Weekly Spots

POSTED: July 25, 2011

(White Plains, NY) July 25, 2011 – According to Arbitron, West Palm Beach-Boca Raton, Florida is the 48th largest radio market with a population of 1,119,400.

• Henry Morrison Flagler in 1893 created a plan to change Palm Beach into a resort area and create a 'worker city' for his employees. The 'worker city' later became known as West Palm Beach and became a city on November 5, 1894. Many of the streets of West Palm Beach were named after local plants.

• The population of West Palm Beach experienced a major growth between 1920 and 1927. The schools, sugar trade, hotels, theaters, and farming also expanded because of the growth.

• During World War II the economy was boosted by military dollars, and after 1945 many returning veterans moved south. Between 1950 and 1960, West Palm Beach was named the ‘4th fastest growing area in the United States’.

• West Palm Beach is home to the Palm Beach International Airport. The main terminal building was opened on October 29, 1966, but can trace its roots back to 1936.

• Palm Beach County’s largest industry is tourism and hosts over 800 events per year and 400,000 guests annually.

• Some of the famous people from West Palm Beach include A.J. McClean (singer), Diana Canova (actress), Cassandra Freeman (actress) and Allman Brothers star Dicky Betts.

WEST PALM BEACH SPOT TEN

The #1 advertiser on the radio in West Palm Beach last week was WEST PALM BEACH KIA with 1,126 spots. GEICO was #2 with 812 ads, while FLORIDA’S BLOOD CENTERS were #3 with 571 commercials. THE HOME DEPOT was#4 running 563 spots and FORD LINCOLN MERCURY drove into #5 with 423 spots. AROMA SENSES LIQUIDATION SALES was #6 airing 378 announcements, while VERIZON checked in at #7 with 339 spots. STEINER, ISCOE & GREENE jumped from #49 to #8 with 333 spots and MERCEDES-BENZ was #9 with 332 spots. And coming in #10 was OFF LEASE ONLY with 314 spots.

PET SUPPLIES, SERVICES & MEDS SPOT TEN

NATIONAL STATISTICS -

This time of the year must be a slow time for Pet Supplies Services and Medical with the #1 company is this category PETCO with 203 spots. PURINA was #2 with 195 spots, while MAN’S BEST FRIEND was #3 running 149 spots. SWHEAT SCOOP was #4 in the nation with 95 spots and HOMEOPET was #5 airing 90 announcements. PETSMART was #6 with 84 spots, while WELL PETS VETERINARY CLINIC was #7 with 82 spots. BECKER ANIMAL HOSPITAL & PET RESORT was #8 with 78 spots and OKLAHOMA VETERINARY SPECIALISTS was #9 with 74 spots. Coming in #10 was UNCLE MATTY with 66 spots.

NATIONAL SPOT TEN

NATIONAL STATISTICS -

On the national front, GEICO stayed #1 with 46,285 spots. THE HOME DEPOT maintained #2 with 44,057 commercials, while FORD LINCOLN MERCURY makes its moves from #6 up to #3 with 27,975 ads. MCDONALD’S was #4 with 27,467 spots and breaking into the top five this week was NAB: THE FUTURE OF TV campaign with 22,672 spots. Of note, CHRYSLER JEEP DODGE jumped from #12 to #7 with 17,003 spots; two American car companies in the top ten.

Posted: July 25, 2011

CarMax Inc is a used and new car retailer founded in 1993 and headquartered in Richmond, Virginia. CarMax Richard Sharp and W. Austin Ligon crafted the business model for CarMax. Both men at the time worked for Circuit City, where they drew their inspiration for CarMax’s business concept. When the business began, CarMax was a subsidiary of Circuit City.

In October of 1993, CarMax had opened their first store. Prices were fixed, so haggling was not an option. Kiosks allowed customers to look at the store’s merchandise, making it easier for a customer to focus on what they wanted.

New cars were introduced in 1996. Up until that point, CarMax had only been selling used cars at their superstores. That same year, Circuit City made the decision to sell between fifteen and twenty percent of CarMax to the general public to stabilize finances.

By February of 1997, the public offering was completed. This decision allowed the store to increase from seven superstores to twenty-three by the middle of 1998 from the time the offer was introduced. In 2005, CarMax had thirty-seven used car lots and 17 new car lots.

Today they have over 100 stores across the nation and more than two million cars are sold each year. Thomas Folliard is the current Chief Executive Officer/President/Director of CarMax. The Chief Financial Officer and Senior Vice President is Thomas W. Reedy.

CarMax was named one of the ‘Fortune 100 Best Companies To Work For’ in 2011, and according to their website, has been given this award the past seven years in a row.

CarMax shows revenues of $8.98 billion with net income of $380.88 million and claim a 20.2% increase in sales in 2011. They have 15,565 employees.

Cable, Carmax ran 21,792 pots in the last 12 months. Their biggest month was last August when they ran only 2,626 spots nationwide.

On Radio, Carmax ran the most spots out of the three media. In the last 12 months they ran 186,473 spots. Their two biggest months were April 2011 with 29,437 spots and last month, June with 29,247 ads.

On TV, Carmax ran 64,279 spots with last August being the hottest month with 6,526 spots.

