Part 7

Where is your store located? True enough, you will not neglect to include the address on the stock slide, but first impressions are lasting. It is my intention to advocate the adoption of what I may term the photo-slide, for want of a better name.

On your visits to the local motion-picture theater you will have noticed that the exhibitor is prone to using announcement slides of forthcoming photoplays. On this kind of slide an important scene is reproduced from the picture and tinted in natural colors, while the blank space is used to good advantage with brief description of the film.

These are stock slides, of course, but if you wish to plan an advertising campaign along similar lines, it is up to you to have some photo-slides specially designed to conform with your individual requirements.

The best way by which to present the personal appeal is by having a photograph taken of the exterior of your store. You can then forward same to a reputable slide manufacturer, who will make a slide out of it in natural colors and add the desired description.

The slide should have two marked effects upon spectators. Firstly, visualize for them exactly where your establishment is situated, so that they may be able to recognize it on sight, and, secondly, it will leave a favorable impression.

XXXIII.

ARE YOUR SLIDES TRUTHFUL?

A new thing is liable to be contaminated with the faults of its elders, but this can not be said of motion-picture slide advertising, which has been kept remarkably clean and truthful.

It is to the credit of the slide manufacturers that they have never accepted any dirt-money. In other words, they have refused to make slides for loan sharks, whisky manufacturers, undertakers and such like undesirable advertisers.

Even had this type of advertiser got his slides made by hook or crook, he would yet have to pass another barrier, who had no desire to present obnoxious announcements before his patrons.

Another thing, slide advertising has steered clear of exaggeration. I am not absolutely sure whether it is due to the indirect appeal or not, but I do know that the announcements, for the greater part, have maintained a high standard of truthfulness.

Here, again, the influence may be directly traced to the slide manufacturer, who, when preparing a stock slide for a jeweler, for instance, has to make it apply equally well to jewelers throughout the country.

Occasionally, however, he slips a cog, but this is not altogether his fault; the dealer himself is partly to blame for purchasing a slide which misrepresents his business. It may, on the other hand, just fit in with the individual needs of his competitor a few blocks up the street.

Photoplay audiences should not be disillusioned; the screen must be kept free from abuses, for once spectators discover that advertisers are in the habit of misrepresenting the facts, they will evince less interest in slide announcements.

Therefore, when purchasing a stock slide, let the deciding factor be: “Does it apply truthfully to my own store?” If the answer is in the affirmative, your slide will not strike a false note.

XXXIV.

OBTAINING THE BEST RESULTS FROM SLIDE ADVERTISING

Not even the most successful business man makes good in every enterprise he undertakes. That is an impossibility, especially in these competitive times, but, if certain rules are observed, success can be achieved in the majority of cases.

The photoplay theater is a comparatively new advertising medium. You may have tried it out and failed, while your competitor, for some reason you are unable to fathom, has won out. The mistake too often made is to treat the motion-picture show as a new thing--a kind of scientific toy--but as a popular form of amusement it has long discarded its long pants. The photoplay, as a matter of fact, has settled down to enjoy a long and flourishing career, with strict adherence to business principles.

You do not find the modern exhibitor housed in a converted store, where he presents the crudest of films under the most vile conditions. He would soon find himself a bankrupt if he continued these pioneer-day methods.

Maybe you have developed a similar misunderstanding, so it is well that we have a heart-to-heart talk.

It is a serious mistake to have a slide thrown upon the screen of the least desirable theater in your neighborhood. You make matters a thousand times worse if you allow it to be shown at every performance for months, until it gets cracked, dirty and faded, all in turn.

To begin with, the folks whom you are addressing must be carefully considered. They step inside the photoplay theater to be entertained with attractive films, though this is not to say that advertising in connection with same is entirely out of place. Some theaters run a performance through without a stop, while others, mostly the nickeldromes, introduce an intermission during the change of each reel.

The former shows are continuous like the latter, so that the one intermission is not intended to clear the house to make room for another audience. In reality, it is to give the orchestra a rest and allow time for other things, not the least important of which is the projecting of a batch of slides. Some of these relate to forthcoming attractions of the theater, and the remainder comprise advertisements for live local traders.

Audiences appreciate these slides when they do not number too many, as they are the means of affording them something to turn their attention to instead of having nothing to do but idly gaze around the hall.

Motion pictures appeal to the eyes, consequently spectators pay much more attention to slides which contain clever illustrations, preferably humorous, backed up with apt sentences.

On the market are stock slides from thirty-five cents and up. Space is left for your name and address, and most of the needs of your trade are taken care of. New designs are constantly being put out, which make it possible to change slides as often as once weekly. We all grow tired of seeing the same thing over too many times, so if you fail to introduce fresh pictorial announcements you are liable to lose the respect of spectators. Once a week is an ideal interval, but in no case should it exceed a month.

