Weekly Spots

POSTED: November 14, 2011

(White Plains, NY) November 14, 2011 - According to Arbitron, Tulsa, OK is the 66th largest radio market with a population of 772,300.

• Tulsa, in the midst of Indian Territory, was originally created as part of the Indian Removal Act of 1830 (relocation) of the Choctaw, Cherokee, Muscogee (Creek), Chickasaw, and Seminole peoples.

• In 1846, Lewis Perryman built a log cabin trading post near what is now 33rd Street and South Rockford Avenue. Perryman, who was part Creek, established a business foothold in the rugged frontier until the Civil War. The reconstruction period after the war contributed to the growth of the area.

• In 1905, Tulsa began to build houses, businesses and water systems to prepare for the arrival of the people who would harvest the reward of the discovery of oil. During this time period, Tulsa became known as the Oil Capital of the World.

• After World War II, offshore drilling operations affected the petroleum industry, so Tulsa moved into the aircraft and aerospace industry. To date, there are more than 300 aviation-related companies in Tulsa.

• Universities include: University of Tulsa, Oral Roberts University, Rogers State University, Tulsa Community College and Oklahoma State University houses three campuses in the city.

• Some of the business headquarters are: BOK Financial Corporation, QuikTrip, Dollar-Thrifty rent-a-car, Hilti, and Mazzio's semi-national pizza chain also call Tulsa home.

• Famous people from Tulsa: actors Gary Busey, Bill Hader, Tony Randall; director Blake Edwards; radio man Paul Harvey; musicians Garth Brooks, J.J.Cale, Leon Russell and Dwight Twilley; and NBC TV personality Hoda Kotb.

TULSA SPOT TEN

In Tulsa last week, the #1 radio advertiser was U.S. CELLULAR ran 947 ads. WAL-MART came in #2 with 736 spots, while STATE FARM landed in #3 with 519 commercials. THE HOME DEPOT was #4 airing 414 ads and OSAGE CASINO went all in from #75 to #5 with 414 spots. GEICO was #6 running 364 spots, while DICK’S SPORTING GOODS was #7 with 346 spots. OKLAHOMA STATE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH was #8 clearing 329 announcements and REGIONALHELPWANTED.COM took #9 with 315 spots. ARMY NATIONAL GUARD marched into #10 with 311 spots.

EUROPEAN TRUCKS & CARS SPOT TEN

NATIONAL STATISTICS -

BMW took this category with only 938 spots nationally last week. MERCEDES-BENZ was #2 with 318 ads, while the BMW X1 was #3 airing 209 spots. VOLKSWAGEN was #4 airing 175 announcements and VOLVO was #5 with 170 commercials. AUDI was #6 with 72 spots, while FIAT 500 was #7 running 33 spots. PORSCHE was #8 with 30 spots and the MINI took #9 with 16 spots. LAND ROVER RANGE ROVER was #10 with only 12 spots nationwide.

NATIONAL SPOT TEN

NATIONAL STATISTICS -

We had a dramatic result last week with WAL-MART taking #1 with 46,906 spots. THE HOME DEPOT dropped to #2 with 39,524 spots, while GEICO was #3 airing 37,572 commercials. STATE FARM stayed at #4 with 33,624 spots and MCDONALD’S slipped into #5 with 27,701 spots.

Posted: November 14, 2011

General Mills traces its roots to the banks of the Mississippi River in what is now Minneapolis. Harnessing the power of St. Anthony Falls, Cadwallader Washburn built one of the leading milling companies in the world. John Crosby eventually became his partner, forming the Washburn Crosby Company.

When the Minnesota Valley Canning Company named its new, extra-large green pea variety "Green Giant," no one dreamed that one day it would become the company's name. Today, the Green Giant and his helper, Sprout; still live happily in their valley growing vegetables picked at the peak of freshness. Green Giant has been part of General Mills since 2001.

The mascot, Betty Crocker, began as a pen name in 1921 to answer cooking-related questions that were sent to the Washburn Crosby Company, the predecessor of General Mills. This advertising icon has grown to become one of the more recognizable brands in the grocery store.

Wheaties cereal was discovered by accident. A health clinician spilled bran gruel on a hot stove. The mixture crackled and sizzled into a crisp flake, and it tasted great. The clinician brought the idea to the Washburn Crosby Company in 1924, launching the cereal that later became “The Breakfast of Champions”. The choice of an athlete to appear on the box is not only an honor, but one that comes with certain role model expectations by General Mills.

In 1928, Washburn Crosby merged with other regional millers to become General Mills.

In 1970, General Mills acquired a five-unit restaurant company called Red Lobster and expanded it nationwide. Soon, a division of General Mills titled General Mills Restaurants developed to take charge of the Red Lobster chain. In 1982, General Mills Restaurants founded a new Italian-themed restaurant chain called Olive Garden.

