Weekly Spots

POSTED: February 1, 2010

(White Plains, NY) February 1, 2010 - According to Arbitron, New Orleans, LA is the 52th largest radio market with a population of 1,003,700. It had been down to the 55th market two years ago, but the Big Easy is coming back.

• La Nouvelle-Orléans (New Orleans) was founded in 1718 by the French Mississippi Company, under the direction of Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville and was named for Philippe II, Duke of Orléans.
• In the early 20th century, New Orleans' most significant development was a drainage plan devised by engineer and inventor A. Baldwin Wood. Until then, urban development was largely limited to higher ground along natural river levees and bayous.
• When Hurricane Katrina approached the city at the end of August 2005, the city's federal flood protection system failed, resulting in the worst civil engineering disaster in American history. 80% of the city flooded. Tens of thousands of residents who had remained in the city made their way to shelters of last resort at the Louisiana Superdome or the Morial Convention Center. Over 1,500 people died in Louisiana during the Katrina hurricane.
• Annually, tourism in New Orleans is a $5.5 billion industry and accounts for 40 percent of New Orleans' tax revenues. Tourism employed 85,000 people, making it New Orleans' top industry. This industry is slowly coming back.
• The influence of Jazz can be felt everywhere. Some of the great names in music were from New Orleans: Louis Armstrong, Fats Domino, Pete Fountain, Al Hirt, Professor Longhair, Allen Toussaint, Harry Connick, Jr., the Marsalis family, which includes Branford, Ellis, Jason, and Wynton, and of course, Dr. John Rebennack and the talented Neville Brothers.
• This week is a special one for professional sports with the New Orleans Saints of the NFL facing the Indianapolis Colts in the SUPERBOWL. This is the first time the Saints have been in the BIG GAME. Oh, by the way, the city also has the New Orleans Hornets of the NBA, the New Orleans VooDoo of the AFL, and the New Orleans Zephyrs of the PCL.

NEW ORLEANS SPOT TEN

The #1 radio advertiser last week in the Crescent City was ROOMS TO GO with 654 spots. GEICO was #2 running 576 ads, while H&R BLOCK was #3 airing 398 announcements. BETA PROSTATE was up from #24 to #4 with 347 spots and TOYOTA SCION OF SLIDELL was #5 with 327 spots. The LOUISIANA DEPPARTMENT OF HEALTH & HOSPITALS was #6 with 322 spots, while AT&T jumped from #25 to #7 with 313 commercials. JOHN GEORGES FOR MAYOR ran 305 spots and clocked in at #8 and RAMSEY'S JEWELERS were #9 running 288 spots. Coming in #10 was CONSUMER DEBT ADVOCATE with 281 spots.

ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES SPOT TEN

NATIONAL STATISTICS -

The #1 alcoholic beverage advertising on the radio in America last week was SAM ADAMS BOSTON LAGER with 3,373 spots. #2 was COORS LIGHT with 2,954 ads, while MILLER HIGH LIFE was #3 with 942 commercials. BUDWEISER was #4 running 916 and BUD LIGHT tapped #5 with 675 spots. LABATT BLUE was #6, eh, with 529 spots and MILLER GENUINE DRAFT LIGHT 64 was #7 with 486 ads. MILLER LITE was #8 airing 480 announcements, while CROWN ROYAL was #9 with 275 hard liquor ads. #10 was MICHELOB ULTRA with 208 spots.

NATIONAL SPOT TEN

NATIONAL STATISTICS -

GEICO remains the leader this week with 57,690 spots. VERIZON was in the #2 position with 34,957 ads, while H&R BLOCK jumped from #4 to #3 with their 31,192 commercials. MCDONALD'S was #4 with 22,115 spots and TURBO TAX from Intuit, Inc. gets into #5 with 21,388 spots. OF SPECIAL NOTE: TOYOTA in the middle of their massive recall, dropped from #20 (Jan. 18-24, 2010) to #63 this week. In one week they fell from 9,624 spots down to 4,562 last week. We will follow the effect of the recall on their spots in the coming weeks.

Posted: February 1, 2010

AT&T is in large measure the history of the telephone in the United States. AT&T's roots stretch back to 1875, with founder Alexander Graham Bell's invention of the telephone. During the 19th century, AT&T became the parent company of the Bell System, the American telephone monopoly.

In a suit that began in 1974 and ended in 1984, the Justice Department demanded the largest "voluntary" break-up in the history of American business. AT&T was forced to divest, producing many "baby-Bells", which included, Bell Atlantic, Bell South and others.