There are really no standard rates for slide advertising. Each exhibitor has his own ideas in regard to the value of the location and size of his theater.

The one great pull the photoplay theater has over other publicity mediums is that you obtain one hundred per cent. of attention, for folks, in the darkened hall, must concentrate upon the screen.

XXXV.

SELECTING THE THEATER FOR YOUR AD. SLIDE

The other half of the battle of slide advertising is selecting the most suitable theater. If you are situated in a residential section, and you decide upon a downtown theater for your announcement, you are paying for scattered circulation.

The exhibitor also rates the advertising value of his house at a much higher figure, and, as you draw the bulk of your trade from the surrounding blocks, it is advisable to pick out a local photoplay theater.

Motion-picture theaters may be grouped into two divisions. One is the nickeldrome which has been converted from an empty store, and seldom accompanies more than five hundred. It usually shows the oldest films and caters for a cheap patronage. This class of show is on the decline.

Although the motion-picture theater is a democratic institution, the well-to-do working classes prefer to patronize the classy building which has been exclusively erected for motion-picture entertainments. It is not because they refuse to associate with their poor brothers and sisters; quality is the deciding factor. For five or ten cents more they see a longer and better program, amid more comfortable surroundings.

So far, so good; the rest depends on the managerial policy. The best way to discover this is to visit a desirable theater as an ordinary patron. If you note your trade is already represented on the screen, then the theater is unavailable for the time being.

This may strike you as peculiar, since no newspaper grants a monopoly in one particular trade, but it is the custom in slide advertising. The healthiness of a newspaper may be judged by the volume of advertising it carries, but, in so far as the photoplay is concerned, the fewer the slides the better. Time is precious, and, if the exhibitor is to give each advertiser the service he pays for, he can only do so when the slides do not exceed one dozen. When the number is more, the operator usually whips each off before spectators are able to read it.

After you have satisfied yourself on all these things, you can take the matter up with the exhibitor. You may frown upon a six months’ contract, but the rental, which will vary from $5 to $10 per month, according to size and location of theater, will work out more cheaply than on the weekly basis. It will also afford you protection in that your competitor can not put one over. Another thing, the public may only give your first slides the once over, but the constant seeing of your name will go right home.

The slide manufacturers find that there is so much correspondence involved in executing orders of less than one dollar that they prefer they be given to the exhibitor, who orders slides in quantities.

XXXVI.

HANDLING THE ANTI-AD. SLIDE EXHIBITOR

Have you ever had legitimate advertising turned down by a newspaper? I don’t suppose this rare experience has fallen to your lot, so it is perhaps as well if I acquaint you with the conditions that exist in the motion-picture theater advertising field.

The motion picture has not reached maturity, and consequently some branches of the industry are not so far advanced as others. In the former category comes slide advertising.

There are some exhibitors who throw up their hands at the very mention of slide advertising, yet the strange part about it is that they themselves can not get along without this excellent form of publicity. They run a bunch of slides on the screen pertaining to current attractions and house announcements. These occupy the screen for five minutes or more, and are repeated at every performance for fully one week.

It is not necessary to advertise productions so far in advance, and this would allow “foreign” advertising to have a look in, but this type of exhibitor generally refuses to listen to reason. And the worse still is the fact that he knows he has the upper hand of you.

Let me assume that you are located in a neighborhood section, which is catered for by one photoplay theater. There may be another in the next section, but, however desirable this theater, it will not produce so much business, for it is a trait of Americans not to walk further than is necessary.

If the exhibitor on your block favors slide advertising, the rest is easy, but if he is opposed to it, it is up to you to assume a resourceful attitude.

The chances are that this exhibitor issues a house organ of some sort, for which he is prepared to accept advertising from desirable local stores. Here, then, is your opportunity. If you have ever glanced over a slide catalogue, you will agree with me that slides, when reproduced in black and white, make dandy press advertisements.

Many dealers who believe in attractive slide announcements undo all their good work by following same up by stereotyped ads. in the theater house organ. It is, of course, a great advantage to have the former already prepared by expert advertising men, so the stock slide in the latter capacity would seem to leave little to be desired.

Contract for, say, three inches of space weekly, with weekly change of copy, for which purpose a suitable stock slide should be selected. Your slide manufacturer will willingly grant you permission to have cuts made of his slides and reproduce them, if you give him the credit. Your ad. will stand out prominently from the rest, and readers will admire its all-round excellence.

The question now arises as to what use you are to make of the slide. If there is another theater within easy walking distance, it would do no harm to arrange for a weekly change of slides. Between the two, you should hit the mark.

XXXVII.

HAVING YOUR MOVIE AD. SLIDES SHOWN TO THE BEST ADVANTAGE

Watching motion-picture screens is my hobby, and, incidentally, my business. Four times a week do I combine business with pleasure, and it is these on-the-spot investigations that have given me good grounds for asserting that the average exhibitor does not appreciate the fact that there is an art in showing your slides to the best possible advantage. He seems to imagine that they can be thrown in any slipshod way, so long as he can claim to have shown them according to arrangement.

He does not realize that he is under an obligation to you, represented on his theater screen by paid advertising. Were the local paper you favor to print your ad. full of typographical errors and badly blend the type faces, or place your ad. in the most inconspicuous portion of the paper, you would, naturally, be offended and be likely to transfer your advertising account to the rival publication. This is why I advise you and your friends to frequent the theater that carries your advertising and see if you are getting value for your money.

At a certain motion-picture theater in Brooklyn about thirty slides are shown at the end of every performance. You have only got to look at the faces of the spectators to realize the resentment caused by the bad practice. That number of slides at one time is entirely too many. The exhibitor of this type is attempting to cram the stuff down the necks of his patrons, whereas he should accomplish it in an unforced manner. The latter is easily gotten over by showing only several slides at the end of each reel. They are thus spread out and have a far greater chance of sinking in, because picture-play-goers are not called upon to memorize a lot at one gulp, so to speak. In this way the patience of patrons is not overtaxed. The exhibitor can never tell, when he puts over his all-at-a-time slide stunt, whether or not he is sending spectators away to his competitor a few blocks up the street. I have personally known exhibitors who have been unable to account for the falling off of attendance, yet the whole root of the trouble was the slide dodge.

It is typically American to shirk telling openly anything that displeases, so that offended patron says nothing and is never seen inside the theater again. This rebounds on you, for these offended folks become your mortal enemy and lay the blame on the ads. themselves.

Even at those halls that follow the commendable methods outlined, spectators often see the entire performance through without witnessing all the slides. The mistake made by the exhibitor in this case is to project one of his own slides first to tell what the next photoplay will be. This serves to reveal to patrons that they have seen the reels over once, so they rise and leave the show right then. Instead, why not tell your exhibitor to hold back this condemning slide until the last, in order to have the audience sit out the others? Besides, the one advantage of this form of advertising is that there is no competition in commanding attention simultaneously. Each slide is projected separately, and it is advisable, if only for the reason stated, to run only a few at a time instead of the whole bunch.

As the provider of this extra revenue for the movie showman, it is up to you to see adequate treatment for your investment.

XXXVIII.

THE IDEAL SLIDE FOLLOW-UP MEDIUM

To obtain the greatest possible results from slide advertising, there must be an effective follow-up scheme. You may have gotten the hunch that as you change your slide frequently it is quite sufficient.

As a matter of fact, only half of the battle is won, for the slide is not sufficiently elastic to perform everything demanded of it. At the motion-picture theater your slide is probably one of a dozen, and it is well-nigh impossible for a spectator to retain a vivid recollection of them all. You have got to remind him, and, incidentally, present the direct appeal. That means your advertisement being presented in a permanent form. It may occur to you at first to use the columns of the best local newspaper, and, while this has its good points, it falls short of the type of follow-up medium needed for slide publicity.

A newspaper, as a rule, covers the town like a blanket, but the neighborhood photoplay theater draws the majority of its patrons from the surrounding blocks. So, if you wish to obtain 100 per cent. value from your investment, it is up to you to employ the house organ gotten out by the exhibitor. This publication gets into the hands of all patrons of the theater regularly every week, and the fans study it from cover to cover when they reach home.

The grave mistake some dealers make at this stage is to forsake the slide for the house organ. It may be an economical plan on the surface, but, believe me, it is penny wise and pound foolish in the long run.

The slide serves to get acquainted with your prospects, who can not possibly ignore it in the darkened hall, so you secure their attention, while the printed page might escape their notice.

I have frequently remarked upon the attractiveness of the stock slide, and this time I am going to contrast it with the stereotyped business card.

This is a snappy slide recently used by a Brooklyn dyer and cleaner: “Don’t Get ‘Held Up’ for Inferior Cleaning and Pressing. Try Us for Expert Work at Fair Prices.” In the left-hand corner was a sketch of a New York tough pointing his revolver at a terrified meek man.

The follow-up advertisement in the theater house organ was as follows: “Suits Pressed, 25c. Sponged and Pressed, 35c. Cleaned and Sponged, 50c. Dry Cleaned, $1.00. Pants Sponged and Pressed, 10c. Also Ladies’ Work.”

It was as easy as kiss your hand to be entertaining in the first instance, because the slide was one of the stock kind. This fact, however, does not excuse the advertiser from putting some real thought behind his announcements, for, otherwise, the interest of the reader fizzles like a damp firework.

XXXIX.

ATTRACTING FARMERS TO TOWN

If you are a country town merchant, you are at the mercy of the weather, and trade suffers accordingly. The farmer is a good customer, and you must offer some inducement if he is to be persuaded to make his customary trip to town when the weather is bad.

Practically everybody likes motion pictures, and the farmer is probably as keen a fan as his city cousin, only circumstances preventing him from attending so often.

I know of a merchant down in Harrisonville, Missouri, who got wise to the fact and presented his farm customers with free motion-picture theater tickets. He now finds that the weather makes not a particle of difference.

How, then, can you make certain of doing good business every Saturday, rain or shine? I would suggest that you try out the self-same stunt.

In the first place, the local motion-picture exhibitor, being a business man, is always on the warpath for opportunities for increasing his patronage, so, if you approached him on the subject of selling admission tickets at a reduced price, he would undoubtedly come to terms with you.

It might be well that you ask him to put on mostly rural pictures. This may seem like carrying coal to Newcastle, but it has been proven that rural folks much prefer farming subjects.

This settled, mail two complimentary tickets, with a letter about the character of the program, to your farmer customers sufficiently in advance to be used, and mark them good for only the Saturday matinees.

XL.

CAPITALIZING POPULAR SCREEN PLAYERS IN SLIDE ADVERTISING

The national advertiser often links up his products with that of a popular photoplayer by christening a branded article after the actor. Failing this, he secures a testimonial, for which privilege he pays handsomely. The reason is obvious, for the stars are worshiped by countless thousands all over the country, in smallest village and largest city, and, naturally, the use of a name means a big boost for the article advertised. You see, the fans do not see their idols in the flesh, which causes them to evince unusual interest in anything to which the player’s name is attached.

Perhaps motion-picture audiences have been spoilt through the ever-changing flow of new productions, as this demand for something new has had a marked effect upon slide advertising. The dealer never hesitates to try out something original.

The value of an article linked up with a photoplayer increases a thousand-fold when advertised in the photoplay theater, and consequently the slide on which mention is made of a screen favorite will attract more attention than the slides you are at present using.

I am not going to suggest that you apply to the fountain-head, so that you may follow in the footsteps of the national advertiser. In the first place, it is out of the question, for the photoplayer, unlike his legitimate brother, does not travel from town to town. Now and then, it is true, he does tour certain motion-picture theaters, but these occasions are not sufficiently frequent for you to wait for one to occur in your town.

I have a method in mind which will cost you nothing additional outside of the slide. This is just a rough draft of the wording:

“We Know of a Girl Who Tried to Manufacture Dimples Because She Envied Lillian Walker’s.

“As Miss Walker is Famous for Her Dimples, so Are We for Our Candy.”

At the side of the slide you should have your slide manufacturer reproduce a photograph of this popular Vitagraph player.

This item about Miss Walker, you will note, implies no recommendation from her, so the same can not possibly be misconstrued. Here follows the original paragraph, as submitted by Lillian Walker’s press agent: “Don’t you dare attempt to manufacture dimples; they are a monopolized product, and Lillian Walker has the motion-picture field all to herself. The other day the popular Vitagraph player received a letter from a girl admirer, who, desiring a beauty dent on each cheek, endured great pain, but all to no avail.”

The press agents in the motion-picture field are so prolific that seldom a week goes by without one appearing which may be adapted to your business.

If you adopt the photoplayer slide, it is imperative for you to change the slide frequently, not only because spectators dislike to see the same thing over again, but because each fan has his or her favorite, and by constantly changing the players you eventually cover them all, and thus please each and every patron.

If your local newspaper runs a motion-picture department, study it thoroughly for possible material. If it does not, one of the many motion-picture publications will admirably serve the purpose. As the items are news, there is no copyright.

XLI.

ATTRACTING TRADE WITH PHOTOPLAY STARS

Both the legitimate and vaudeville professions have their followings, but neither can even slightly approach the huge and widespread popularity enjoyed by the motion picture. A conservative estimate places the number of fans in this country at twenty millions, which number support the twenty thousand photoplay theaters.

The personal element counts big in this industry, and the leading photoplayers come foremost in the affections of the fans. There are more than two hundred well-known motion-picture players appearing before the camera to-day, and each movie patron has his or her favorite. And this is just where the enterprising storekeeper can pounce upon this opportunity for all it is worth, which is a good deal.