Weekly Spots

POSTED: March 14, 2011

(White Plains, NY) March 14, 2011 – According to Arbitron, Atlanta, GA is the 7th largest radio market with a population of 4,479,800.

• Atlanta, the capital of Georgia, has been one of the fastest growing metropolitan areas in the nation since 2000.
• Atlanta has had many names: Standing Peachtree, Thrashersville, Terminus, Marthasville, and then, Atlantica-Pacifica (by railroaders) and then it was shortened to Atlanta. The city was incorporated as Atlanta on December 29, 1847.
• Atlanta is considered to be one of the top business cities with the fourth largest concentration of Fortune 500 companies in the country. One can find the worldwide headquarters of The Coca-Cola Company, Turner Broadcasting, UPS, AT&T Mobility, The Home Depot, and Delta Airlines located in Atlanta.
• Atlanta is home to the Atlanta Braves of Major League Baseball, the Atlanta Falcons of the National Football League, the Atlanta Hawks of the National Basketball Association, and the Atlanta Thrashers of NHL Hockey. Atlanta is the home for the NCAA Southeast Conference Football Championship Game: the Chick-fil-A bowl, in the Georgia Dome.
• Atlanta also hosted the 1996 Summer Olympics, moving them into world class status. They hosted the Superbowl in 1994 and 2000, the NCAA Men’s Final Four Championship in 2002, the Women’s Final Four in 2003 and the NHL All-Star game in 2008.
• The Atlanta area has more than 30 institutions of higher education, including: Georgia Institute of Technology, Georgia State University, Emory University, Clark Atlanta University, Morehouse College and Spelman College.
• Some famous faces: Margaret Mitchell author of “Gone with the Wind”; Martin Luther King Jr.; actress’ Julia Roberts, Holly Hunter and Dakota Fanning; T.V personality Ryan Seacrest; singer songwriter Usher; Rapper T.I.; movie directors Spike Lee and Steven Soderbergh and comedian Jeff Foxworthy.

ATLANTA SPOT TEN

In hot ‘lanta last week the #1 advertiser on the radio was KROGER with 535 spots. Coming in #2 and lovin’ it was MCDONALD’S with 512 spots. FORD LINCOLN MERCURY, up from #61 was #3 with 511 commercials, while H&R BLOCK was #4 with 502 ads. AT&T was #5 with 498 spots and HONDA was #6 airing 462 announcements. GEORGIA LOTTERY won #7 with 404 spots, while NETFLIX streamed into #8 with 398 spots. CHARTER HIGH-SPEED INTERNET was #9 with 376 spots and OVATION CELL THERAPY was #10 with 359 spots.

FAST FOOD SPOT TEN

NATIONAL STATISTICS -

MCDONALD’S was #1 last week in America with 26,859 spots. TACO BELL rang in at #2 with 10,350 spots, while SUBWAY was #3 airing 8,532 commercials. DOMINO’S PIZZA was #4 running 6,050 spots and BURGER KING clocked in at #5 with 5,607 ads. WENDY’S was #6 with 5,124 spots, while WHITE CASTLE slid into #7 with 4,368 spots. JIMMY JOHN’S was #8 with 3,629 spots and SONIC dropped to #9 from #7 with 2,381 spots. FIREHOUSE SUBS jumped into the SPOT TEN with 1,815 spots.

NATIONAL SPOT TEN

NATIONAL STATISTICS -

#1 and still champion GEICO ran 42,326 spots last week on US radio. THE HOME DEPOT jumped from #7 to #2 with 36,451 spots and NETFLIX was #3 with 30,196 spots. MCDONALD’S held #4 for another week with 26,859 ads, while SAM’S CLUB makes its first appearance in the top five with 23,221 spots.

Posted: March 14, 2011

The Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox is a TV network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation.

The TV network is the youngest of all major networks and was launched on October 9, 1986. Fox has grown from an upstart part-time network to the highest-rated broadcast network in the coveted 18–49 demographic.

The springboard for the network began in March 1985 when the News Corporation spent $250-million to bag 50 percent of TCF Holdings, the parent company of the 20th Century Fox movie studio.

Then in May 1985, the News Corporation agreed to pay $1.55 billion to acquire independent television stations in six major U.S. cities from John Kluge's company, Metromedia. This gave the News Corporation a major-market network base.

They continued their quest by buying up several smaller market TV groups, which helped them grow their network affiliate list faster. The speed in which Fox TV grew certainly surprised the other networks that have been around since the beginning of TV in America.

Fox TV programming in the late 80s and early 90s wasn’t that hot, but they did have a few shows that cut through like The X-Files, In Living Color, Ally McBeal, That 70s Show and Married with Children. They also made TV history by launching a whole night of animation TV shows including The Simpsons, King of the Hill and Family Guy based on the success of The Simpsons, now one of the longest running prime time shows with 22 seasons under Homer’s tight belt.

Fox TV lured part of the NFL away from CBS and developed a strong group of regional sports channels on cable. FOX Sports produces some 20,000 plus sporting events per year. Fox News, legendary for their political slant, uses the slogan “Fair and Balanced” although most critics would call them far right. The news channel has a solid ratings story for cable advertisers.

