but I have simply grown tired of poring over advertising literature.”
“Yes,” assented his companion, “it leaves so much to the imagination.”
Here, then, is the crux of the situation--printed matter of all
descriptions appeals to the brain, whereas the nature of your business
demands that the mental strain be non-existent. Folks are more than
likely to throw your expensive literature away unused when you expect
them to use their brains to imagine things. With motion pictures you
don’t have to--everything is taken in by the eyes.
You have got to show them. And how? Well, do not motion pictures fill
the breach admirably? Be honest with yourself. Is there any other
medium in existence by which you can bring the actual things before
the gaze of a skeptical public? I will admit, though, that there are
still photographs and lantern slides, but these only permit snaps here
and there. On the film, however, you can cover the whole place at one
sweep, so to speak. This is no idle boast. It has been accomplished.
Let us, to begin with, take the prospect of boosting your line for
vacations. The Northern Pacific Railway Company did theirs by having a
film made depicting the beauties of their line and Yellowstone Park,
recommending the latter as the ultimate destination of the tourist.
The results, I am glad to say, were highly satisfactory.
Although it is unusual, much more has been done in this particular
direction in Britain than at home.
The Great Western Railway Company established its individuality by
proving that it is “The Holiday Line,” for their picture showing the
beauties of the west of England, Wales and Ireland leaves a hankering
to travel by the route covered by them, if only to pass by the most
charming portions of the British Isles. The film was hired out free to
numerous movie theaters throughout Britain, and the atmosphere of the
picture was further enhanced by the orchestra playing old English airs.
The Great Northern Railway Company conceived a different idea in
circularizing their three-reel travel film of the Scottish Highlands.
A descriptive lecture was prepared in connection with this, and any
lecturer, educational institution or theater requiring the use of both
could hire them free.
The best way to lessen the expense and at the same time work to the
mutual advantage is by arranging with chambers of commerce, etc.,
who wish their pleasure resorts to develop. Considerable success has
attended the efforts along these lines in England.
Southport, a northern seaside resort, is a case in point. Previous
to putting out a motion picture showing its advantages as a winter
resort, there were very few visitors in the dull winter months. The
nine copies of this film, however, were loaned to the various railway
companies running excursions to Southport, who in turn arranged for
the showing of the film in connection with their advertising campaign
at the picture theaters in their territory. The outcome was that the
enterprising town reaped a harvest of winter holiday-makers, who were
transported by the railroads.
The motion picture is also invaluable in developing towns and various
little-exploited territories, with, of course, special emphasis on the
fact that yours is the best line to travel by. The Southern Railroad
Company had a film produced along their line in South Carolina in order
to bring out the possibilities of farm, city and industrial life in
that State. The film was exhibited in the North and Middle West.
Nor is this an isolated case, for the Great Northern Railway and
Oregon Trunk Company joined forces in order to record the development
of central Oregon on a motion picture. The most convincing portions
of same were those of the great Blitzen Canal which will open up one
hundred thousand acres of land, homesteaders arriving, a big cattle
round-up, and vast picturesque stretches of land which are ripe for
settlement.
You can also call attention to the precautions taken to ensure safety
traveling. The Rock Island Railroad film dealt with some of the
every-day dangerous experiences of their employees, besides pointing
out the right and the wrong way of doing each thing. These pictures
served a twofold purpose. In the first place, regular demonstrations
were given to the other trainmen, so that they can guard against
the dangers that attend their work. This, in turn, rebounds on the
passengers, who are ensured being reasonably safe from any accidents
occurring. The public were also invited to view the film, which could
not fail to leave a favorable impression. Societies, schools and
theaters were also at liberty to show it.
XVII.
GETTING OVER THE PURENESS OF YOUR FOOD PRODUCTS BY A FILM
The motion picture stands in need of a nickname. The one most
appropriate would be, “Conveyor of things as they are.” Not only are
audiences regaled on a feast of comedy and drama, but the aid of the
screen is often sought to educate them in reforms of various kinds.
And this is where the food manufacturer can hitch the movies to his
next campaign. Let me tell you this much--the screen is no ordinary
publicity medium. It possesses a pleasing individuality of its own.
This is the art of vision. You don’t let your pen loose and turn
out printed matter that but half satisfies. In these days of food
adulterating, the alert housewife wants to be shown, so the case of
the man from Missouri is not an isolated one. The film accomplishes
more than printers’ ink, and allows you to take people through your
plant, which it is often not convenient to do in person.
Before we proceed further, I want to call your attention to a two-reel
drama which was recently put on public exhibition. It is a lecture in
celluloid, and was produced by the Kalen Company, in collaboration with
Professor Lewis B. Allyn, who has achieved fame in connection with the
Pure Food movement. He also acts in this gripping screen drama. The
_Ladies’ World_ ran the fiction version.
The story opens with Jack, the son of a canned-food manufacturer,
entering his father’s business. Jack is thoroughly disgusted with the
plant, for dirt is allowed to accumulate and the employees are sweated.
Some are so ill that their infections are liable to be transferred to
the consumer. One of the employees dies of ptomaines as the result of
consuming the canned goods, and Jack is urged to reform the existing
state of affairs. To this end he receives instructions from Professor
Allyn, but Jack’s father will not listen to effecting a reform, for
wealth comes first. The manufacturer then tries to bribe the Professor
to place his goods upon the Westfield Pure Food List, but the Professor
will only agree when he makes the needed alterations.
It happens that Jack is in love with the daughter of another food
manufacturer, and Jack’s father visits the plant. The cleanliness and
the quality of the raw materials impress him greatly.
His little daughter steals a jar of his fruit jelly from the closet and
is taken seriously ill. Then he learns that his factory is on fire, and
we leave him vowing to build a factory which shall be sanitary, the
material of the best, while the health of the employees will be cared
for.
At the lowest estimate, this was seen by five million out of the
total twenty million movie fans in this country, besides being read
by two million or more _Ladies’ World_ readers. The film is sure to
make the public more discriminating than ever. Here, then, is the
ripe opportunity to gain their patronage by following it up with an
effective advertising film.
This is not mere theory, for the Postum Cereal Company recently had a
motion picture taken at their Battle Creek factory depicting the making
of Post Toasties, Grape Nuts and Instant Postum. The healthy conditions
under which they are made were well brought out. Human interest--which
fans are so partial to--was added by introducing several bunches of
happy children enjoying the products heartily. An exhibitor was
selected in each town to show the film for a small consideration, the
campaign proving very successful.
Cadbury Brothers, an English firm renowned for their cocoa and
chocolate, got out a very interesting film to boost their cocoa. It
showed their cocoa plantation in Trinidad, the natives gathering the
pods, and various other stages until the cocoa reached the consumer.
Their other film went further, with special emphasis on Bourneville,
their garden city. The most valuable points presented were these: The
picturesque surroundings of Bourneville works, storing raw cocoa, daily
arrival of new milk for milk chocolate, men’s recreation-ground, a
walk round the plant, showing the airy work-rooms and open windows,
the factory fire brigade at drill, open-air baths for boys and girls
where they swim during working-hours, girls’ physical drill, preparing
creams ready for covering with chocolate, covering chocolate creams
and decorating chocolates. All this tended to favorably impress the
millions who witnessed the film. As it also had educational qualities,
it was offered to exhibitors free, over three hundred theaters taking
advantage of the offer. It is usual to pay exhibitors a fee for this
privilege, but when the advertising element does not unnecessarily
obtrude, it can be put out on its own merits.
The manufacturers of an English beef-tea preparation called “Oxo”
sent an operator to their ranch in the Argentine. He filmed a reel of
entertaining stuff which was put out under the title of “Life on the
Oxo Cattle Farms.” The firm was also wise in only mentioning the name
of their product once.
