BAYKO Advertising

Advertising isn't a 21st century invention and BAYKO, like every other product, needed to be advertised.

Unusually, the first advert mentioning BAYKO was a joint affair with BAKELITE, the firm which supplied raw materials to Plimpton...

The advert appeared in the February 1935 edition.

The February edition was the key issue every year as toy companies generated interest for the BIF [the British Industry Fair].

The BIF, in its turn, was a major vehicle for the British toy industry to show the toy retailers what was available as both sides of the trade prepared for Christmas!

The advert was placed by Berwick's Toy Company Limited, BAYKO's first distributor.

The advert was supported, on page 170 in the same edition, by a short 'puff' introducing the retailers to the merits of BAYKO.

Further adverts appeared in 'Games and Toys', again in the February issue, in 1936, 1937 and 1938.

As far as I have been able to establish, Berwick's, on Plimpton's behalf, began their marketing campaign to the wider British public with a BAYKO advert in the 'MECCANO Magazine'.

The advert [left] appeared in the 'MECCANO Magazine' in the September issue, in 1935, in the run up to Christmas.

That year's campaign continued with three further adverts, running the campaign right through to the to December issue.

Berwick's campaign continued, a little less intensely, for the next 2 years, with further BAYKO adverts appearing in the 'MECCANO Magazine' in both the November and December issues, in 1936 and again in 1937.

These were the last adverts in the 'MECCANO Magazine' before the war.

Fred Rogerson of Berwick's persuaded C.B. Plimpton to bring the marketing in house and was recruited some time in 1938.

The break with Berwick's was heralded in 'Games and Toys' in the May and June editions in 1939.

This, perhaps, precipitated the announcement in the last of those that Berwick's would not be attending the BIF next year!

The frequency of advertising gradually increased after this, with further adverts in September and October 1939 and May, June and September 1940.

Rather surprisingly, from June 1941 onwards, 'Games and Toys' was graced with a BAYKO advert every month throughout the war...

...got to keep the BAYKO name up there!

Wartime shortages affected printing in terms of shortage of both paper and printing plates, resulting in long term contracts for classified ad sized adverts from June 1941. This approach lasted until well beyond the end of the war.

Another large advert appeared in May 1942 telling frustrated retailers of the day that BAYKO will be supplied "as soon as victory is won".

The first large post-war advert appeared in 'Games and Toys' in May 1947 [right], presumably as raw material shortages began to slacken...

...unfortunately it gave no product details, which is a shame, when you consider just how rapidly BAYKO was developing at that time.

BAYKO also regularly advertised in two other toy trade publications : -

Regular post-war advertising in the 'MECCANO Magazine' only began as late as May 1949 [left], fully 2 years after the trade was given the message.

The association with the 'MECCANO Magazine' subsequently survived, pretty well unbroken, right through to the MECCANO takeover and up to the demise of BAYKO in 1964.

Initially ads were a mere quarter page until January 1951 when the size was doubled.

BAYKO went full size in 1953 [right].

Subsequently, declining sales led to a temporary reduction back to half page adverts in January 1959.

Immediately before the MECCANO takeover there was an interesting departure, with Plimpton arranging joint adverts with British Resin Products, a key raw material supplier...

The death throes of Plimpton and the trauma of the MECCANO takeover was reflected in the absence of any adverts in the first three months of 1960.

The last Plimpton era adverts appeared in April [left] and May 1960, though with no mention of either Plimpton or MECCANO.

This confusion was reflected in a confused BAYKO Flier from the same period : -

MECCANO finally advertised their ownership of BAYKO and launched their remodelled product in September, 1960 with the advert seen to the right here.

MECCANO belatedly demonstrated their good intentions towards BAYKO by two interesting initiatives in the 'MECCANO Magazine'. These are not actually adverts, but were clearly intended to boost awareness of the merits of BAYKO.

These often featured BAYKO buildings, drawing children's minds to the wider play possibilities of BAYKO models beyond the construction.

Left, is an example from November, 1961...

These began 6 months before BAYKO's death, running from July 1963 to May 1964 - the last being a month or so after production had stopped! An example can be seen to the right.

During BAYKO's heyday in the 1950's the advertising onslaught was broadened beyond the exclusively hobby based press.

Adverts, produced by C. Vernon & Sons of Rodney Street, Liverpool, appeared in comics like 'EAGLE' [left], 'GIRL' [right] and 'BOYS OWN'.

Parents were also targeted through local and regional newspapers.

So far I've drawn a blank with the national newspapers and the only regional paper I've found adverts in is BAYKO's home town paper, 'The Liverpool Echo'.

By contrast, Local Rags - perhaps slightly more respectfully referred to as small town newspapers - seem to be a much happier hunting ground for BAYKO adverts, or adverts for local toy shops which have the good sense to mention BAYKO!

Can you help swell the ranks of BAYKO adverts?

The more observant among you will have noticed that the above references are all to English papers.

Geography inevitably means that my opportunities to unearth BAYKO newspaper adverts elsewhere are limited - can you help? - but a visit to the Mitchell Library in Glasgow has provided me with several examples.

I have been able to discover BAYKO adverts - or toy shop adverts which specifically mention the world's finest construction toy - in two Scottish publications...

...The 'Daily Record', [left] which is a national newspaper north of the border...

...and the 'Glasgow Evening Times', [right] a local evening paper.

Not surprisingly Scottish BAYKO adverts were similar to their English counterparts, as was the policy of tagging classified sized adverts for local BAYKO distributors - toy shops or department store toy departments - below the main advert.

I've now visited Wrexham so that Wales is included...

So come on Belfast, Douglas, St Peter Port, St Hellier, St Mary's...

...why not help broaden the coverage.

I have been reliably informed that there were also BAYKO adverts shown in slots on the [then] newly launched commercial TV in the 1950's, though, unfortunately, nothing has survived - or do you know better?

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