POSTED: July 25, 2011

American Express started out in Albany, NY in 1850 as the first and most successful express delivery business to arise during the rapid westward expansion of the United States. It was founded as a joint stock corporation by the merger of the express companies owned by Henry Wells (Wells & Company), William Fargo (Livingston, Fargo & Company), and John Warren Butterfield (Wells, Butterfield & Company. Yes, the very same Wells Fargo.

The U.S. Postal Service at the time was slow, expensive and nonexistent in many areas. Nothing larger than a letter-sized envelope could be sent by mail, and certainly nothing valuable, as a fair number of deliveries were lost or stolen on the journey.

Although in its early years American Express was not itself a financial services company, its largest and most consistent clients were banks. Delivering the banks’ typically small parcels – stock certificates, notes, currency and other financial instruments – was considerably more profitable than transporting larger freight. Soon the company would scale down its parcel and freight delivery business in favor of creating and selling its own financial products.

In 1882, American Express launched the money order business, which proved an almost instant success. The company introduced the world’s first Travelers Cheque in 1891 and within ten years was selling more than $6 million annually.

In 1905, the U.S. Immigration Department awarded a contract to American Express to provide official currency exchange services. Over the years, countless newcomers completed their first business transactions in the United States at the American Express teller’s window on Ellis Island.

American Express issued its first charge card in 1958. Within five years, more than 1 million cards were in use at approximately 85,000 establishments within and outside the United States. Today there are 48.9 million American Express cards in circulation (Source: AmericanExpress.com).

Last year American Express’ net income was $4.06 billion and they have 61,000 employees.

The MasterCard story began in 1966 when a group of banks created a member-owned association that offered a credit card called Master Charge Card. Because most people shortened Master Charge Card to MasterCard, the name stuck. In 1968 the company extended its presence to Mexico, Japan and Europe, which helped them become the leading global payment network.

MasterCard became the first payment card issued in the People’s Republic of China, and the company also launched Maestro®, the world’s first truly global online debit program, in partnership with Europay International.

In the nineties, MasterCard launched the “Priceless” ad campaign, elevating its consumer brand awareness, but also creating a verbal framework for many take-offs using the “priceless” tagline in movies and comedy routines.

By 2005, MasterCard embellished its customer-focused strategy to include advisory and processing capabilities to create a three-tiered business model as franchisor, processor and advisor, which helped propel their public offering in 2006.

Today there are 171 million MasterCard credit cards in circulation and 123 million debit cards out there. (Source: MasterCard)

Currently, MasterCard has revenue of $5.54 billion with net income of $1.85 billion with only 5,600 employees.

Visa came to life in 1976 when the BankAmericard, introduced in 1958 by the Bank of America, became known as a Visa card. The BankAmericard program was taken under control by the National BankAmericard Inc. in 1970 and then in 1974, the International Bankcard Company formed to manage the BankAmericard program in other countries. In order to unite the businesses abroad, the BankAmericard became known as Visa.

In 1979, Visa introduced its customers to Visa Travelers Cheques in four currencies and by 1986 Visa was available in twenty-one currencies. In 1983 Visa marketed their 24 hour automated teller machines to make traveling easier for their consumers by providing them with cash wherever they were in the world. Visa obtained Interlink in 1989 allowing the company’s customers to sign their name electronically. By 1995 Visa launched its first Visa Check Card, and helped to create a new chip card with Europay and MasterCard, so that all chips could be read no matter what terminal you were at.

The international prepaid card known as Visa TravelMoney was created in 1996 and by 2007 Visa became a global corporation called Visa Inc. Visa Inc. in 2008 was introduced to the New York Stock Exchange as the ticker symbol “V”. The now famous ad campaign, “More People Go With Visa” began in 2009.

Visa’s products and services include debit, credit, prepaid, and products and services for commercial and government purposes. VisaNet, Visa’s electronic authorization system, continues to ensure safe electronic payments.

As of last September, there were 269 million Visa credit cards in circulation and 397 million debit cards (Source: Visa)

Visa Inc. has revenue of $8.07 billion with net income of $2.97 billion. Visa employs 6,800 people.

On Local Cable, American Express is the kingpin with 283,245 spots in the last 12 months. Visa was second with 92,904 spots and MasterCard came up the rear with 25,767 spots. There is nothing like a credit card at Christmas time, and Amex poured it on last December with 51,036 spots. MasterCard’s biggest month was November with 4,525 spots, while Visa cranked it up in last May with 15,127 spots.

On the Radio, Visa bests the other two credit people. Visa ran 256,694 spots in the last 12 months. American Express was right on their tail with 209,215 spots. And MasterCard was short with 30,929. August 2010 was Amex’s biggest month with 38,802 spots, while Visa ran hottest also last August with 65,903 ads. MasterCard ran the most spots in September with 4,633 spots.

On TV, American Express ran 63,439 spots in the last 12 months and MasterCard gets in the game with 57,572 spots. Visa ran 25,354 spots. Amex ran hottest in December with 8,423 spots and MasterCard ran hot in June 2011 with 8,017 spots. Visa ran the most spots in the last 12 months in January with 4,568 ads.

Posted: July 25, 2011

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