In this instance movie exhibitors could hire the film free, and the
advertisement in the trade papers had not been a day old before two
hundred bookings resulted. What made the offer so attractive was to
insert free advertising in the local newspapers announcing where the
film could be seen. Dealers, too, were put in a good frame of mind,
for at the bottom of the ad. appeared the names of those stocking Oxo
locally. Exhibitors were also invited to write to the local schools
and get the pupils to attend a special matinee as their guests, for an
appeal to the children is worth something.
Motion-picture audiences go to see interesting stories, and it stands
to reason, therefore, that they would better appreciate your ad. got
over in this way than by any other method.
The plot written around the Hecker Mills introduces us to the
harvesting of the grain, and in the mills the various processes come
in for due attention. Additional interest is imparted to “The Chef’s
Redemption”--for that is its alluring title--by showing how useful the
Hecker flour is in making various kinds of bread popular in foreign
countries. The ideal conditions prevailing in the plant carried
conviction.
There now exist several firms who specialize in motion-picture
publicity, so the advertiser need have no fear of inexperience holding
him back. The old adage, “Do it now,” applies in this case.
XVIII.
SELLING AUTOMOBILES AND ACCESSORIES BY MOTION PICTURES
It is not every day that a new and reliable advertising medium is
unearthed, and it was decidedly a good day’s work when the selling
powers of motion-picture publicity became known.
You appeal to the public at their leisure and there is no competition
to fear, as exhibitors will not show more than one ad. film on a
single program. You also enjoy a monopoly of the audience’s attention,
for folks can only see one thing at a time in the darkened hall. The
photoplay used to attract the poorer classes, but now the theaters have
divided up into grades, and the well-to-do and middle classes are quite
as enthusiastic patrons.
The manufacturer of automobiles and accessories can take up
motion-picture advertising with every confidence that it is going to
prove a good business producer. Naturally the latter depends on the
efficiency of the campaign, for, like in everything else, system has to
be applied.
It saves the trouble and expense of having to give numerous tests in
order to prove your claims, and as the film records them once and for
all, you are avoided any annoying hitches in demonstrations. The ideal
film for advertising is that which carries the vague definition of
industrial. The Reo Motor Car Company had such a one taken, and made
it serve three useful purposes instead of one. The picture depicted
conditions in their plant and how the autos were manufactured. In the
office building they possess a private motion-picture theater in which
the film is regularly exhibited to the employees, especially the
salesmen, to keep them efficient. The result is that they are able to
discourse with the completest knowledge of the goods they have to sell
and enable them to land a sale easier. The film also comes in handy
for sales demonstration purposes, while, with alterations, it is made
suitable for showing before the general public to rope in prospective
auto enthusiasts.
A noteworthy film gotten out by the Ford concern showed an automobile
being erected in two and a half minutes, when it was speeded off on
its own power. Henry Ford also recently devised an interesting plan
which combined news with advertising. Each week he arranges to have the
important events in Detroit filmed and offers the picture to exhibitors
throughout Michigan. In Detroit alone fifty theaters show the picture.
Henry Ford not only gets himself known as a booster of his home town,
but in addition, avails himself of the weekly opportunity to boost his
cars.
The Pierce Arrow Company had a film produced setting forth in a
convincing manner the powers and capabilities of their autos. You
can not demonstrate a motor truck on any street, and this is where the
film triumphs.
The Straker Squire Company, an English firm, not so long ago
introduced, within the compass of a single film, the making of the
various parts of a modern automobile, erecting a car in sixty seconds,
trying it out on rough roads, work tracks and on timber support. Then
came a hill-climbing test and racing cars speeding at ninety-eight
miles per hour. Lastly, the 980 employees were seen leaving the works.
The reel depicting the Diamler Motor Works at Coventry, England, was
distributed in a different manner. The film was on show at a recent
London auto exposition and caused a hit because it was an interesting
novelty. This plan could also be allied in connection with future auto
expositions held at the Grand Central Palace, New York, by enterprising
firms.
