BAYKO Adverts in 'The Liverpool Echo'

In BAYKO's home town, 'The Liverpool Echo' was, and indeed remains, the main daily paper for Liverpool and its surrounding region. Even so BAYKO adverts were restricted to one or two in the run up to Christmas, during the 1950s.
There is a 'tradition', not just for the toy market, of aligning individual retailers' adverts to the manufacturers own offering, the following script from Mr. MECCANO's pre-Christmas Letter to Retailers, in 1960, is clear : -
“We invite you to join us in your local paper, where we shall be showing 8"[i.e. 8 inch] double-column advertisements in the week commencing November 29th.”
“We attach a proof of this advertisement and a list of the papers selected. All you have to do is get in touch with the newspaper now and ask for your advertisement to be displayed next to our insertion. This will cost you next to nothing - but it makes highly effective advertising!”
Before I discuss the adverts themselves, I want to comment on their timing. As far as I can discover, the adverts only ever appeared on Fridays in the run up to Christmas. The adverts start shortly after post-war rationing effects had lifted and their timing clearly changed across the period covered. Presumably as a response to wider shopping behaviour patterns, there is a very clear trend, slightly disturbed by 1958, to bring the advertising period forward - by almost two weeks in just seven years.
The left hand end of each bar [below] shows the first advert's date and I've assumed each advert covered 6 shopping days, i.e. from Friday [publication day] to Thursday [publication eve!] - there was absolutely no Sunday shopping in those days, remember!
A graph showing the periods covered by BAYKO adverts in the Liverpool Echo over the 1950s
The adverts varied, not just from each other, but also from the contemporary adverts that were used in the U.K. toy trade publications.
Perhaps it was coincidental, but most of the adverts appeared, across two or three columns, down the right hand side of the page.
If you examine several of the adverts from the later 1950s, you will see that there are classified sized adverts for local BAYKO retailers hanging on Plimpton's coat tails - a clear indication of a proactive relationship with their customers.
 
There are also other pages showing BAYKO advertising in newspapers : -

BAYKO Adverts in 'The Liverpool Echo'

1952, December 12th
1953, December 11th
1954, December 10th
1955, December 2nd
BAYKO advert from the Liverpool Echo, Friday, December 12th, 1952 - page 10
BAYKO advert from the Liverpool Echo, Friday, December 11th, 1953 - page 10
BAYKO advert from the Liverpool Echo, Friday, December 10th, 1954 - page 10
BAYKO advert from the Liverpool Echo, Friday, December 2nd, 1955 - page 14
BAYKO advert from the Liverpool Echo, Friday, December 9th, 1955 - page 6
BAYKO advert from the Liverpool Echo, Friday, November 30th, 1956 - page 12
BAYKO advert from the Liverpool Echo, Friday, December 7th, 1956 - page 18
BAYKO advert from the Liverpool Echo, Friday, November 22nd, 1957 - page 8
1955, December 9th
1956, November 30th
1956, December 7th
1957, November 22nd
1957, November 29th
1957, December 6th
1958, December 5th
1958, December 12th
BAYKO advert from the Liverpool Echo, Friday, November 29th, 1957
BAYKO advert from the Liverpool Echo, Friday, December 6th, 1957
BAYKO advert from the Liverpool Echo, Friday, December 5th, 1958
BAYKO advert from the Liverpool Echo, Friday, December 12th, 1958
BAYKO advert from the Liverpool Echo, Friday, November 27th, 1959
Click on any of these thirteen 'Liverpool Echo' BAYKO adverts on this page to open a slightly larger image in a separate window.
I apologise for the fact that some of these images are a little distorted. The reason is quite simple. In order to provide the best quality image possible, I have had to photograph all the adverts directly from bound copies of the original newspapers which are held in the Liverpool Library Records Office, and they are far too fragile to be forced flat.
If you can help provide a better quality image, then I'd love to hear from you…
Again I would just like to point out the, clearly successful, policy of linking numerous classified sized adverts to the larger BAYKO adverts, a procedure which seems to have been kicked off in 1956, as far as BAYKO advertising was concerned.
Two of these are of particular interest : -
The FREEMANS advert, December 5th, 1958 - for its “BAYCO” typing error, which was quickly corrected just a week later.
FREEMANS was a large, catalogue-based business, and there is further information, including evidence of their links with BAYKO, on a separate page…
The CURRYS advert [left], November 27th, 1959. Today CURRYS are widely known, but as part of what is now a well known electrical and electronic retail chain. However, here we have clear evidence that it began its life by selling toys, including the world's first, and finest, plastic construction toy!
1959, November 27th
 
Below here are links to related info : -
 
Click on any of the links below for related information.
 
 
 
 
   

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