|
Mike Yershon |
THE COMMERCIAL TELEVISION ASSOCIATES Contents |
 Jim Shaw |
||
In the above tenure, chairman at one time or another of many industry committees including the following: Marketing Finance Research
Acceptability of
advertisements. Head of TV Public Relations for the British Advertising Industry. Director
of SAWA, the Screen Advertising World Awards festival in Director of McCann Erickson agency. Director Molinaire, a post production facilities company. Produced the worlds first, real time, online, interactive computer system to handle the sale of airtime and set up appropriate companies in the UK, USA with Pete Cash ex head of the TVB (US) and James T. Shaw ex Director Sales ABC TV (US), France and Australia. Founded SKY Direct Satellite TV. Contact Jim at jimshaw@commercialtelevision.biz CAMPAIGN THE
SALESMEN (Abridged) Jim
Shaw, sales director of Thames Television, has done a highly successful
selling job both for his own station and for the medium as a whole.
"That
for us was very exciting" Shaw says. "To get some money out of
Procter and Gamble is tough enough in P
and G was one of many advertisers who only committed themselves after
the audience ratings of the first nights of the week were known.
"We were still selling on the Thursday night — we actually picked
up three orders on the Thursday night for the next night's
transmission" Shaw says. "The
ratings that we got on the Monday, which were about the three to four or
five level, were by Thursday night more than doubled. We were getting
ratings that any station would have been very happy to achieve — and
they were five times the kind of ratings the channel we were using would
normally attain at that time of the day. "I
would say that if we had had Thursday night's ratings on the Monday, we
would have made a lot more money — three to four times as much, with
the interest that was being shown. It was being suggested that if we had
continued for a second week, we would really have cleaned up." Its
Sales Director, therefore, is a very big wheel in the television world,
and it is little wonder that Jim Shaw is generally seen as doing a
selling job not just for “ "He
sees the role of "I've
known James since he worked at ABC in the sixties," says Marsh.
“We were both worried about the standard advertising industry
spokesmen, dull, grey apologies. That was how the group got together. He
was responsible for me doing my first major interview on television –
with Jill Tweedie on sex in Advertising”. Shaw
sees the change in the attitude to the control of advertising as the
biggest change since he came into ITV 20 years ago. “We’re more
convinced now – as indeed is the whole of society – to respond to
social needs and situations. “Ads,
that we would have accepted quite happily without having any conscience
about doing so, are now seen, looking back, as being things which in
today’s society wouldn’t be acceptable. “There’s
a far more enlightened approach to the control of television advertising
and far more concern. But you’d expect this. In the intial days,
people were concerned about getting television of the ground. Once it
became successful, you then look at what you are doing and say “What
are we doing wrong?” “
I believe that the control of television advertising in this country is
probably the best in the world. I don’t know any other country where
they have the same sensible balance”. Nevertheless,
as a salesman, Shaw believes that the control process works both ways
— that just as some of yesteryear's ads would not be acceptable today,
so some ads that were not acceptable then should be permitted now. "From
time to time you look back at what you're not taking and say 'Are we
right no longer to take that?' I believe very firmly that we should
carry charity advertising and I will continue to promote that
possibility. You should always be looking backwards as well as
forwards." Shaw's
quest to get charity advertising on television is an extension of his
efforts over the past seven years to attract all sorts of new
advertisers into the medium — efforts which have significantly reduced
the dependence of ITV on packaged goods advertisers. "If
you look at the situation a few years ago, television was very reliant
on certain product groups" says Bernard Davy, media director of
Lonsdale Osborne. "It has been left to the "In
1969, shortly after the new contracts had come into effect, we ran into
a big problem with some of the major packaged goods advertisers cutting
back their budgets," says Shaw. "We then saw quite clearly
that the base on which we drew our advertising was far too narrow." "Over
the years, we were very much in the forefront in developing motor car
advertising, durable advertising, retailer advertising and so on"
says Shaw. "Retailing advertising has grown dramatically — we
spent a lot of time on that. Motor car advertising has been very
successful and financial advertising has grown very rapidly. "The
big disappointment was employment advertising which was coming on apace
and suddenly switched off overnight in 1975, simply because the economy
ran into trouble." Shaw's
biggest contribution to Thames, however, is generally accepted to have
been the introduction of a demand led ratecard. The scheme ensures that
the TV company sells all its available time at a price determined by
demand. When
it was first introduced, many agencies complained that it was far too
complicated, but since then many of the other ITV companies have
introduced some element of it. "I've
got great admiration for Jim Shaw" says Mike Yershon. "His
ratecard has totally revolutionised the buyer/seller relationship.I
think it's brilliant. "It
is very complicated, but this means that the good buyer can do better
for his client." "Jim
Shaw has made "It's
very interesting that there were comments made at the time that it was
unfair and unreasonable and so on," says Shaw, "and yet it's
the ratecard that's now held up as the ideal ratecard. It's slightly
ironic." Shaw
has been sales director of
" "1
don't think that Rick Hughes (the current sales controller) has taken
over in quite the same way." Yet
their opinion is directly contradicted by that of two other media
directors who maintain that Shaw "is a great
delegator"."He lets people get on with it" says Bernard
Davy. "He doesn't interfere. Other sales directors have to get
involved in every problem, which means that when they're not there, the
whole thing grinds to a halt." "He's an ideas man of tremendous depth," says Robin Erskine TV
advertising this summer has been dominated by the arguments over the
huge rise in ITV's ad rates this year, coupled with declining audience
ratings. For most of the summer, agency critics have met with a
deafening silence from the TV companies, highly conscious of the fact
that the Annan Committee is reading their every statement. Eventually,
this silence was broken by HTV's sales director Ron Wordley, in an
article in Campaign but
there are a number of people who feel that Shaw would have liked to
reply to the criticism himself — and a lot earlier in the summer —
but that politics prevailed. Shaw
has since answered the critics — in the Young and Rubicam media
bulletin, Time and
Space - concluding:
"Everyone in Independent Television knows full well that whilst we
have the pre-eminent medium advertisers will not support us if they do
not get value for money. "We
intend to maintain the quality of our medium and ensure that our medium
is a viable proposition for advertisers, without whose financial support
we would not exist."
|
||||
