Series III. Advertising Promotion Department Records, 1936-1969, inclusive
Extent
Scope and Contents
The Advertising Promotion Department Records contain files from Promotion Director Robert Fisler, Executive Promotion Director Dave Aubrey, Promotion Director Richard Coffey, and assistant to the director Alan Martin. The records document this department's efforts to attract advertisers, market testing, and presentations to the advertising sales staff.
To see a list of advertising campaigns in Time magazine from 1923 to 1971, see the Time Advertising Promotion series in Time Inc. Index Cards (MS 3009-RG 4).
Arrangement
Organized into two subseries:
Subseries III.A. Promotion Director Robert Fisler Files
Subseries III.B. Promotion Director: General Files
Biographical / Historical
The Advertising Promotion Department promoted the magazine to appeal to advertisers, although this department is separate from the Advertising Sales Department.
Subseries III.A. Promotion Director Robert Fisler Files, 1936-1968, inclusive
Extent
Scope and Contents
Fisler's files span the period he was employed at Time through his transition to Life. The majority of his office files are from Time. Although there are records from both of his roles the Circulation Department and the Advertising Promotion Department, his files were not separated as such, and this series is listed under his later position with Advertising Promotion.
Originally his files were loosely separated into a mixture of office files from Time and Life, speech files, personal files which contain both personal and business correspondence, and material from his aunt's company St. John Associates Inc.
Arrangement
Organized into three subsubseries:
Subsubseries II.A.1. Office Files
Subsubseries II.A.2. Personal Files
Subsubseries II.A.3. Speech Files
Biographical / Historical
According to his files and the department head lists, Robert "Bob" Fisler was in the Corporate Circulation Department as an assistant to Time Promotion Writer William Baring-Gould prior to 1950. From 1950 to 1955 he was in Time Circulation as the Promotion Manager. From 1956 to 1961 he was in Time Advertising Promotion as the Promotion Manager, the top role in the department. By 1962, his title had changed to Promotion Director while still remaining the top role. One of his duties was writing the copy in the circulation promotion mailings.
A letter in his 1959 Personal folder refers to him as the Sports Illustrated Promotion Director, and his records contain some Sports Illustrated materials. He may have briefly done side work for at this publication. In 1966 he moved to Life Promotion as the Promotion Director.
Subsubseries III.A.1. Office Files, 1952-1968, inclusive
Extent
Scope and Contents
Office Files include copy for the promotion mailings; notes on his own speeches and speeches collected by Fisler; responses to Fisler sending out books from the Time Reading Program; planning for a business trip to Japan for advertising market research; some records from his predecessor Advertising Promotion Director Nick Samstag, possibly inherited; and work assigned to him by Time Publisher Bernard Auer to assist Williams College with their alumni fund. Additional Williams College material is in the Personal Files. Some materials on Life date from before he transferred roles.
Arrangement
Organized alphabetically.
American Alumni Council, 1962, inclusive
Asia Newstour (Southeast Asia?) Binder, 1965, inclusive
Aspen Insitute for Humanistic Studies: Executive Program, 1963, inclusive
Congratulatory Messages, 1952-1955, inclusive
Ivy Alumni Network: Analysis of 1965 Mail Response, 1966, inclusive
Ivy League Schools: "Ivied Tower of Babel", 1965, inclusive
Japan Trip, 1965, inclusive
Life Ideas, 1960-1968, inclusive
Life Space Tours, 1964-1966, inclusive
Scope and Contents
The Life Space Tour was similar to the Time newstours of the United States, but were specific to space installations such as NASA and the U.S. Air Force bases. Guests included executives of America's leading consumer goods corporations. The purpose was to give the executives a complete understanding of why the space program is so complex, expensive, and rewarding to the country.
Life Sales Convention, 1967, inclusive
New York State Citizens Committee for Public Schools, 1955-1956, inclusive
Philosophical Memoranda, 1961-1965, inclusive
"Pursuit of Excellence" Theme, 1959, inclusive
Time 1960 Review, 1959-1961, inclusive
Time Strategic Advertising Box Set, 1962, inclusive
2000 Word Memoranda, 1958-1960, inclusive
Scope and Contents
This was an invitation to everyone in the department to send in a 2000 word memo on the subject of "What is TIME's most important promotion selling need at the moment?"
Williams College, 1964-1965, inclusive
Subsubseries III.A.2. Personal Files, 1936-1966, inclusive
Extent
Scope and Contents
Personal Files include folders titled "Personal" which are a mix of personal bills and correspondence and business correspondence and memoranda; files on Fisler's banking and club memberships; and files on St. John Associates Inc., a direct mail service in Manhattan owned by his aunt Helen V. Fisler. St. John Associates files include newsletters, ad cards, and client mass mailings which may be personal collecting on a family business or may be materials he used to assist him in his own job. It isn't clear if St. John Associates and Time Inc. had a business relationship in the 1950s and 1960s, but the Time Education Program used them as one of their mail services in the 1970s.
Arrangement
Organized alphabetically with general files at the front.
General through '55, 1950-1957, inclusive
General '55, 1953-1955, inclusive
Scope and Contents
Includes two dummies for Sports Illustrated from 1953 and 1954.
General '55 [RESTRICTED], 1955, inclusive
General '56, 1956, inclusive
General '59, 1959, inclusive
Scope and Contents
Includes his telephone book listing contacts.
General '59, 1959, inclusive
General 1961, 1961, inclusive
General 1962, 1962, inclusive
General, 1962-1966, inclusive
Scope and Contents
Includes portrait photographs of Fisler and photographs of him at work events.
Bonnie Briar Country Club, 1964-1965, inclusive
Hundred Million Club, 1954-1955, inclusive
Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company, 1965, inclusive
Royal National Bank of New York, 1936-1964, inclusive
Scope and Contents
Includes account books from East River Savings Bank and Flatbush Federal Savings and Loan Association of Brooklyn.
Sleepy Hollow Country Club, 1964-1966, inclusive
St. John Associates Inc., 1946-1963, inclusive
Scope and Contents
The folders for 1958-1963 have extensive Williams College promotional material which may have been misfiled from the Williams College files.
St. John Associates Inc., 1958-1966, inclusive
Taxes [RESTRICTED], 1952, inclusive
Subsubseries III.A.3. Speech Files, 1952-1965, inclusive
Extent
Scope and Contents
Speeches include copies of speeches given by Fisler along with collected copies of speeches given by others. Speeches were on the topics of sales, advertising, and marketing, and audiences included staff from various Time Inc. publications and attendees of national sales conventions, university events, and advertising clubs and associations. This subseries includes several speeches by Time Inc. president Roy Larsen.
The 1955 file contains a speech by Advertising Promotion Director Nicholas Samstag on the topic of "Time's Greatest Promotion Asset."
Arrangement
Organized chronologically.
Speeches, 1952-1965, inclusive
Subseries III.B. Promotion Director: General Files, 1957, 1966-1969, inclusive
Extent
Scope and Contents
Records are a mix of files from Advertising Promotion Executive Promotion Director Dave Aubrey, Promotion Director Richard Coffey, and assistant to the director Alan Martin.
Arrangement
Organized alphabetically.