Weekly Spots

POSTED: October 11, 2010

(White Plains, NY) October 11, 2010 - According to Arbitron, Birmingham, AL is the 57th largest radio market with a population of 891,000.

• Birmingham is the largest city in Alabama and contains about one-quarter of the entire population of Alabama.
• Birmingham was founded in 1871, just after the American Civil War, through the merger of three pre-existing towns. Birmingham was named for Birmingham, England, once one of the major metal manufacturing industrial cities of Great Britain. Birmingham was once called “the Pittsburgh of the South” due to its steel plants; it’s also known as Magic City.
• For years rails and railroad cars were both manufactured in Birmingham. In the field of railroading, the two primary hubs of railroading in the Deep South were Atlanta, Georgia, and Birmingham, beginning in the 1860s and continuing through to the present day.
• As the city grew, other industries kicked in, including banking, telecommunications, transportation, electrical power transmission, medical care, college education and insurance.
• Some of the schools of higher learning in Birmingham: The University of Alabama at Birmingham, Samford University (includes the Cumberland School of Law), Birmingham School of Law, Miles College (includes the Miles Law School), Jefferson State Community College and Birmingham-Southern College.
• Although the city fields no professional teams, Birmingham is home to the Birmingham Barons, the AA minor league affiliate of the Chicago White Sox, which plays at Regions Park.
• Famous people from Birmingham: Actress Amber Benson, football coach Bobby Bowden, actress Nell Carter, NFL’s Tim Castille, actress Ashley Crow, Activist Angela Davis, American Idol’s Dianna DeGarmo, author Fannie Flagg, jazz great Lionel Hampton, actress Kate Jackson, track star Carl Lewis and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

BIRMINGHAM SPOT TEN

In the Magic City last week on the radio, GEICO was the #1 advertiser with 897 ads. The US DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES was #2 with 742 commercials, while SAFELITE AUTOGLASS was #3 running 651 spots. THE HOME DEPOT held down #4 with 647 spots and RIVERCHASE KIA was #5 airing 594 announcements. SEARS landed in #6 with 423 spots, while RITE AID jumped from #14 to #7 with 385 ads. CHARTER BUNDLE was #8 with 355 spots and ALFA INSURANCE was #9 with 320 spots. Coming in #10 was SAM’S CLUB airing 311 spots.

CONSUMER ELECTRONICS SPOT TEN

NATIONAL STATISTICS -

In the realm of consumer electronics, the #1 advertiser was CAR TOYS that drove up from #55 to #1 last week with 1,993 spots. TRONIX COUNTRY was #2 with 1,922 spots, while C.CRANE COMPANY was #3 with 1,126 ads. AUDIO EXP MOBILE ONE TX QUALITY AUDIO was #4 with 1,101 commercials and CONN’S was #5 with 762 spots. VIDEO ONLY was #6 with 750 ads, while ABC WAREHOUSE was #7 with 680 spots. BRANDSMART USA leaped from #30 to #8 with 577 spots and ELECTRONICS EXPRESS was #9 with 479 spots. Coming in #10 was BEST BUY with 431 spots.

NATIONAL SPOT TEN

NATIONAL STATISTICS -

GEICO remains in the top spot with 57,140 spots on the radio last week. THE HOME DEPOT remains at #2 with 42,983 spots, while SAFELITE AUTOGLASS is back in the top five at #3 running 31,188 spots. RITE AID pops from #8 up to #4 with 25,540 ads and MCDONALD’S claims #5 with 24,702 spots. Note: The HD DIGITAL RADIO ALLIANCE was in at #6 with 20,597 spots.

Posted: October 11, 2010

Rosetta Stone began with one man’s quest for a better way to learn a language. Allen Stoltzfus began studying Russian in the 1980s, but became frustrated with his slow progress. Fortunately, he knew there was a better way to learn a language, through immersion, which he had experienced years earlier while studying in Germany. Allen’s command of German was a direct result of being a part of the culture and the world of Germany, instead of sitting in a classroom. He immersed himself in the language, and discovered German the way he had acquired his first language…naturally and without translation.

And so, an idea was born. Allen envisioned using computer technology to simulate the way that people learn their native language—with pictures and sounds in context, and with no translation. Allen went to his brother-in-law, John Fairfield, who had a Ph.D. in computer science, to explore the possibilities. John loved the idea, but he and Allen had to wait until technology caught up with their vision.

