Publicity Organization and Distribution Bulletin VIII United War Work Campaign for $170,500,000 November 11-18, 1918 SERIES OF CAMPAIGN BULLETINS I. Organization in the City, Large or Small II. Organization in the County III. Preparation and Assignment of Lists IV. Victory Boys V. Victory Girls VI. The Campaign among Students VII. The Campaign in Industries VIII. Publicity Organization and Distribution IX. Meetings: How to Plan and Conduct X. Campaign in Army and Navy Camps XI. Collection, Custody, and Forwarding of Funds XII. The Precinct Plan Issued by the OFFICE OF THE DIRECTOR GENERAL 347 Madison Avenue, New York, N. Y. NATIONAL PUBLICITY EXECUTIVE STAFF Bruce Barton, Chairman. William Franklin Edwards, Vice-Chairman. Alexander F. Osborn, Executive Secretary. W. L. Randall, Business Manager. Outdoor & Car Advertising Bureau, F. G. McGrath. General Shipping Bureau, F. L. Wertz. Literature Bureau, Miss A. Estelle Paddock. Special Circulation Bureau, Frank Parker Stockbridge. Newspaper Advertising Bureau, Roy S. Durstine. Moving Picture Bureau, S. L. Rothapfel. Press & Magazine Bureau, Elmore Leffingwell. Features Bureau, Miss Hazel Mackaye. Business Bureau, E. M. Diamant. DEPARTMENTAL PUBLICITY EXECUTIVES George L. Sullivan Chairman Publicity Bureau United War Work Campaign 67 Milk Street Boston, Mass. George Harter United War Work Campaign Suite 500 108 So. La Salle Street Chicago, 111. Edwin A. Goewey United War Work Campaign 60 Vanderbilt Avenue New York A. P. Oakes United War Work Campaign 205 Southwestern Life Bldg. Dallas, Texas L. Porter Moore United War Work Campaign 410 Peters Bldg. Atlanta, Ga. F. F. Runyon United War Work Campaign 6th Floor Flood Bldg. San Francisco, Cal. 2 PUBLICITY ORGANIZATION AND DISTRIBUTION Please bear in mind that the United War Work Campaign in every locahty must ask for 70' r more money than ever before was asked for. We urge that the local publicity plans be made in accordance with the bigness of the task. The publicity aim should be to make the public know about the needs of the United War Work Campaign — to prevent them from thinking that it is a mere Y. M. C. A. or K. of C. campaign — and to insure their knowing that when they give to this campaign, they are giving to the seven organizations at once. As this campaign will be limited to one week only, it is of the utmost necessity that all plans be thoroughly laid in advance and that before the week starts every item of publicity shall be under full swing. No one man, no matter how able he is, can handle this publicity in a locality of any size. This publicity requires organization — the kind of thorough-going organization for which America has become famous in this war. Any man who is big enough to head the publicity in a local campaign will realize this, and will probably organize somewhat as follows : CHAIRMAN 1. Under Campaign Committee — act as general publicity executive. 2. Personally take care of vitally big matters requiring special tact and diplomacy. 3. Serve as Court of Appeal on Publicity Department questions. 4. Approve all expenditures on budget O. K.'d by local campaign managers. (Publicity Chairman should be chosen by local campaign managers. He in turn should choose the heads of his bureaus with the approval of his own superiors.) EXECUTIVE SECRETARY 1. Directly supervise personnel. 2. Act as office manager and business manager. 3. Maintain proper division of functions. 4. Follow through chief executive details. 5. Correlate inter-bureau matters. 6. Act as general utility man, taking care of "movies" and other mat- ters not covered in the following working bureaus. 7. Edit a daily bulletin to all campaign workers. 3 WORKING BUREAUS Except where otherwise suggested, the actual work of the PubHcity Department should be executed through the following working bu- reaus. Each bureau should be headed by a manager appointed by the publicity chairman and approved by the campaign directors. Each bureau manager should select any necessary assistants subject to the approval of publicity chairman. (Portfolios setting forth complete plans for local publicity — showing 20 pages of newspaper display ads, cartoons, editorials, etc., are being sent out. Three copies are being put in with each county ship-, ment. Each state publicity headquarters will receive its share of 10,000 copies to distribute to local committees. One copy will be sent direct to each worth-while newspaper. About 200 copies will go to each department director as emergency surplus.) 1. OUTDOOR AND CAR ADVERTISING BUREAU a. Take up question of 24-sheet poster — National poster people are sending these 24-sheet posters to local poster plants on arrangement with national headquarters to have them put up without charge. Man- ager of this bureau should get in touch with local poster plant and make sure the 24-sheet posters which have been shipped from national headquarters to that poster plant will be on the boards not later than November 5th. b. Check up arrangements for Street Car Advertising — Barron G. Collier, who controls nearly all the street car advertising in the coun- try, has donated space in all his cars. The bureau manager should get in touch with Collier's local representative and see that car cards, which have been shipped to him from national headquarters, are placed in the cars not later than November 1st. c. Check up express wagon posters — The American Railways Ex- press Company has donated to National Headquarters space on every express wagon in the country. They are shipping sufficient posters to local express companies. The local bureau manager should see the local express authorities so that these will be put on the express wagons before November 4th. d. Check up Painted Bulletin Advertising— Thomas Cusack, who controls nearly all of this medium, has promised complete display throughout the country. The local campaign manager should get in touch with Cusack's local representative and see that all available boards are painted with United War Work Campaign designs before November 5th. e. Arrange for special signs— Possibly, by giving all the sign paint- ers m your locality a letter of authorization, you can enable them to go out to business houses (as they did in many places in the Liberty 4 Loan) and get merchants and manufacturers to buy special temporary signs to be erected on their own buildings before November 5th. f. Take care of any other outdoor advertising, such as getting post- ers put on street cars, special signs on trolley wires, special big banners across the street, and all other outdoor display advertising (except regular posters — see below) which may be decided upon locally. 