And if you want to boost your tires, here follow some successful
methods.
The De Laski and Thropp Circular Woven Tire Company put out a film
dealing with their methods of manufacturing tires. It revealed also
that it only takes five minutes to complete one. This film was used
in connection with their campaign for capturing business in foreign
countries.
In the fifty motoring centers in Britain, the Goodrich Company has been
conducting film lectures extending over a year. The film was entitled
“From Tire to Tire,” and in an entertaining way motorists were educated
from the time the rubber was gathered from the tree until the tire
was on the auto. In the course of the lectures, which were attended by
large audiences, much practical information was imparted on the use and
care of tires.
A story within a story. Did you ever think it was possible? If you want
to approach an audience by means of entertainment instead of education,
then it can be done. A trained scenario writer is capable of weaving
your advertising story into a comedy or dramatic plot. It has been
accomplished, as witness the “silent representative” of a Birmingham
concern manufacturing a patent dual rim for motor cars. The plot
concerned a gang of thieves who robbed a bank messenger of $25,000.
While fleeing in an auto they are held up by the police, but escape
after a struggle. The police then chase them in an auto. The crooks,
however, come to a halt through one of their tires being punctured,
and the police meet with the same misfortune. It so happens that the
latter’s car is equipped with the Patent Quick Change Dual Rim, by
which they complete the repairs before the thieves are half through
with theirs. This allows them to capture the thieves with ease.
If you intend working the campaign in conjunction with your dealers,
it is best to get up a list of them in order of territory and arrange
for each to retain the film for a day. They then persuade, for a small
consideration, the best-class theater in the town to show the film at
the evening performances, after which it is despatched to the dealer in
the next nearest town.
XIX.
CLINCHING AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY SALES BY MOTION PICTURES
The manufacturer of heavy agricultural machinery and merchandise of
an intricate nature is placed considerably at a disadvantage, yet,
by enlisting the aid of the versatile motion picture, he can greatly
improve his selling tactics.
The idea of the salesman being burdened with such cumbersome things
is, naturally, not to be thought of, so his abilities are confined to
selling talk, aided by the literature of the publicity man. However
convincingly these may be presented, the one clinching argument is
conspicuous by its absence.
Almost every prospective customer, like the man from Missouri, wants
to be shown, and when his desire can not easily be gratified, his
business is often lost. It is usual in these cases for a firm to pay
his traveling expenses to visit the plant, but if this is done, very
frequently it is a mighty expensive way and takes the profit off the
deal. The buyer, on the other hand, may not be able to spare the time
for the trip.
But with a film, all doubt on the subject is scattered to the wind.
The salesman carries a miniature projection machine, which is quite
inexpensive, in a natty case. And when he wishes to demonstrate before
the farmer, the blinds in a room are pulled down and a socket fixed
to the electric light; if this is not available, he uses acetylene.
A table-cloth is borrowed and tacked to the wall. He then turns the
handle, and as the possibilities of the machine are unfolded on the
screen, the salesman explains thoroughly all the difficult points. All
the time the farmer is comfortably seated in a chair and is favorably
impressed.
One firm I know went one better with the producing of their film. They
arranged to have it taken on a farm where one of their machines was at
work, and filmed the laborers using the implement in actual practice.
Both the Holt Caterpillar Company and the M. Rumely Company have
successfully employed the motion picture to set forth the merits of
their farm machinery.
Another effective plan has been to arrange a special show with the
local movie exhibitor when the farmers come to town. Each farmer in
the neighborhood was sent invitations, inviting himself, wife and
children to attend an exhibition of select photoplays free. They were
entertained with several dramas and comedies, but the star turn was
the advertising film of the enterprising firm. This sank in to the
right audience in a receptive mood. The exhibition of the picture to
a number of the farmers at the same time saved much of the salesman’s
time and trouble, and clinched a whole lot more business in the bargain.
