Weekly Spots

POSTED: July 4, 2011

(White Plains, NY) July 4, 2011 – According to Arbitron, Wilkes-Barre & Scranton combined are the 71st radio market with a population of 681,400.

• Location, Location: Wilkes-Barre and the surrounding Wyoming Valley are framed by the Pocono Mountains to the east, the Endless Mountains to the west and the Lehigh Valley to the south. The Susquehanna River flows through the center of the valley and defines the northwestern border of the city. Scranton is the geographic and cultural center of the Lackawanna River valley.

• The Wyoming Valley was first inhabited by the Shawanese and Delaware Indian tribes in the early 18th century. By 1769, a group led by John Durkee became the first Europeans to reach the area. The settlement was named Wilkes-Barre after John Wilkes and Isaac Barré, two British members of Parliament who supported colonial America. While Scranton is named for brothers Selden T. and George W. Scranton who in 1840, founded what would become the Lackawanna Steel Company.

• Wilkes-Barre's population exploded due to the discovery of anthracite coal in the 19th century, which gave the city the nickname of "The Diamond City." While Wilkes-Barre mined the coal, Scranton produced T-rails for the tracks of the many railroads of America. And the nation's first successful, continuously operating electrified streetcar (trolley) system was established in 1886, giving Scranton it the nickname "The Electric City".

• Wilkes-Barre is the birthplace of the Planters Peanuts Company, which was founded in 1906 by Italian immigrant Amedeo Obici and partner Mario Peruzzi. While Scranton was famous for pressing vinyl phonograph records for many companies, but most famously for Capital Records until the vinyl record era ended with the invention of the CD.

• The Knox Mine Disaster of January 1959 all but erased the mining industry in Northeastern Pennsylvania. 12 people died when an anthracite coal mine, owned by the Knox Coal Company, flooded when coal company management asked the miners to dig too close to the riverbed. With the country’s shift to oil and natural gas after World War II, these two cities faced hardship.

• In November 1972, 365 subscribers of Service Electric Cable were the first to receive HBO's service, making Wilkes-Barre the birthplace of modern cable TV programming. Scranton is the home of the fictional Dunder-Mifflin paper company, the setting for the NBC sitcom The Office. The program frequently refers to things in and around Scranton.

• For professional sports: the market is home to Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees of the IL baseball league who are affiliated with the New York Yankees, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins from AHL are backed by the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Arena Football team is the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Pioneers.

• Famous people from the area, Vice President Joe Biden is from Scranton, a point he made many times during the Obama-Biden campaign. Hillary Clinton’s parents are from Scranton; along with novelist Lauren Weisberger – Devil Wears Prada. The rock band Breaking Benjamin hail from Wilkes-Barre, while the late Law & Order actor Jerry Orbach lived in both Wilkes-Barre and Scranton growing up. And NFL players Qadry and Raghib Ismail played high school football in Wilkes-Barre.

WILKES-BARRE & SCRANTON SPOT TEN

Last week the #1 radio advertiser was THE HOME DEPOT with 465 ads. DICKSON CITY HYUNDAI was #2 with 411 spots, while GEICO was #3 running 396 spots. ERTLEY KIA was #4 with 281 commercials and QUALITY PLUS FORD STORES aired 256 spots to make them #5. SLEEP'S was #6 with 228 spots, while ACE HARDWARE came in at #7 with 214 spots. SEARS secured the #8 spot with 191 spots and HD DIGITAL RADIO ALLIANCE took #9 airing 185 announcements. BEN WEITSMAN OF SCRANTON was #10 with 183 spots.

TELEVISION & CABLE TV SPOT TEN

NATIONAL STATISTICS -

ESPN was #1 with 5,315 spots. USA NETWORK is getting aggressive at #2 with 4,571 and UNIVISION was #3 airing 3,438 announcements. ESTRELLA TV NETWORK dug in at #4 with 2,364 spots, while PAY-PER-VIEW held #5 with their 1,746 ads. STARZ was #6 running 1,318 spots and FOX BUSINESS NETWORK came in #7 with 1,064 spots. NBC TV NETWORK was #8 with 974 spots, while FOX NEWS CHANNEL was #9 with 783 ads. Coming in #10 was SHOWTIME with 761 spots.

NATIONAL SPOT TEN

NATIONAL STATISTICS -

THE HOME DEPOT shows no sign of giving up their #1 standing with 59,164 spots last week nationwide. GEICO was #2 with 39,278 spots, while WAL-MART continues to hang tough at #3 with 29,183 ads. MCDONALD'S was #4 with 27,414 spots and AUTOZONE was #5 with 26,599 spots.

Posted: July 5, 2011

Colgate-Palmolive Company (NYSE: CL) is a diversified multinational corporation focused on the production, distribution and provision of household, health care and personal products, such as soaps, detergents, and oral hygiene products. Under its "Hill's" brand, it is also a manufacturer of veterinary products. The company's corporate offices are on Park Avenue in New York City.

In 1806, William Colgate started a starch, soap and candle business in New York City. A year later the first advertisement appeared in a New York newspaper. In 1857, Colgate died and the company was reorganized as Colgate & Company under the management of Samuel Colgate, his son.

In Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1964, B.J. Johnson opened a soap factory. The "B.J. Johnson Company" made soap entirely of palm and olive oil, a formula developed by Johnson in 1898. The soap was popular enough to rename their company after it and thus the "Palmolive” name.

When a Kansas-based soap manufacturer known as the "Peet Brothers" merged with Palmolive they became Palmolive-Peet. In 1928, Palmolive-Peet bought the Colgate Company to create the Colgate-Palmolive-Peet Company. In 1953 "Peet" was dropped from the title, leaving only "Colgate-Palmolive Company", the current name.

In 1991, Colgate acquired Murphy Oil Soap, the leading wood cleaner in the U.S. Today, its product portfolio has expanded to include all-purpose cleaners, sprays and wipes. Then a year later, Colgate acquired the Mennen Company, which sells this brand in over 52 countries.

In 2006, Colgate entered the fast-growing Naturals segment by purchasing Tom’s of Maine, a leader in that market in the United States.

Colgate now sells its products in over 200 countries and territories worldwide. According to public records, Colgate-Palmolive created revenues of $15.56 billion last year with net income of $2.2 billion. They have 39,200 employees.

In Cable, Colgate – Palmolive ran 105,586 spots in the last 12 months. The biggest month was April with 18,004 spots.

Radio appears to be a less than big part of the Colgate-Palmolive game plan. With only 1,853 ads run on the media in the last 12 months they don’t see to use Radio well. Biggest month was this last month, June, but that was only 995 spots nationwide.

On TV, C-P ran 169,346 spots in the last 12 months, with the biggest month being last July when they ran 21,323 spots.

POSTED: July 5, 2011

The Home Depot is one of America’s premier retailers in home improvement and construction products and services. Headquartered in Atlanta, The Home Depot employs more than 321,000 people (as of January 2011) and operates 2,248 big-box format stores across the United States (including the 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Guam), Canada, Mexico and China. It is the world’s largest home improvement retailer and the 2nd largest retailer in the US, right behind Wal-Mart.

The Home Depot was founded in 1978 by Bernie Marcus, Arthur Blank, Ron Brill, and Pat Farrah. The Home Depot's proposition was to build home-improvement warehouses, larger than any of their competitors' facilities. The Home Depot was the fastest growing retailer in U.S. history. Arthur Blank, after selling his shares in the company, went on to buy the Atlanta Falcons football team. Bernie Marcus is involved in many charities in the Atlanta area.

In 1981, the company went public on NASDAQ and moved to the New York Stock Exchange in 1984. The 1980s and 1990s spawned tremendous growth for the company, with 1989 marking the celebration of its 100th store opening.

Some of the Home Depot slogans include: The slogan "You can do it. We can help." has been used by the Home Depot since 2003. Other slogans used in the past 25 years include "The Home Depot, Low prices are just the beginning" in the early 1990s and "When you're at the Home Depot, You'll feel right at home" in the late 1990s and "The Home Depot: First in Home Improvement!" from 1999-2003.

Last year The Home Depot reported revenues of $68 billion with net income of $3.34 billion.

Lowe’s headquarters is located in Mooresville, NC and was started by Lucius S. Lowe when he opened the first Lowe's North Wilkesboro Hardware in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina in 1921.

It was later inherited by his daughter Ruth when he died in 1940 and later taken over by her brother and husband Jim Lowe (brother) and Carl Buchan in 1943. It was fully taken over by Buchan in 1952 and expanded to many other cities in North Carolina in the 1950’s.

Lowe’s suffered in the 1980s, due to market conditions and increasing competition from the new big-box chain, The Home Depot. Lowe's eventually had to adopt the big-box format in order to survive. Today most Lowe's stores are of the big-box variety, though some classic format stores remain in smaller markets.

Prior to 2006, the Lowe's tagline was "Improving Home Improvement," and before that was "Lowe's Knows." In 2006, Lowe's adopted the new slogan "Let's Build Something Together."

Lowe’s reports revenue of $48.82 billion with a net income of $2.01 billion. They have 161,000 employees.

On Cable the playing field is very level. The Home Depot ran 312,134 spots against Lowe’s that ran 277,239 in the last 12 months. Lowe’s biggest month was this May with 35,572 ads, while The Home Depot also ran hottest in May with 42,029 spots.

On Radio, it looks like The Home Depot nailed the lead nationally most of the year. With 2,211,222 spots in the last 12 months, it clearly makes them the #1 radio advertiser in 2011. Lowe’s ran 608,855 spots in the last 12 months with them running hottest in May with a very healthy 82,612 spots. The Home Depot cranked it up in April with 281,520 spots into May with 249,092 and continuing into June with 246,858 spots. The Home Depot loves radio.

On TV, The Home Depot still takes the crown with 152,080 spots with Lowe’s coming in with 85,028 ads. Their biggest months were last October with 17,626 spots and this past month June with 17,695 spots. Lowe’s ran hottest in last July with 13,317 spots.

Posted: July 5, 2011

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