In 2001, General Mills Inc. acquired Pillsbury. Giggling his way to spokes character superstardom, “Poppin' Fresh”, the Pillsbury Doughboy, first introduced himself to TV viewers across the nation in 1965.

Since 2004, General Mills has been producing more products targeted to the growing ranks of health-conscious consumers. The company has chosen to switch its entire breakfast cereal line to whole grain and lowered the amount of sugar in cereals marketed to children.

According to their annual report, with their fiscal year ending in May, General Mills produced revenues of $14.88 billion with a net income of $1.8 billion which represented a 0.6% growth in sales. They have 35,000 employees.

On Local Cable TV, General Mills ran 1,371,035 spots in the last 12 months. Even in their lightest month May, they ran 57,537 spots. Last month October, they ran the most at 192,389 ads.

Radio is obviously less a weapon for advertising with only 58,180 spots in the last 12 months. General Mills hottest month was last month October, when they ran 19,419 spots.

On TV, General Mills ran a ton to the tune of 1,822,705 spots in the last 12 months. The hottest month once again was last month October, when they cleared 246,805 spots.

POSTED: November 14, 2011

The Walgreen Company (NYSE: WAG), d/b/a Walgreens (without an apostrophe) is the second largest drugstore chain in the United States. The company operates 6,997 drugstores across all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

The Walgreens chain began in 1901 owned by Galesburg native Charles R. Walgreen, Sr.

By 1913, there were five Walgreen drugstores. He added several improvements to the stores such as soda fountains and luncheon service. He also began to make his own line of drug products and was then able to control the quality of the items and sell them at lower prices.

By 1930, there were 397 stores in 87 cities with annual sales of 4 million dollars. This expansion can be in part attributed to the collection of bootlegged alcohol which Walgreens would often stock under the counter. The company did not really suffer from the Stock Market Crash and Great Depression.

By 1934, Walgreens was operating in 30 states with over 601 stores. After Charles Walgreen Sr. died, his son Charles R. Walgreen Jr. took over and ran the chain until his retirement.

The company acquired 258 Duane Reade stores across the New York City metropolitan area. Other acquisitions included 12 Eaton Apothecary pharmacies in the Boston area; 25 Snyder’s Drug Stores in Minnesota; and 17 Ike’s and Super-D drugstores in the Memphis area.

According to Walgreens annual report, they are the nation’s largest drugstore chain, with fiscal 2010 sales of $67 billion. The company has 244,000 employees. They also claim they filled 778 million prescriptions, an increase of 7.5 percent and increased their market share from 18.9 percent to 19.5 percent.

CVS (NYSE: CVS) opened its first store in 1963 selling health and beauty products in Lowell, Massachusetts. It was founded by brothers, Stanley and Sidney Goldstein and partner Ralph Hoagland. CVS stands for Consumer Value Stores. CVS nearly doubled in size with its acquisition of 84 Clinton Drug and Discount Stores in 1972. The purchase introduced CVS to the Midwest with stores in Michigan and Indiana. Two years later in 1974, CVS achieved $100 million in annual sales.

In 1978 CVS found success by differentiating itself from the competition by opening small health and beauty aids stores in enclosed shopping malls. CVS became the 15th largest pharmacy chain in the U.S. in 1980 with 408 stores and $414 million in sales. CVS Corporation joined the New York Stock Exchange in 1996 under the CVS ticker. Stanley Goldstein was the company's first chairman.

CVS completed its acquisition of more than 2,500 stores from Revco in 1997, which was the largest acquisition in the history of the U.S. retail pharmacy industry. The acquisition of Revco gave CVS key drugstore locations in the Midwest and Southeast. CVS ProCare was established as a specialty pharmacy subsidiary of CVS.

As of December 31, 2009, the Retail Pharmacy segment included 7,025 retail drugstores making it the largest drug store retailer in the country with Walgreens about 30 stores behind them.

CVS had revenues of $96.4 billion with a net income of $3.44 billion last year. They have 201,000 employees.

On Local Cable it appears that CVS doesn’t use that much. CVS only ran 17,193 spots in the last 12 months compared to Walgreens that ran 163,264 ads. Walgreens biggest month on Cable was last month with 24,547, while CVS ran the most in the same month October with 7,795 spots.

On Radio, CVS ran only 20% of the spots Walgreens ran in the last 12 months. Walgreens total was 459,271 spots against CVS’ 92,131 ads. The biggest month for CVS was April with 34,083 spots, while Walgreens ran hottest in September with 81,292 spots.

On TV, Walgreens doubled CVS by running 88,187 compared to CVS with 39,000 spots. Walgreens ran the most spots in the last 12 months in the month of December 2010 with 11,248, while CVS ran hottest in July with 12,660 spots.

Posted: November 14, 2011

For The Current Spots: