Weekly Spots

POSTED: July 26, 2010

(White Plains, NY) July 26, 2010 – According to Arbitron, Washington D.C. is the 9th largest radio market with a population of 4,279,900.

• Washington, D.C. formally the District of Columbia is the capital of the United States, founded on July 16, 1790. It was an attempt to have the Capital in a “neutral” area between the north and southern states.
• The District is not a state, thus residents do not have voting representation in the United States Senate and only a delegate in the House of Representatives, but D.C. is entitled to three electoral votes for President.
• Many notable private universities are located in Washington, including George Washington University, Georgetown University, American University, the Catholic University of America and the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. The University of the District of Columbia is a public university providing undergraduate and graduate education.
• Washington, D.C. is home to five major professional men's teams. The Washington Wizards – NBA, the Washington Capitals - NHL, Washington Nationals – MLB, D.C. United – MLS and the Washington Redskins – NFL.
• Some notable people who were born in Washington D.C. include: Marvin Gaye; singer, Chris Carmack; actor, Stephen Colbert; comedian, Duke Ellington; jazz great, Tim Gunn; fashion guru, Samuel L. Jackson; actor, Connie Chung; journalist and Maury Povich; TV personality.

WASHINGTON D.C. SPOT TEN

In the Washington, DC market the #1 radio advertiser was GEICO with 1,004 spots. Coming in #2 was THE HOME DEPOT with 790 commercials, while the UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND was #3 running 769 spots. SAFELITE AUTOGLASS was #4 airing 689 announcements and PNC was #5, up from #14, with 666 ads. JIFFY LUBE was #6, coming up from #79, with 616 spots, while HONDA was #7 with 610 ads. The HD DIGITAL RADIO ALLIANCE was #8 with 522 announcements and MCDONALD’S was #9 with 447 spots. Coming in at #10 was WOLF TRAP (Performing Arts Center) with 412 spots.

DOMESTC CARS & TRUCKS SPOT TEN

NATIONAL STATISTICS -

Ford just announced their best quarter with profits up 13%. This week, the Domestic Cars & Truck Spot Ten was only nine, with FORD LINCOLN MERCURY on top with 23,005 spots. CHEVROLET (GM) was #2 with 8,817 spots, while CHRYSLER JEEP DODGE was #3 with 5,417 ads. BUICK (GM) was #4 with 4,751 commercials and RAM (Chrysler Truck) was #5 running 1,269 spots. FORD FUSION HYBRID was #6 with 710 spots, while GM was #7 airing 560 announcements. CADILLAC (GM) was #8 with 458 spots and CHEVROLET CAMARO was #9 with 4 spots.

NATIONAL SPOT TEN

NATIONAL STATISTICS -

THE HOME DEPOT blasts back on top with 50,697 ads nationally. GEICO was very strong at #2 with 48,639 spots. SAFELITE AUTOGLASS was back at #3 with 45,989 spots, while MCDONALD’S was #4 with 25,406 spots. Coming in #5 was FORD LINCOLN MERCURY with 23,005 spots.

Posted: July 26, 2010

American Express started out in Albany, NY in 1850 as the first and most successful express delivery businesses to arise during the rapid westward expansion of the United States. It was founded as a joint stock corporation by the merger of the express companies owned by Henry Wells (Wells & Company), William Fargo (Livingston, Fargo & Company), and John Warren Butterfield (Wells, Butterfield & Company. Yes, the very same Wells Fargo.

The U.S. Postal Service was slow, expensive and nonexistent in many areas. Nothing larger than a letter-sized envelope could be sent by mail, and certainly nothing valuable, as a fair number of deliveries were lost or stolen enroute.

Although in its early years American Express was not itself a financial services company, its largest and most consistent clients were banks. Delivering the banks’ typically small parcels – stock certificates, notes, currency and other financial instruments – was considerably more profitable than transporting larger freight. Soon the company would scale down its parcel and freight delivery business in favor of creating and selling its own financial products.

In 1882, American Express launched the money order business, which proved an almost instant success. The company introduced the world’s first Travelers Cheque in 1891 and within ten years was selling more than $6 million annually.

In 1905, the U.S. Immigration Department awarded a contract to American Express to provide official currency exchange services. Over the years, countless newcomers completed their first business transactions in the United States at the American Express teller’s window on Ellis Island.

American Express issued its first charge card in 1958. Within five years, more than 1 million cards were in use at approximately 85,000 establishments within and outside the United States.

Today, American Express’ net income is more than $2 billion and they have 58,300 employees.

