Weekly Spots

POSTED: April 4, 2011

(White Plains, NY) April 4, 2011 – According to Arbitron, Philadelphia is the 8th largest radio market with a population of 4,474,300.

• Philadelphia is the largest city in the state of Pennsylvania, one of the original 13 colonies. Wanting to escape religious persecution, Penn established a colony where anyone could worship freely despite their religion. In 1682 Penn named the city Philadelphia, which is Greek for brotherly love (philos, "love" or "friendship", and adelphos, "brother"). Most people from the city informally call it "Philly."

• Philadelphia is home to many historical landmarks relating to the founding of the United States such as Independence Hall, where the Declaration of Independence was signed, as well as the Liberty Bell. The city also has an array of science, historical, and art museums including the Franklin Institute, The National Constitution Center, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art whose front staircase was featured in the 1976 film, Rocky.

• Philadelphia is unique in that it is a city of “firsts.” It was the first capital of the United States from 1790-1800; the place of the country’s first hospital, The Pennsylvania Hospital; the place of the country’s first public library, the home of the America’s first zoo; the place of the country’s first university, The University of Pennsylvania founded in 1779, which was the home of the first computer ever built.

• The city is also a national center of law as it is the location of the prestigious University of Pennsylvania Law School, Temple University Beasley School of Law, Villanova University School of Law, Widener University School of Law, and Drexel University College of Law. Additionally, the headquarters of the American Law Institute is located in Philadelphia.

• Professional sports have always been vitally important to Philadelphians: the city is the home of the Philadelphia Eagles of the NFL, the Philadelphia Flyers of the NHL, the Philadelphia Phillies of MLB, and the Philadelphia 76ers of the NBA.

• There are many notable people from Philadelphia: actor, Will Smith; actor, Kevin Bacon; actor/comedian, Bill Cosby; actress/Princess of Monaco, Grace Kelly; jazz musician, John Coltrane; pop/rock star, Pink; NBA player, Kobe Bryant; former NBA star, Wilt Chamberlain; and film director, M. Night Shyamalan.

PHILADELPHIA SPOT TEN

In Philly last week, the #1 radio advertiser was GEICO with 956 spots. PNC deposited themselves at #2 with 875 ads, while THE HOME DEPOT was #3 airing 780 commercials. VERIZON was #4 running 751 spots and the HD DIGITAL RADIO ALLIANCE was #5 with 633 spots. MCDONALD’S was #6 with 555 announcements, while WALGREENS jumped from #13 to #7 with 522 ads. AUTOZONE jumped from #34 to #8 with 518 spots and XFINITY BUNDLE from Comcast landed at #9 with 501 commercials. And in at #10 was PROGRESSIVE insuring their spot with 480 spots.

GOVERNMENT, UNIONS & ASSOCIATIONS SPOT TEN

NATIONAL STATISTICS -

In this unique category, we see some very diverse messages. #1 in the USA was the US DEPARTMETNT OF HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES with 9,463 spots. Coming in #2 was the ARMY NATIONAL GUARD with 6,534 recruitment ads. The US DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION drove into #3 airing 2,788 announcements, while the US ARMY marched from #18 up to #4 with 2,179 spots. The US FOREST SERVICE hugged #5 with 1,935 and the INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE was #6 writing off some 1,845 commercials. The US DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE weighed in at #7 with 1,834 spots and the US COAST GUARD sailed into #8 running 1,688 spots. The US ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY sprayed 1,518 spots over the airwaves giving them the #9 position, while the US DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE ploughed 1,450 spots into the #10 slot.

NATIONAL SPOT TEN

NATIONAL STATISTICS -

The duel at the top continues, with THE HOME DEPOT winning this round with 43,995 spots forcing GEICO back to #2 with 39,545 commercials. MCDONALD’S was #3 with 24,746 spots and AUTOZONE jumped from #18 to #4 with 23,034 ads. And reestablishing themselves in top five, the HD DIGITAL RADIO ALLIANCE was #5 with 20,658 spots.

Posted: April 4, 2011

Netflix, Inc. is a service that is dedicated to flat rate online DVD and Blu-Ray video rental as well as on-demand video streaming. The company was started in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California. Hastings’ inspiration for starting the company came after renting the movie Apollo 13 and incurring $40 in late fees, well over the actual cost of the video itself!

The Netflix website launched in April of 1998 on a pay-per-rental basis and by the following year it had adopted its monthly subscription model with no late fees, no due dates, no shipping fees, and no per-title rental fees.

In 2000, Netflix came up with an algorithm, known as CineMatch, which compares rental patterns among its customers and looks for similarities in taste in order to recommend titles to people whose profiles are similar. It can also be programmed to combine the attributes of two users, such as a married couple, and recommend titles that they both might like. The information collected from the CineMatch system is also shared with movie studios to help them plan marketing campaigns.

On May 22, 2002 Netflix went public selling 5,500,000 shares at $15 per share. Two years later the company posted its first profitable year since its inception. In 2002, they had 670,000 subscribers.

