Weekly Spots

POSTED: July 11, 2011

(White Plains, NY) July 11, 2011 – According to Arbitron, San Antonio, TX is the 31st radio market with a population of 1,733,800.

• In 1836, following a 13-day siege, Mexican troops launched an assault on the Alamo Mission near San Antonio de Béxar (modern-day San Antonio, Texas). All but two of the Texian defenders were killed. Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie died during the battle.

• San Antonio has a diversified economy with four primary focuses: financial services, government, health care (medicine), and tourism.

• San Antonio has the South Texas Medical Center, which is a conglomerate of numerous major hospitals, clinics, and research and higher educational institutions.

• The city is also home to one of the largest military concentrations in the United States. Fort Sam Houston on the city's northeast side hosts Brooke Army Medical Center, focus of the U.S. Army's medical command and training functions. Lackland Air Force Base on the city's west side is one of the world's largest training complexes.

• In professional sports it’s the San Antonio Spurs of the National Basketball Association. The Spurs have been playing in San Antonio since 1973 and have won four NBA Championships (1999, 2003, 2005, and 2007).

• San Antonio hosts over 100,000 students across its 31 higher-education facilities which include The University of Texas at San Antonio, and the Alamo Community College District's five colleges. Some of the private schools include St. Mary's University, Our Lady of the Lake University, University of the Incarnate Word, Trinity University, and Wayland Baptist University.

• Some of the companies headquartered in San Antonio include: Clear Channel Communications, Fairchild Aircraft, Harte-Hanks, Lone Star Brewing Company, Pearl Brewing Company, Whataburger and USAA.

• Famous people from San Antonio: Carol Burnett, Henry Cisneros, Alberto Gonzales, Joan Crawford, Olivia de Havilland, Tommy Lee Jones, Oliver North, Norah O’Donnell, and Christopher Cross.

SAN ANTONIO SPOT TEN

In the Alamo City the #1 radio advertiser last week was ALAMO COLLEGES with 760 spots. AROMA SENSES LIQUIDATION SALES was #2 running 601 spots, while THE HOME DEPOT was in at #3 with 484 ads. FORD LINCOLN MERCURY jumped from #45 to #4 with 482 spots and SIX FLAGS THEME PARKS went from #53 to #5 with 455 commercials. SONIC was #6 with 443 spots, while TOYOTA SCION OF BOERNE was #7 airing 388 announcements. ACE CASH EXPRESS hit #8 with 379 spots and MCDONALD’S landed in #9 with 364 spots. GEICO was #10 with 356 spots.

TOURISM SPOT TEN

NATIONAL STATISTICS -

In this category the #1 radio advertiser in the USA was WISCONSIN DELLS TOURISM, the big cheese with 825 spots. INDIANAPOLIS TOURISM kept pace at #2 with 469 spots, while MICHIGAN TOURISM drove into #3 with 432 spots. FLORIDA TOURISM coasted into #4 with 317 ads and PITTSBURGH rambled from #64 to #5 with 306 spots. CINCINNATI was the queen at #6 with 299 commercials, while COLONIAL WILLIAMSBURG TOURISM was quite historic at #7 with 255 ads. ARKANSAS TOURISM was razor-sharp at #8 airing 238 announcements and NORTH CAROLINA TOURISM on your mind at #9 with 234 spots. RENO TAHOE TOURISM rolled #10 with 223 spots.

NATIONAL SPOT TEN

NATIONAL STATISTICS -

Who was #1 and still champion? THE HOME DEPOT was with 60,128 spots. GEICO was #2 with 44,528 spots and MCDONALD’S landed in #3 with 28,964 spots. AUTOZONE was #4 with 26,620 spots and coming in #5 was FORD LINCOLN MERCURY with 21,101 spots.

Posted: July 11, 2011

Kroger has a wonderfully storied past. In 1883, Barney Kroger invested his life savings of $372 to open a grocery store at 66 Pearl Street in downtown Cincinnati. The son of a merchant, Kroger ran his business with a simple motto: “Be particular. Never sell anything you would not want yourself.”

Being 128 years old, that motto has served Kroger well. With nearly 3,619 stores and subsidiaries throughout the United States, under two dozen banners with annual sales of more than $80 billion, Kroger ranks as one of the nation’s largest retailers.

In the early 1900s, most grocers bought their bread from independent bakeries. But Kroger always baked its own bread attempting to reduce the price for their customers while still making money. Mr. Kroger became the first grocer in the country to establish his own bakeries. He was also the first to sell meats and groceries under one roof.