2. RECEIVING AND DISTRIBUTION BUREAU a. Get in touch with County or State Chairman and hnd out about the receipt of combined publicity supplies for that locality. The Na- tional Publicity Bureau in New York has despatched one combined shipment, containing a quantity of each of about thirty-five different posters, booklets, placards, buttons and pledge cards, and other pub- licity supplies, to each county (the County Chairman will know the address to which the parcel has been sent) in all states except Michigan, Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Arizona, in which cases the supplies have gone direct to the state headquarters. It is of first importance that the Publicity Chairman or Secretary get hold of this material as soon as possible. b. Arrange for getting the locality's share of these supplies from county headquarters into your local warehouse. c. Arrange for thorough local distribution of all posters and pam- phlets on the accompanying list. d. Arrange with campaign managers for distribution of pledge cards, buttons, and window banners among campaign workers. e. Arrange for house-to-house distribution of booklets either by professional distributors. Boy Scouts, school children, or otherwise. f. Arrange for getting posters put up in windows, on walls, on fences either through professional workers, Boy Scouts, school chil- dren, or other volunteers. See attached box entitled "Put Up Posters." Probably the biggest job the local Publicity Department has is to put up these posters and distribute literature. Because of (1) Limitations of newspaper space, and (2) The fact that there are about twice as many posters and book- lets as there have been in any previous money-getting campaign, this is about the only way to get the campaign story over to the public. To get all these posters up and at work is your great obligation. Among the many methods we transmit the Rochester plan, which is to have automobiles meet at a common point to take their supply and one machine start out in each direction, with a man in charge and a good scout to carry the posters into the stores, put up on walls, etc. You should secure in advance whatever sticker tape, paste, etc., is needed to put up the posters. 5 g. Line up libraries for getting circulation of booklets, etc. Secure distribution of mail inserts in bills, etc., of big corporations. NEWSPAPER ADVERTISING BUREAU a. Organize a special committee to secure funds to finance local newspaper advertising. b. Make arrangements with the State Headquarters or Depart- mental Headquarters for whatever mats, electros, etc., of newspaper advertisements may be required, as per numbers indicated on adver- tisements in portfolio of display newspaper advertising which will be sent to each County Chairman. c. Take care of the schedule and actual insertion of the advertise- ments. d. Keep records of these insertions, checking the same and paying for this advertising on basis previously arranged by the bureau with local newspapers. e. Solicitation by individual newspapers. One way to make possi- ble an adequate newspaper display is for each newspaper's soliciting staff to go out, either with the acquiescence of the local campaign committee, or with their written endorsement, and ask each public- spirited citizen either — 1. To assign for this purpose, space for which he may have already contracted, or 2. To authorize the publication of a certain amount of this adver- tising to be charged to him individually, or 3. To ask for both space and financial contributions for this purpose. Whether the clause, "Space donated by (name of donor)" shall be inserted at the bottom of their advertisements, should be deter- mined by the local committee in advance, or should be left to the discretion of the donor. Under this plan, of course, the newspaper with the most enterprising soliciting staff will get the greater share of the local advertising. That might be embarrassing. f. Newspapers may pool solicitations. Obviously no paper of good standing should be ignored. This can be prevented if the local com- mittee organizes a committee on local newspaper space, by getting each paper to assign a man to serve, and dividing all prospects among these men. Then all contributions secured for the newspaper fund, either in space or cash, can be lumped, and uniform campaign pub- licity put in all the newspapers on the basis of the total sum secured. Public mention of the donors may be made, either by inserting one or more names at the bottom of these advertisements, or by publish- ing all names at the end of the Campaign as outlined below. g. Funds raised by volunteers. Possibly the best method is the one 6 that has been successfully employed in many other places, in similar campaigns. In the main, this is as follows: The local campaign committee creates a special committee on news- paper advertising, made up of men in no way connected with news- papers — men who will be obviously altruistic in their motives. They prepare a list of public-spirited individuals and businesses and write asking for a certain sum to be used in an advertising fund for the pur- chase of newspaper display space, to put over the Campaign. Here is a suggested form for such a letter : h. Suggested form letter — Gentlemen: This is a vital request from the newspaper advertising committee of our United War Work Cam- paign, obligated to raise our share of the $170,500,000 needed to con- tinue the war work of the Young Men's Christian Association, Young Women's Christian Association, National Catholic War Council (K. of C), Jewish Welfare Board, War Camp Community Service, Amer- ican Library Association, and Salvation Army. It is necessary to obtain from public-spirited concerns and citizens sufficient contributions of space and money for newspaper advertising before and during the drive, so that we may honestly say to the people that no money collected in the drive has been used for that purpose. Will you contribute for this purpose $ , payable before December 1st? This unit amount for which we ask is small because we hope for the favorable response of all to whom this letter goes. We realize that the loyal citizens and business concerns of this community have been most generous in contributing to newspaper space in previous patriotic drives. Now we come to you for one more effort. As you know, the United War Work Campaign combines in one drive all the needs for all seven organizations which have heretofore been supported by separate drives. In other words, you will not be asked for six other contributions for space for this purpose. We earnestly hope that you can assure us of your help and contri- bution. Will you kindly use the enclosed stamped envelope in reply? Yours very truly, Chairman, Special Newspaper Advertising Committee, United War Work Campaign. It will pay to write these letters individually, and address them to the proper individual as in any personal letter. i. Local conditions considered. It may be desirable to include a paragraph in the above letter, stating that either— 1. The names of all contributors to this fund will be included in each of the advertisements, or 2. The name of each contributor will be pubUshed solely in one or more advertisements, or grouped with others in one or more advertisements, or 7 3. All names will be listed alphabetically at the end of the cam- paign in a special advertisement headed as follows: "These patriotic individuals, partnerships, and corporations financed the newspaper advertising of the United War Work Campaign." j. How much to ask for. Experience indicates that if you apply adequate personal follow-up you can figure about a one third favor- able response to a letter like the above. Therefore, in order to ascer- tain the sum to be asked for, simply calculate the local newspaper budget and then divide that by one third the number of prospects whom you approach. For instance, if you need $3,000, and you have 300 prospects, ask each one for $30. In some cases, instead of asking for a uniform sum, it may be wise to grade the prospects and ask for a larger sum from some than from others. Again we emphasize that this and all follow-up solicitation should be on the expressed understanding that any such contribution to the advertising fund should not in any way reduce the amount the sub- scriber would give to the regular campaign appeal. It may be best to use the same amount of space in all the leading daily English-speaking newspapers, and to give about one fifth of that amount of space to other local publications. Before going after this advertising fund, the local committee might ask each newspaper publisher to contribute one page of space, as his share, and also to give the local committee, for this advertising, his lowest department store advertising rate or "charity rate" if he has one. k. Suggested plan of schedule. Newspaper copy in the campaign should start four or five days before November eleventh, the actual beginning of the drive, and should continue throughout the drive, winding up probably on the morning of the day on which the drive ends. This plan makes the community enthusiastic before the drive actu- ally commences and keeps them interested and alive to the needs of the United War Work Campaign during the period of the drive. 4. PRESS BUREAU a. Produce and furnish newspapers with all possible local cam- paign items. b. Prepare and furnish newspapers with photographs of local cam- paign leaders and other special photographs that may be taken for this purpose. c. Get newspapers to use cartoons, as shown on page 21 of news- paper advertising portfolio. (See 3, b.) d. Get editorials in local papers beginning November 5th or earlier. Get different slogans each day across the top of the first page of each paper, and throughout. e. Arrange for notable local interviews. n 8 f. Arrange for municipal proclamations. g. Arrange for resolutions to be adopted by prominent local bodies. h. Get miscellaneous local publications to publish special matter. 5. FEATURES BUREAU a. Prepare and execute plans for pageants and parades. b. Prepare and execute plans for church cooperation. This may be brought about by a "Church Furtherance Committee" to include pas- tors from Protestant. Catholic, Jewish, and other churches. c. Prepare and execute plans for spectacular stunts. d. Prepare and execute plans for window displays. For this pur- pose it may be well to create a special committee composed of the window dressers of the larger stores. At the same time secure author- ization of managers of these stores, so that their windows may be used for United War Work Campaign display purposes. e. Plan to conduct special musical concerts and other such features. It will take a strong stimulus to awaken the public from the apathy caused by the strain of the Liberty Loan campaign and Election Day. The Features Bureau will have to shoulder most of the burden to make the public realize that this is the greatest money-giving cam- paign in the history of the world. 9 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2014 https://archive.org/details/publicityorganizOOunit