As of 2009, Netflix had 100,000 different DVD titles to choose from and had surpassed the 10 million members mark. In addition to watching movies on ones television or computer, Netflix is compatible with the Mac brand of devices (iPod, iPad, iPhone, and Apple TV), gaming consoles (Sony Playstation 3, Microsoft Xbox 360, and Nintendo Wii), and TiVo among others.

Today, Netflix has over 20 million members and ships nearly 2 million discs per day. In 2010, the company reported total revenues of $2.16 billion with $806.41 billion in profits. They currently have 4,329 employees.

On Cable, Netflix ran 81,901 spots in the last 12 months with the largest schedules running in August (11,797) and September (11,710).

Someone must have alerted Netflix to the power of radio. In February they jumped to 74,016 spots and then last month, they hit 123,568 spots. They ran 602,573 spots in the last 12 months on radio.

On TV, Netflix ran 100,885 spots in the last 12 months with a spike in December with 14,233. The total was one-sixth what they ran on radio.

POSTED: April 4, 2011

Safeway, Inc. (NYSE: SWY) is North America’s third largest supermarket chain with 1,702 stores across the United States and Canada.

In April 1912, Sam Seelig founded the Sam Seelig Company and opened a single grocery store in Los Angeles, California. By 1922, the chain had grown to 71 stores. In 1925, the company held a contest to come up with a new name after Seelig’s departure, the result being Safeway. Safeway had 322 stores centered in Southern California by the next year.

Skaggs Stores was founded in 1915 by Marion Barton “M.B.” Skaggs in American Falls, Idaho. On July 1, 1926, Safeway merged with 673 Skaggs United Stores and left Safeway as the largest chain of grocery stores west of the Mississippi at that time.

Two years later M.B. listed Safeway on the New York Stock Exchange. He did not let the difficulties of the Great Depression dilute his pioneering focus on value for customers. In the 1930's Safeway introduced produce pricing by the pound, open dating on perishables to assure freshness, nutritional labeling, even some of the first parking lots.

Throughout Safeway’s history, the company focused a great deal of attention on acquisitions. From the 1940s-1970s and then again in the 1990s, Safeway took over many regional grocery chains. They currently operate, in addition to the Safeway name, Carrs supermarket chain in Alaska; Casa Ley in Western Mexico; Dominick’s in the Chicago Metro area; Genuardi’s in the Delaware Valley region; Pak’ n’ Save in California; Randall’s Food Market in Texas; Tom Thumb Food & Pharmacy in North Texas; and Vons in Southern California and Nevada.

Safeway also offers a wide range of brands to its customers. Its success is linked to the introduction of one of the most extensive private labels programs in North America with some 3,000 products including Safeway, Lucerne and Mrs. Wright's. An additional 1,250 premium products are marketed under the Safeway SELECT label.

In 2010, Safeway’s total revenue was over $41 billion. They currently have 180,000 employees.

SUPERVALU Inc. (NYSE: SVU) is an American grocery retailer and distributor that is currently the 4th largest grocer in the U.S. with a retail network of over 2,500 stores.

In 1926, the Winston and Newell Company was founded, a direct ancestor of SuperValu. The company served as a wholesale food provider to the Minnesota area. In 1952, the company changed its name to SuperValu Inc and went public on September 13, 1967.

By 1971, the company reached the $1 billion sales mark, which capped off more than 40 years of unbroken sales growth.

Like Safeway, SuperValu put most of its time and effort into its acquisitions. By 1998, it handled 15% of the nation’s food distribution business. One standout venture took place in 2006 when SuperValu (along with a collection of other investors including CVS Corporation, Kimco Realty, and Cerberus Group) acquired Albertsons Inc for $9.7 billion. This gave SuperValu over 1100 stores including Albertsons, Acme, Jewel and Jewel-Osco, Osco Pharmacy, and Shaw’s among others.

SuperValu offers its customers its own brand of products, along with private label brands from its other stores operating under different banners. They include the Acme and Albertson brands; Culinary Circle, restaurant quality food; Farm Stand produce; HomeLife, in home non-food products; Java Delight coffee; SuperCrunch snack foods; and Wild Harvest Organic Foods to name a few.

SuperValu’s total 2010 revenue was $44.6 billion. They have approximately 200,000 employees nationwide.

On Cable, SuperValu ran 64.9% as many spots as Safeway. SuperValu ran 6,302 spots in the last 12 months, whereas SuperValu ran 4,092 spots.

On Radio, both grocery chains work the media well. Safeway ran 376,559 spots in the last 12 months against SuperValu’s 325,279 commercials. Perhaps a sign that the economy is coming back is seeing that Safeway’s biggest month was the one that just ended, March with 36,184 ads. SuperValu’s biggest month was last December with 49,748 spots.

On TV, SuperValu ran 56,142 spots and Safeway ran 57,287 ads. Safeway ran 25,071 spots in December, while SuperValu ran 10,503 spots in December, showing that they had the holiday spirit.

Posted: April 4, 2011

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