Kroger increased its income by manufacturing the products they sell. The idea was born when after buying too much cabbage, Kroger convinced his mother to cook up some of her favorite tangy sauerkraut that proved hugely popular with his German customers. From this, the idea of producing food products became part of the Kroger promise.

Kroger now operates 41 food processing facilities that collectively make thousands of products ranging from bread, cookies, milk, soda pop, ice cream and peanut butter. Nearly half of the 14,400 private-label items found in the company’s stores today are made at one of these manufacturing plants. These “corporate brands” today account for an impressive 26% of the grocery dollar sales at Kroger, providing the company with a huge strategic advantage.

Acquisitions have played a key role in Kroger’s growth over the years. In 1983, 100 years after the company’s founding, Kroger merged with Dillon Companies Inc. in Kansas to become a coast-to-coast operator of food, drug and convenience stores.

The biggest merger in Kroger’s history came in 1999, when the company teamed up with Fred Meyer, Inc. in a $13 billion deal that created a supermarket chain with the broadest geographic coverage and widest variety of formats in the food retailing industry. The merger also enabled Kroger to generate huge economies of scale in purchasing, manufacturing, information systems and logistics.

Some of their other brands include: Loaf ‘N Jug, Dillon’s, Baker’s, Ralph’s, City Market, King Soopers, Smith’s Food & Drug Stores, Fry’s Marketplace, Fry’s Mercado, Smith’s Marketplace, V&F Coffee and Office Products, Food 4 Less, Fresh Fare, QFC – Quality Food Centers, Cala Foods, Bell Markets, Fred Meyer, Kwik Shop, Hilander, Scott’s Food & Pharmacy, Turkey Hill and Pay Less Good Markets.

The most recent report shows revenues of $82.19 billion with a net income of $1.12 billion, which represents growth of 7.1% for 2011 fiscal. They have 338,000 employees.

Kroger ran 30,262 spots on the Cable TV in the last 12 months. This is their least used media. They ran the most spots in December with 5,203 spots.

Kroger loves radio with 84.7% of all their ads running on Radio. They ran a total of 696,640 spots in the last 12 months with the most in December at 75,454.

On TV, Kroger ran a total of 95,127 spots in the last 12 months with December clearing the most spots of any month at 11,859 ads.

POSTED: July 11, 2011

Capital One, best known for its inventive advertising of its credit card products, is a holding company. Capital One's creative use of information technology is what helped it rapidly grow to one of the largest providers of MasterCard and Visa in the world. During its short history, the company has expanded not only beyond U.S. boundaries but into a variety of consumer financial products and services.

Richard D. Fairbank and Nigel W. Morris began building the foundation for Capital One in 1988 under the auspices of Richmond, Virginia-based Signet Bank in the late 1980s.

In the mid-1980s, Fairbank recognized what he perceived as a missed opportunity by the credit card industry. He called on Morris, a fellow consultant at Strategic Planning Associates, to help construct a more integrated and scientific approach to marketing bank cards.

Fairbank and Morris's plan would allow companies to fine-tune card product and pricing strategies for individual customers through a decision-making structure blending together marketing, credit, risk, operations, and technology functions.

Capital One used massive direct mail campaigns to bolster their cardholder numbers. They took a major hit, as did many financial institutions right after September 11, 2001.

And with the damaging global financial crisis in the last year, they too have suffered like the Vikings in their commercials. This theme continues today.

According to company documents, in 2010 they had a net income of $2.74 billion which represented 19.7% in sales growth. They have 27,826 employees.

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.

The first Bank of America credit card was introduced in 1958, known as the BankAmeriCard. After the acquisition of Seafirst Bank in 1983, Bank of America procured the Security Pacific Corporation in 1991. In 2004, Bank of America bought FleetBoston which allowed the company to make its way into the northeast and National Processing which aided their ever-expanding credit business. 2008 proved to be a major year for Bank of America. The business bought Merrill Lynch & Co.

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).

According to public records their net income in 2010 was $-2.24 billion and they have 288,000 employees.

On Cable, both companies are pitching for our business with Capital One ahead of Bank of America. Capital One ran 269,460 spots against Bank of America with 176,145 ads. Bank of America’s biggest month was September with 31,781, while Capital One Bank also hit hardest in September with 31,836 spots.

On the Radio, Capital One ran 66,608 spots, while Bank of America ran 33,111 spots in the last 12 months. Bank of America ran the most spots in May of this year with 8,784 and Capital One played hardball in November with 11,329 ads.

On TV, Capital One is out front with their Vikings at 124,174 spots in the last 12 months, while Bank of America ran 76,102 spots in the same range. Capital One ran hottest in November with 14,932 spots and Bank of America pushed hard in November as well with 10,074 spots.

Posted: July 11, 2011

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