The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1930-02-14

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tors fifth, E. and A. Cash Store
(sale announcement) sixth, North.
ern Chevrolet seventh, Liberty
theatre eighth, Davey's ninth,
Penney's tenth, Staley's syrup ell
eventh.
With very few exceptions the
voters said on their ballot blanks
that they nearly always" read
the advertisements they found in
The Herald. All but a few of the
voters are housewives. A very
few are students.
Each of the eight winners re-
ceive orders on n of the BEST
Advertisers for 81 worth of mer-
chandise. While The Herald made
a bad guess in selecting the
month, the experiment was well
worth while and gave all concern
ed something to talk about. 1t is
too bad everybody could not win
a prize. The editor extends sin
cere thanks to all who took an
interest in the contest.
Some have wondered how the
results of the contest were reach
ed. In brief, it was like this:
Every ad that was written on
the ballot of a voter was rated
by that voter as the list, End, or
3rd best in the paper in which it
appeared. All these ones, twos
and threes were placed to the
ads credit and were totaled. This
total was divided by the number
of times it was voted for. The
q%uotient expressed its average
rating. After all ads voted for had
been averaged the ranking of all
them was shown. The averages
ran into some long fractions and
called for careful arithmetic.
The next thing was to rank the
voters. The names were listed
and the ballots of each examined.
The rank of each and every ad
voted for, Il, 2, 8, 4, up as far as
they VENT each time it was voted
for, was set opposite the name Of
the voter. Then the figures were
totaled for each contestant. A big
job, but when finished the totals
determined the rank of the con-
testants. The more small num-
bers opposite a name and the few
er big ones the better the judg-
ment of the voter and the smaller
her or his total. The smallest
total was the best, the same as in
golf. Of course each of the speci-
fled five women and three men,
Jared the same as to prizes. With
more local store displays in the
paper contestants would have had
more chance to- exercise their
taste and judgment. 1t is of in
terest to note that every vote re-
ceiyed by Cooks was a "one'. And
that every vote received by The
Fad was a zone" with one excep-
ton. Somebody handed it a
three. So it is evident the wo-
men like to read ''sale" news
about nice goods at way down
The editor finds the study of
advertising and its methods, in
the city dailies and popular peri
odicals, as well as in weekly pa
pers, of much interest and value.
He likes to write ad copy and Of
ten does so for his local clients.
To his notion there is a heap of
poor ad copy used; sometimes
even in mediums in which space
costs thousands Of dollars per
page. To be convincing, in this
age, when almost every body who
can read is wise, an advertiser
must talk fair, square and reason
able, with the ballyhoo and exag-
geration left out. The three i'm
portant features of a display ad
are: Easy to read (large, clear
pictures; and descriptions
with prices. Merchandise ads
need not always fill a lot of space,
two or three items well played up
will bring in the buyers. Just the
name of the concern and the kind
of business always before the pub
lie have valuable pulling power.