week, and a new variety of pictures shown. The publication in question did not employ a film of its own, but relied upon the advertising received in connection with the shows as being sufficient.
With a little adjustment, to suit the particular line of business, there is nothing to prevent the London Evening News’ plan from proving equally as effective on this side of the Atlantic.
XI.
SALESMANSHIP DEMONSTRATIONS BY THE FILM
Motion-picture publicity is so pliable that arranging with movie theaters to put on a film of your product in the making and equipping salesmen with a reel and apparatus to demonstrate before prospective customers does not exhaust its uses.
I have unearthed a New York manufacturing concern in a large way of business who have fathomed the all-important matter of deriving the fullest value from their movie-advertising investment. They utilize their film to teach salesmanship to the employees. A large room has been rigged up as a miniature picture theater, and every week half-hourly pictorial demonstrations are given to the staff. The film depicts most thoroughly the manufacture of goods sold by the firm.
It requires no great stretch of the imagination to realize that to attempt this knowledge in the ordinary way is oftentimes a too lengthy and intricate task, but the motion picture is so competent in simplifying the essential details that, after seeing the movie several times, even the veriest novice can talk intelligently to the likely buyer on every little point in connection with the making of the goods. Such clinching arguments make it easier to effect sales, and should the prospect imagine that the salesman is attempting to convince him with a lot of hot-air talk, there remains the actual film to back up his arguments.
An engineering firm I have come across in my travels make use of their private theater to take their out-of-town customers through the manufacturing processes of their wares. They being middlemen, the information thus obtained is passed on to the dubious consumer, with invariably satisfactory results.
Practically every manufacturing firm that has adopted—or intends so doing—the film as a branch of their advertising campaign may profit by applying the plans herewith outlined to their own special circumstances.