New Britain herald., 1918-10-30
ADVERTISING AND
THE LIBERTY LOAN
Publicity Made This States Sue
cess Possible, Director Writes

the success of the Fourth Liberty
Loan lin Connecticut, in the opinion of
Frank G. Macomber, state publicity
director who has written an account
of his stewardship to John X. Allen
of the New England Liberty Loan
committee, stationed at Boston.
An analysis of the loan. Mr.. Ma
/ comber says, shows beyond question
that the quotas were subscribed
much more quickly in communities
where newspaper advertising was
used He is convinced that it does
pay to advertise.
Mr.. Macomber's letter follows:
Mr.. John X. Allen,
Liberty Loan Committee,
95 Milk Street,
Boston, Mass.
My dear Mr.. Allen,
II am now in a position to make a
report as to the volume Of Liberty
Loan advertising carried by news
papers of the seven counties of Con-
necticut, that lie in the First Federal
Reserve District. These reports
show that a total of 16S,521 inches
TO Liberty Loan advertising appeared
during the three weeks of the cam
paign. The average rate of this ad
vertising is 40c! therefore the business
men, manufacturers and bankers of
the seven counties paid $67, 40S.40 to
advertising the Fourth Liberty Loan
for the government.
IT do not wish to state the follow
ing in the sense of any personal
Dragging, but rather to show what [
believe to be fundamental fact un-
DERIVING the Liberty Loan campaign,
viz; l understand, indirectly, that no
other state in New England made
showing in volume of Liberty Loan
advertising comparable with that of
Connecticut. 1t is interesting to note
in this connection then, that Connec-
ticut was the first state to go over
the top and that of the total over
subscription to the Fourth Liberty
Loan of some forty or fifty millions of
dollars Connecticut is responsible for
more than fifty per cent. It is also
interesting to note that those COM
munities in the State of Connecticut
that made the best showing on news
paper publicity-are the same COM
munities that made the best showing
on subscriptions to the loan With
in the state, l have one exception to
this rule, and in this community While
the volume of publicity was large
the Liberty Loan organization sub
scriptions absolutely fell down. They
made no effort, and it was necessary
to send a special crew into the COM
munity. when, in<tWo days of intensive
| work, that community was put over
/ the top by a substantial margin. AS
against this isolated case of news
paper advertising and the failure to
produce their quota without outside
= 81.
munities in which Liberty Loan ad-
Nertising was at the minimum and
tho solicitation work at least about
par, and that had q struggle to reach
their quota.
ITO my mind, every one of the
four Liberty Loan campaigns had in
ereaSing'ly demonstrated the fact, that
| the newspaper publicity is largely re-
sponsible for putting them across sue
cessfully. You will be interested to
know, also, that a random measuril g
of scattering papers from throughout
the state, shows that newspapers
average to print about forty per cent.
as much reading matter devoted to
the loan, as they 10 display advertis-
ing. This would indicate, that in ad-
dition to 16S, 521 inches of display
advertising printed during the loan
there was approximately. $1,000
| inches of reading matter carried as
! we'll which gives us for these seven
! counties in the state a total of 1882
| inches of newspaper space of both
| types during the three weeks of the
| campaign.
! AS to the financial cost incident to
! the procuring of this immense volume
| of publicity; I will have to leave it
| to you to answer, as the figures are
available in your office, while they are
not available to me at this time
with all good wishes for the sue
! cess Of the Fifth Liberty Loan, for
which we now getting under way,
| [ am
| VERY sincerely yours
| FRANK G. MACOMBER.
| estate RuhIicitu I0i1.Hctn1 :,