On September 20, 1995, AT&T announced that it was restructuring into three separate publicly traded companies: a systems and equipment company (which became Lucent Technologies,) a computer company (NCR) and a communications services company (which would remain AT&T.)

On December 9, 2001, AT&T and the cable-operator Comcast reached a definitive agreement to merge AT&T Broadband with Comcast. The businesses completed their merger on November 18, 2002, and began combined operations as the Comcast Corporation. Comcast is currently working on a merger with NBC Universal and stirring up some dust in Washington, DC with diversity groups. The FCC will have hearings.

Recent company documents show an increase of 6.1 million wireless customers to a new total of 81.6 million customers over the past year. AT&T employs over 300,000 people.

Here is how they spend money on Radio, TV and Cable in the last 12 months.

The year started out with a gradual increase each month on Cable until July. Then, in December, they had a big finish. AT&T ran 77,654 spots in December alone and the 2009 total on Cable was 591,899.

Most spots overall for AT&T ran on Radio which accounted for 52% of all spots; more than TV and Cable combined. Their big months were May, June and December. The total for 2009 on radio was 1,242,255 spots.

Over all, AT&T ran the most spots for all 3 media during the month of December, followed by June and May for Radio and Cable, November and June for TV. Perhaps cell phones for the holidays were the driver in December. The total for 2009 on TV was 566,680.

POSTED: February 1, 2010

Merck's history can be traced back to Darmstadt, Germany, in 1668 when an apothecary named Frederic Jacob Merck opened a chemical firm. In 1891, Merck moved to New York and set up Merck & Co., Inc., originally a chemicals supplier. By the early 1930's, Merck launched its pharmaceutical research division. The merger with Sharp & Dohme in 1953 created Merck Sharp & Dohme and established a solid foundation for a fully integrated, multi-national producer and distributor of pharmaceutical products. Merck & Co., Inc acquired Medco Containment Services, Inc. in 1993, the leading pharmacy benefits management company in the United States.

Early in 2009 Merck bought Schering-Plough, their competitor, for $41 billion. On November 4, 2009 Merck officially combined forces with Schering-Plough and brought all the Schering-Plough brands under the Merck's name. The collective work force in New Jersey alone is numbered around 15,000, but they did say the merger would produce a cost savings of approximately $3.5 billion annually.

During the past six decades, Merck & Co., Inc. has built a global research organization that ranks among the best worldwide in terms of the scientists and breakthroughs in medical research. Today, Merck & Co., Inc. has about 70,000 employees in 120 countries and 31 factories worldwide. Their products are sold in more than 200 countries. Merck currently has an annual net income of $7.81 billion.

Bristol - Myers, the first two names on the company masthead were pioneers in the field. William McLaren Bristol and his friend, John Ripley Myers, invested $5,000 into the Clinton Pharmaceutical Company, a failing drug manufacturing firm located in Clinton, New York. The company was officially incorporated on December 13, 1887, with Bristol as president and Myers as vice president.

Squibb has a nautical beginning. As a young U.S. Navy doctor in the late 1800's, Edward Robinson Squibb was so unimpressed by the quality of medicines available on ships during the Mexican War that he pitched the unfit drugs overboard. In 1858, he founded his own pharmaceutical laboratory in Brooklyn, New York. E.R. Squibb, M.D. was dedicated to the production of consistently pure medicines.

Both storied companies competed against each other until 1989, when Bristol-Myers merged with Squibb, creating the world's second-largest pharmaceutical enterprise. The histories are rich with innovation and development.

For those over forty, Bristol-Myers brought us Sal Hepatica, Ipana toothpaste, Vitalis hair tonic, Mum under arm deodorant for women and ventured into beauty products when they bought Clairol. While Squibb was famous in the old days for Cod Liver Oil, which your mother used to shove down your throat to make you feel better. Squibb and Bristol-Myers were both involved in the production of penicillin. Squibb's tuberculosis drug, Nydrazid, was hailed by doctors as a treatment for that dreaded ailment. Squibb also gets credit for the electric tooth brush.

Bristol-Myers Squibb has a net income of $5.25 billion per year and has 35,000 employees.

Let's see how these giants in the pharmaceutical business to promote their products:

MEDIA USAGE

Last 12 Months

On Cable, Merck ran more than twice the Bristol-Myers Squibb spots. Merck with 522,844 to B-M S's 204,885.

On the radio, Wells Fargo tops Chase with their 261,707 spots against 227,999 for Chase.

On TV, Chase owns the game with 100,246 ads in the last 12 months compared to Wells Fargo's 25,423.

Posted: February 1, 2010

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