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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 1, Issue 4 (August 24, 1926)

Growth of the Railway Advertising Branch

page 29

Growth of the Railway Advertising Branch

It is now over eleven and a half years since the Railway Department assumed direct control of the advertising on its property. The North Island and South Island Main Lines and Branches were taken over on the 1st January, 1915, and the smaller detached sections of railway three years later. Previously the advertising rights were let to private contractors who paid the Railway Department a fixed sum per annum during the currency of their agreement, and the contractors, of course, handled the selling and display of the advertisements. Owing chiefly to conditions arising out of the World War, the first six years of existence of the Railway Advertising Branch were not very encouraging, and but for the optimistic outlook of those in authority at that time, the venture might have been abandoned as a failure. At this stage the department let only the advertising space, and the advertiser had to provide the advertisements; which, however, the department placed in position. As had been the case with the private contractors, the advertising was then confined chiefly to advertisements on station buildings and adjacent fences.

As time went on without any appreciable increase in business, it became apparent that something had to be done to educate the business people to the value of railway advertising. At first this was no easy task. The great majority had not previously tried out this medium, and it is surprising how difficult it was to prove to them that that was no reason why they should not do so in the future.

The whole organisation of the advertising branch was considered very carefully with the obvious idea of increasing the volume of business. It was recognised that the Sales organisation was not strong, but this did not appear to be the only weak point. Having to provide his own advertisements was too much bother to the advertiser, and a good deal of the failure appear to be attributable to our lack of service in this respect. It was then reasoned that if we were in a position to submit attractive designs that would appeal to the buying public, the business must surely go ahead, and as a result the Advertising Branch inaugurated what is now well known throughout the Dominion as the Railway Advertising Studios. The Sales staff was strengthened, and our activities were extended to include the display of advertisements in railway carriages and on large hoardings in prominent positions. Since then we have never looked back, and the business has gone ahead by leaps and bounds.

The Studios, which are located in Wellington, occupy nearly an acre of land; the buildings themselves cover roughly 15,000 square feet of floor space. Here the advertisement is produced in its entirety. The client is relieved of all bother, it being necessary for him merely to name his product. Our ideas-men and artists then get busy and work up a design embodying the important points of the article to be advertised. When the advertisement has been planned, the next procedure is to select the persons and material most suitable to pose as subjects for the pictorial portion of the advertisement, and when these have been arranged to the satisfaction of the Supervising Artist and sketches made, the services of the Studio's photography division are called in to obtain a photograph of the setting in order to reduce the time models would otherwise require to pose. In this way there is no limit to variety and originality in design, and with the high standard of artists employed we are able to put on canvas, paper, or metal any conceivable composition.

When the Studios were opened in July, 1920, the total staff of the Advertising Branch was ten. To-day it totals seventy-four. The total full term value of the business written up during the financial year ended 31st March last amounted to nearly £90,000.

Although one occasionally hears remarks to the effect that outdoor advertising should be restricted, it would be difficult to find a private business concern that would not make full use of a by-product capable of producing such handsome returns, while at the same time providing the public with a useful article at reasonable cost.

The largest industrial enterprise in the world according to Sir Josiah Stamp is the London, Midland and Scottish Railway, of which he is President. In speaking to an American audience recently he stated that this great British Railway with its seven or eight thousand miles of track represented an investment of 2½ billion dollars.

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The State-owned Railway of New Zealand is this Dominion's largest industrial enterprise, the capital invested in all lines amounting to almost fifty million pounds (250 million dollars) for 3138 miles of railway.