Life — July 5, 1906 — page 38: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

rticle reproduced on this page is {rom Printers’ , the most prominent and independent Advertis- ing Journal in Am The editors eri of Printers’ Ink wrote and pub- lished this article on their own initiative after making the most complete and comprehensive investigation of advertising agency methods for the benefit of their readers. PRINTERS’ INK. A JOURNAL POR ADVERTISERS « Ewrenen 48 Sxcowp.ctass MATTE: Vor. LV. MODERN ADVERTISING SERVICE ORGANIZATION OF TH THOMAS ADVERTISING AGENCY—NOW" SAID TO AF THE LARGEST AGENCY IN THIS COCNTRY —MOW MAIL ORDER AND GENEMAL ADVER® TISING ACCOUNTS ARE OPERATED SIDE BY Sty, RACH HELPING THK OTHER—WRIT> ING Goon Cory AND WATE AND KF CORDING RETURNS EQUALLY IMPORTANT, Lord & Thomas now claims the dist tion of being the largest general advertising agency in the United States. y No American Advertising Agency has ever made a statement showing as much business as they show. ‘They eJaim leadership not only in the gross (amount of advertising cleared through thei f Ht fs said tat no other agency'b {shown more than 200. * Lord & Th fave the following exten- } sive fosight into their metbods the other day Printers’ Ink. They said: While ours is the largest avency in the do not scek to bandie mall ones. to confine ope- rations to a half-dozen very large accounts. We wreck, particularly accoysts ranging {from $1,000 to $5.00 a yeas to scatter a ty larce nomber of them over a widerange of commodities. We ate the largest agescy have built up hundreds of small accou Por this reason our whole organization Pts designed to give the smallest. as well as Eithe largest, advertisers individual attention. ‘Oar growth depends on it And we have data about results from s0 Hmany advertisers that our service could Bot possibly be obtained from any agency with fewer accounts and a narrower range f° of commodities to pus ‘The very fact that we market so many fferent articles through advertising gives U8 experience and judgment Invaluable to ny advertiser jar accobats are divided into two great branches — General Advertising and M hOrder Advertising. ‘This year we will place approximately $2,500,000 in general business and $1.50 mail order lines, a total of $4.000,0N.00 Our mail order accounts bring us abi data upon the pulling power of different forms of copy and also show the pullieg power of each individual newspaper, magazine, mail order, farm. religious and tr: ‘On ‘this data we depend for knowledge that enables us to start a general advertiser prith the right copy, in the right mediums AS Printers’ Ink so truly says, 7 Twe New You NEW YORK, N.Y. Post Orrice, Sows 2, 10. Aprit 18, 1906. No. 3. from the very beginning, and give him returns that mean growth, without the waste of money that would come Ke. from expert ract names twelve duties which e agree to perform for the advertiser, con- stituting what we understand by the ‘word service. It also binds the advertiser to certain duties which he must faithfully carry out for our guidance. He must, whes and whi make a weekly Fe} advertising, specit and orders receiv piece of copy and each separate medium in, mail order cumpatgns, aod the amount of traceable increase in sales duc to his adver- tising when goods aré sold throngh retailers. On our part, we bind ourselves to com- pare the returns and sales shown in each advertiser's report with reports and tistics of other clients. ascertalaing each week whether his advertising Is paying a well as it ought to and discovering defect it ts practicable, tiog Is tabulated {a what we call our” Record | of Resaits.” ‘The latter is the guidiig spirit of our bust- ness. It gives us positive knowledge about copy and mediams in widely varied llaes of pub- ity, minimizes experimental work, elimi-\| ‘ates tho element of chance. By making more certain the returns tor | our clients if means our growth, apd we bave developed this Record-ot Kesults tor six / years. aN 9,otber aency la the world bas anythiog’ e. With this body of information, pouring in weekly from scores of advertisers in ail lines, embracing returns from every good public % Stoves, medicines, m: ery form of commodity, over obscure public: prominent ones that are weak. Slaty-six per cent of general advertising checked by thirty-four per cent of mail order | publicity Ie a ratio we. carefully maiataln because we believe that ail order advertis: ing is an invaluable guide to safe procedure fo general advertising when property inter- preted i The same hind of copy that pulls best for a mail order commodity will, when rightly | adapted, also get money out ot people's pockets in the stores. ‘Our Record of Results shows many sur- prising cases where small publications pall better than big ones. When a publication begins to pay it can’t remain hidden long from us because of our Many Old publications of immense prestige have circelations that have been worked over and over again, so that thelr genera}, “the pulling power of copy and media is nowhere shown up so completely” as it is in the Lord & Thomas Record of Results Cabinet. It must be obvious to any advertiser or prospective adv that this record does ind does “minimize experime chance” in Lord & Thomas Camp; give positive knowledge about copy and media" work and eliminate the element of gas. reputations among advertisers is ofte® oat of all proportion to the actual retures they bring from keyed advertisements. Other mediums, comparatively new or just being built up, without much prestige, m: have anew, live, growing circulation that makes them highly profitable. For exainpie, in a certain. Southern city there is a certain daily newspaper of wide reputation, old and great ia circulation, It hay a competitor in the same town, new and with smaller circulation. We tried out both papers on mail propos tions with astonishing results {a favor of the smaller paper. “Then s general commodity, selling ia stores was tried io both with the same resalt. Many of our clients were then put Into this new medium, and pearly all got sales and lequiries at Gne-third the cost in the older tae ‘Our clients get into such a medium betore its reputation is established ken- erally. ‘Our system of centralized records based on reports from advertisers, not only indicates the line of least resistance quickly and intallibly, bot the expenditure of ‘our largest client serves as a guide in the f development of our smallest. and vice vers: Advertisers seldom realize how quickly } the character of a circulation may change. ‘A mail order advertiser. for instance, may fiad acertaia publication one of his ‘most profitable mediums for several seasons. ‘He drops out some sammer When be bexins in the fall that paper does not pay. for some reason. ‘The publication bas always paid. and ft {s the last thing be blames. Five or six failures may be necessary be- fore be is willing to distrust the paper But we have received.a report of failures from a dozen advertisers oa that paper. So the paper comes under suspicion. If It is really weak, all our advertisers ace } owt within a. @ month, and there is a big aggre: gate saving Think what this means [9 dollars to the 2 small advertisers How does this work out for a general ad: vertiser Well, take the case mentioned of the two dailies in the Southera city. The returns for mail advertising in the smaller paper woke us up. We lavestigated at clote range and foynd } that all the retail advertisers in that a , were using the smaller paper, too. ‘They were alive to coodit owe pul ocr geoctal advertisers ato it Ove of them seat us $200 for the older paper while this favestigation was going on. We explained the situation He sent a representative to that town and found that his advertising would probably bring three times as much resulls in the ‘ammalier paper, oF 300 per cent niore returns for his money He changed his order, and got the increase expected, ‘Other advertisers and agencies are still going into the wrong mediom on its veneral Fepetation Gur centralized records also tndlcate the most effective kinds of copy. A page in Munsey’s costs $500. It may bring, $5000 to an advertiser tn returns, or only ‘The difference in results from so good a medium will be due to copy—nothing else whatever. What goes into the space—that makes the ,| difference. Our Copy Department Is so organized that no writer handies more than twelve accounts a year—or fewer. probably, than with any other agency in the country. While our knowledge of mediams is vital, our Record of Results brings it. you might most automatically. ‘Therefore. nivety per cent of the thought. energy and cost of running our agency goes | toto copy. ‘The line between successful and unsuc- j cessful copy 1s not broad. Bat It is definite General adver allowed a wide margin tor error resalts could pot be traced under old cond: thon: Mail order advertisers have allowed xo margin for errors, buf demanded exactitude and keyed repli With our records from mail order adver Using we know to a certainty the copy that / brings the greatest returns in actual sales Abd this definite knowledge we apfly to ea. eral advertising so far as practic ‘Ad our copy department is so organized’ that though a writer were the best copyyman in the country the element of personality tn his work for any of oar clieats would have less to do with the pulling power of the co} than the sciling reasons it embodies. das on our Record of Kesults. § ‘The lesson constantly taught by these re- | cords to our staff makes each writer strooger Because he is cukted by positive knowledge, and his work's more certain than tt possibly could be without our organization, because be {s working on definite data, along definite lines, for detinice ends.” Lord & Thomas took a great deal of pains to show Prioters’ Ink the inner workings of § the Record of Results department. Eight people do nothing else bat tabulate and ‘tle fatormation {rom scores of adverth sers’ reports. go down of cards that are classified accord ing to copy and publications. } Probably the pulling power éf copy and | media fs Bowhere shown up so compretely— at least this side of Judgment Day. Poll out a card and there will be (ound on f it the record of returas tor the last week om from three to three Corea different com- moditie Each pkéce of copy and each medium brought so many replies and sales for each: advertiser at such apd such cost—and there, is no way of getting behiod the returns. Ja the past six years Khas cost $100.00 tol saalotain this record cabinet. The Lord & Thomas Record of Results is practical tangible - assurance that Lord & Thomas are qualified above all others to protect your advertising appropriation. The Lord & Thoma advertising inv will be wisel that the dividends you have every right to expec! coming. If you are seriously interested in advertising. advertising—if you care to investi Record of Results not only safeguards your stment—makes you certain that your appropriation placed—but also assures with reasonable certainty will be forth: f you contemplate ate the possibility of increasing the results from your present advertising—Lord & Thomas will be pleased zo explain to you in person just what their service means to you. Lord & Thomas are about to issue a series of small books (cloth bound) covering advertising—newspaper, magazine a in all its phases. nd outdoor— ‘The value of the information and data these books contain cannot be measured by the price they were intended to sell at—$4.00—but Lord & Thoma will gladly send them fre to any interested adver tiser or anyone contemplating advertising. LoRD & THOMAS ESTABLISHED 1873 Largest Advertising Agency in America Annual Volume Placed for Clients < Approaching $4,000,000.00 CHICAGO NEW YORK