There are times when certain experiments have to be made with intricate
articles. The dynamite made by the Du Pont Company, who advocated the
use of same to farmers, is a case in point. Tests were given in stump
blasting, deep plowing, tree planting, ditching, etc., and effectively
shown to farmers at institutes, land shows, State and county fairs, and
on other suitable occasions. In all, over one hundred copies of the
same film were shown at the same time in rural communities throughout
the country. And what is more in favor of the method is that the
demonstrations were given on winter evenings, when the farmer had
his liberty and no outdoor tests could be held, owing to the average
weather conditions. Nor must it be overlooked that the extra expense
of this form of publicity was gotten back in the saving of the dynamite
which would have been necessary in each actual test. There was also no
fear of failure.
At those times when the farmers attend important functions on business
bent it is customary to erect machinery and rent a large amount of
space for same. The demonstrations are cramped and can never be so
thorough in scope as were a special cinema show to be erected and
demonstrations given at stated intervals by means of a film. This would
be a good investment, which I can vouch for by the success that has
attended the plan at various expositions held at the Grand Central
Palace, New York.
On first thoughts, the idea of erecting a private motion-picture
theater in your office building may appeal to you as an unnecessary
expense, but an agricultural machinery concern in Hull, England, has
such a place in which to show its implements to prospective purchasers.
On the whole, it is rather a bore and unpleasant having to take
the prospect through your plant, and everything is in favor of the
short-cut method. Perhaps a prospective client will request even to be
shown the machinery in actual use, and a lot of inconvenience is saved
in not having to trouble already satisfied customers. This is only of
importance when the film is produced, after which it is good for all
time.
XX.
HOW PUBLISHERS CAN CAPTURE BUSINESS FROM THE EVER-ENCROACHING FILM
PRODUCER
It has been asserted by some that the movies are a new menace to the
publisher. While not denying the truthfulness of the statement, I can
not pass by without remarking that the publisher is to blame for such a
deplorable state of affairs coming to pass.
The motion picture has created a demand for clean-cut stories, without
a particle of padding. Yet there are publishers who have continued
to turn out fiction of all kinds with frightfully slim plots. In the
motion-picture play, the story is the thing. Sometimes one of these
compressed plots that the average author would weave into a good-sized
novel can be unfolded on the screen in eighteen minutes.
The longest novel--from a plot stand-point--when converted into a
photoplay, would not, at the most, provide more than two hours’
entertainment. As a rule, they run to an hour or so, while those that
rely, to a great extent, upon description rather than plot, and are
also deficient in plot qualities, could not be put on at all.
It seems to me that the person who has reaped most of gold for this
fiction adaptation mania is the author. Now, why shouldn’t the
publisher likewise benefit? Well, he can, if he gets into action right
now.
Down to date, the greater part of the adapted fiction--short stories
and serials--has not been filmed until after publication, when, of
course, it would not increase the sales one little bit. If all are to
profit, united co-operation is necessary. When a piece of fiction--no
matter whether it be a short story, a serial or a novel--appears,
an endeavor should be made to arrange with a film concern that the
photoplay should appear simultaneously with it in fiction form.
Tagged on to the end of the film--or both beginning and end for
preference--should be a notice announcing where the printed story can
be seen. This publicity the publisher will reciprocate by informing the
readers of his publication that they can see the photoplay version at
the movie theaters, and so forth.
The millions that visit the moving-picture shows daily have come to
regard their favorite amusement as a “Guide to Literature.” They prefer
to see it on the film first, because it is the quickest and easiest way
to arrive at a decision. It is also the truest test.
Since the movie manufacturers have made good with the speeding-up
process in stories, so must the offending publishers follow suit if
they do not wish to be put out of business.
When a film form of a well-known copyright-expired work has been
exhibited, a run on the cheap editions has occurred, while in many
cases the book dealer has been totally unprepared for the demand. The
publishers should keep a weather eye on the different releases week by
week and watch out for opportunities.