In 1992 when Fairfield Language Technologies was founded in Harrisonburg, Va. Allen, the company’s Chairman and President, recruited his brother, Eugene Stoltzfus, from the world of architecture to be the company’s first Executive Vice President. Eugene also lent design expertise to the structural and visual components of the program, which quickly went from a dream to a reality.

Allen, John and Eugene called their product “Rosetta Stone,” named after the artifact that had unlocked the secrets of Egyptian hieroglyphics for linguists.

Allen passed away in 2002, but his legacy of achievement and innovation inspires the company to this very day. Eugene filled the role of President and Chairman until the end of 2005. Tom Adams was named CEO in 2003.

In 2006, the company was sold to investment firms ABS Capital Partners and Norwest Equity Partners, and was renamed after their signature product. The company became publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange (RST) in April 2009, providing language-learning solutions for more than 30 different languages in more than 150 countries.

Rosetta Stone expanded to offices in London, Munich, Tokyo, Seoul, and Boulder, Colorado, while maintaining its executive offices in Washington, D.C.

Last year the company delivered revenues of $252.27 million with a net income of $13.36 million with sales growth in 2009 of 20.5%. They have 922 employees.

In the last 12 months, Rosetta Stone as run 98,811 spots on Local Cable. The biggest month was last October when they ran 16,318 spots in that month.

On the radio, they ran most of their campaign with 527,978 spots in the last 12 months. They started out strong in January with 55,440 ads that month.

not one of their forces. They ran only 7,805 ads in the last 12 months with their biggest month this last August (1,662) and July (2,026).

POSTED: October 11, 2010

Wells Fargo & Co. was founded in 1852 by Henry Wells and William Fargo. The new company offered banking (buying gold, and selling paper bank drafts as good as gold) - and express (rapid delivery of the gold and anything else valuable).

Wells Fargo opened for business in the gold rush port of San Francisco, and soon Wells Fargo’s agents opened offices in the other cities and mining camps of the West.

By 1918, Wells Fargo was part of 10,000 communities across the country. That same year, the federal government took over the nation’s express network during the First World War, as part of the “war effort”. Wells Fargo was left with just one bank in San Francisco.

Through the 20th Century, Wells Fargo rebuilt from just one office in San Francisco. And in the 1960s, Wells Fargo became a northern California regional bank with branch offices everywhere.

In the 1980s Wells Fargo expanded into a state-wide bank and became the seventh largest bank in the nation. It also launched an online service. By the 1990s, Wells Fargo was back into their original areas throughout the Western, Midwestern and Eastern states.

Beginning in 2009, Wells Fargo had 6,650 retail branches (called stores by Wells Fargo), 12,260 Automated Teller Machines, 276,000 employees and over 48 million customers. Wells Fargo currently operates stores and ATMs under the Wells Fargo and Wachovia names.

Bank of America Corporation has strong Italian roots. Amadeo Giannini established Bank of America and Italy in Italy by buying Banca dell'Italia Meridionale in 1922.

Then in while doing business in the USA in 1927, Giannini consolidated his Bank of Italy with the Liberty Bank of America and then three years later, in 1930, renamed his bank the Bank of America.

Now based in Charlotte, North Carolina, Bank of America is the largest financial services company in the world, largest bank by assets and the second largest commercial bank by deposits. Bank of America is also the number one underwriter of global high yield debt, the third largest underwriter of global equity and the ninth largest adviser on global mergers and acquisitions.

Bank of America serves clients in more than 150 countries and has a relationship with 99 percent of the U.S. Fortune 500 companies and 83 percent of the Fortune Global 500. The company is a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average and a member of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).

On Cable, Wells Fargo ran about 77% as many spots as Bank of America. In the last 12 months, Bank of America ran 122,591 spots, as compared to Wells Fargo who ran 94,366 spots.

On the Radio, Bank of America only ran about 6% of what Wells Fargo ran on this media. Wells Fargo clocked in with 306,096 spots, while Bank of America only cleared 18,215 spots.

On TV, the battle was more even, but low. Wells Fargo ran 47,528 spots against Bank of America’s 59,020 commercials in the last 12 months.

Posted: October 11, 2010

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