Their biggest TV show today is American Idol. They recently completed the run of 24 (a CIA influenced drama) and House, in its 6th season, a show that NBC Universal created and passed on, thus paved the way for FOX to land it. The most talked about show on Fox TV this year is GLEE, in its sophomore season, which has already picked up an EMMY.

They came up with a clever marketing brand with My Network TV, where the logo affiliates get a complete logo package based on My(channel number) TV. There are currently 27 stations owned Fox TV stations; 17 use the Fox branding and 10 work the MyNetworkTV positioning slogan.

Currently there are 200 My(Channel Number)TV affiliates nationwide, however any station in the network can chose to use the branding or not.

Unlike the Big Three, Fox does not air national morning or evening news programs. However, Fox News Channel, launched in 1996 is now available through virtually all cable and satellite providers in the United States and has a mix of news and opinion shows.

On Cable, Fox ran 618,582 spots in the last 12 months. They ran heavy schedules in January (63,243) and February (55,955) to kick off the new season.

On the Radio, Fox picks certain months that seem to line-up with the ratings sweeps. May was big with 59,950 spots, then September with 46,691 ads and then another spike in November of 62,843 spots. In the last 12 months, they ran a total of 367,779 spots on radio in the last 12 months.

TV on TV is always a good show. Fox ran 473,018 spots on TV in the last 12 months. The biggest month was January with 49,393 spots.

POSTED: March 14, 2011

Claritin, also known in its generic form as Loratadine, is an antihistamine used to treat allergies. Combined with the decongestant, pseudoephedrine, known as Claritin- D, it was developed for its ability to treat symptoms without the side effect of drowsiness. The drug was first developed and marketed by the pharmaceutical company, Schering-Plough, in the early 1990s and was approved by the FDA in 1993.

Schering-Plough was founded in 1851 by Ernst Christian Friedrich Schering and merged into Schering-Plough in 1971. On November 4, 2007, the company merged with Merck pharmaceuticals to form Merck & Co. Along with producing the popular brands Claritin and Clarinex, the company owns the Dr. Scholl’s brand of foot care products as well as the Coppertone skin care line.

Although it was not the first non-sedating antihistamine on the market, Claritin was a great success for Schering-Plough, making up 28% of the company’s total sales in 1993.

On December 10, 2002, Claritin became available as an over-the-counter medication just as its patent was about to expire. Claritin sales reached approximately $1.75 billion that year.

Claritin is most effective for the treatment of both nasal and eye symptoms: sneezing, runny nose, itchy or burning eyes. It can also be used for the treatment of hay fever, hives, and other skin allergies. It is offered in many different forms: tablets, syrup, redi-tabs, 12 hour decongestant, and 24 hour decongestant pills.

According to Merck & Co. 2009 financial report, the company had $27.4 billion in sales with total assets of more than $112 billion.

Zyrtec and its generic form, Cetirizine, are also second generation antihistamines that do not cause drowsiness in many people. It can also be combined with a decongestant to further improve sinus congestion, marketed as Zyrtec-D. Developed by Union Chimique Belge (UCB) in partnership with Pfizer, Zyrtec was developed in the 1980s and was approved by the FDA in 1996.

Today, Pfizer, Inc is number one in pharmaceutical sales in the world. It was founded in 1849 by cousins, Charles Pfizer and Charles Erhart, in Brooklyn, New York. Pfizer’s success was mostly attributed to its development of new fermentation technology that was used to mass produce penicillin during World War II.

Like its competitors, Zyrtec was approved for over the counter sales in 1997 upon the expiration of its patent with Pfizer. It was the highest grossing new non- food product on the market in the United States, however sales sharply declined in the following year to approximately $117 million.

Zyrtec is used for the treatment of runny nose; itchy, red, watery eyes; and itchy nose or throat. It is also used to treat itching and redness caused by hives. However, it does not prevent hives or other allergic skin reactions. It comes in varying forms such as tablet, a chewable tablet, an extended release tablet, and syrup.

In 2002, Zyrtec became the first and only antihistamine approved for infants as young as 6 months of age.

Upon the development and marketing of Zyrtec, Pfizer saw $1.5 billion in sales of the product after its introduction. In 2009, Pfizer had revenues totaling approximately $50 billion.

On Cable Claritin ran 160,230 spots in the last 12 months, while Zyrtec had 127,342 on the air. The biggest months were the big pollen months, April (31,187) and May (33,719) for Claritin and for Zyrtec they too hit it hard in April (26,425) and May (28,815).

Radio is clearly under used by these advertisers. Zyrtec only ran 548 spots on radio in the last 12 months, while Claritin hit 11,814 for the year. Zyrtec has not run a radio spot since last May. Makes you want to sneeze.

On TV, Zyrtec ran 109,574 spots against Claritin’s 79,074 in the last 12 months. For Claritin the biggest months were again April (15,930) and May (15,895), but Zyrtec ran 22,966 spots in May, but then ran 20,737 spots in August.

Posted: March 14, 2011

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