In the last 12 months, American Express has run 196,757 spots on Cable. The biggest month was December (holiday spending) with 34,178 spots.

American Express ran most of their spots on Radio, to the tune of 267,076 in the last 12 months. Again, December was the biggest month with 50,017 spots and then more in January, 41,295 ads.

On TV, American Express only ran 38,847 spots in the last 12 months. December they ran 9,162 spots and only 929 spots last July.

POSTED: July 26, 2010

Yum! Brands, Inc., based in Louisville, Ky., is the world's largest restaurant company in terms of system restaurants with more than 37,000 restaurants in over 110 countries and territories and more than 1 million associates.

Yum! Brands include KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and Long John Silver's, which are the global leaders of the chicken, pizza, Mexican-style food and quick-service seafood categories.

Yum! began on October 7, 1997, as Tricon Global Restaurants, Inc. an independent company, as a result of a spin-off from PepsiCo, which owned and franchised the KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell brands worldwide.

Because of the company's previous relationship with Pepsi, Yum! Brands has a lifetime contract with PepsiCo.

In March 2002, Tricon announced the acquisition of Lexington, Kentucky-based Yorkshire Global Restaurants, owner of the Long John Silver's and A&W All-American Food chains and its intention to change the company's name to Yum! Brands, Inc.

The growth of Yum! Brands throughout the United States has slowed from its previous rapid expansion because the chain has saturated most of the domestic market. The future growth of Yum! Brands is targeted mainly at other countries; China in particular has a large population and is enjoying increases in income.

Since 2006, Yum! Brands has served as the corporate sponsor of the Kentucky Derby. And last year, YUM Brands delivered revenues of $10.84 billion with a net income of $1.07 billion. They employ 350,000.

MCDONALD’S is the leader in fast food. This is one of best examples of taking the franchise model to the max. The history of McDonald’s has in a sense, two beginnings. In 1927, two McDonald brothers, Dick and Mac McDonald opened a hot dog stand called "The Airdrome" at the airport in Monrovia, California.

In 1940, they moved 40 miles away and opened the first McDonald’s fast food restaurant in San Bernardino, California, on U.S. Route 66. The menu consisted of 25 items, mostly barbecue. As was common at the time, they employed around 20 carhops. It became a popular and highly profitable teen hangout.

After WW2, they saw that almost all of their profits came from hamburgers. They closed the restaurant for several months to implement their innovative "Speedee Service System", a streamlined assembly line for hamburgers. The carhops are fired, and when the restaurant reopened. McDonald’s only offered hamburgers, milkshakes, and French fries. At 15 cents, the burgers were a great deal and they were served hot. The restaurant was extremely successful, and its fame is spread by word of mouth.

The McDonald brothers were selling franchises in California, when an entrepreneur and milkshake-mixer salesman Ray Kroc became mesmerized by the McDonald's restaurant during a sales visit. After seeing the restaurant in operation, Kroc approaches the McDonald brothers, with a proposition to let him franchise McDonald's restaurants outside the company's home state. And the rest is history, as they say.

In 1955, Ray Kroc founds "McDonald's Systems, Inc." and his first McDonald's restaurant in Des Plaines, Illinois, in suburban Chicago.

One of their great marketing ideas was to list on their large golden arch signs, the number of hamburgers sold. By 1959, they sold 100 millionth burger, and then in 1963, the one billionth burger was sold.

As McDonald’s grew, an interesting innovative method occurred. Franchisees would suggest ideas to be added to the menu. They would test them in their local markets, the BIG MAC in Pittsburgh, Cheese on Fish Sandwiches in Cincinnati or apple pie deserts. And when these proved successful, they were rolled out nationwide. An owner in Santa Barbara invented the Egg McMuffin, for example.

As McDonald’s spread around the world, cultural and political doors were opened to accept this piece of Americana. Along with growing a business, McDonald’s created the Ronald McDonald House for the children and families of terminally ill children. These are located near hospitals caring for the children. Along with being one of the most successful corporations in the world, the company’s iconic stature has penetrated every country of the world.

Last year McDonald’s had revenues of $22.74 billion with a net income of $4.55 billion. They have 385,000 employees.

Yum more than doubles McDonald’s on Cable with 945,350 to Mickey D’s 336,477 spots in the last 12 months.

On Radio, McDonald’s is the king with 1,875,124 spots against Yum Brands’ 374,245 ads.

McDonald’s on TV ran 493,496 ads against Yum Brands 187,092 spots.

Posted: July 26, 2010

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