Weekly Spots

POSTED: December 12, 2011

(White Plains, NY) December 12, 2011 - According to Arbitron, Spokane, WA is the 93rd largest radio market with a population of 526,600.

• Spokane, from the tribe of the same name, is a Native American word meaning "Children of the Sun." The city's name is often mispronounced "Spo-CAIN", while the correct pronunciation is "Spo-CAN". Spokane's official nickname is the 'Lilac City', named after the flowers that have flourished since their introduction to the area in the early 20th century.

• For almost fifty years, the newly arrived Americans were at war with the local Native American tribe, the Spokane with many murders and revenge attacks. It wasn’t until 1871 that the first settlers built a cabin and established a claim at Spokane Falls; J.J. Downing, with his wife and step-daughter, and S.R. Scranton. Scranton held the original land rights to Spokane Falls at this time.

• Spokane was considered to be one of the most productive and reformed mining districts in North America. Natural resources have traditionally provided much of the economy from timber, agriculture, and mining industries. It also boasts abundant agricultural activity including apples, peas, hops, pears, asparagus, lentils, soft wheat, and sweet cherries.

• Spokane hosted the first environmentally themed World's Fair in Expo 1974, becoming the then-smallest city to ever host a World's Fair.

• A number of wineries and breweries also operate in the area. These industries continue to be important elements in the local economy, but in recent years the economy has diversified to encompass high-technology and service companies. Health-related industries employ more people than any other industry in Spokane.

• In sports, Spokane is more of a minor league town, with the Spokane Chiefs in the Western Hockey League (U.S. Division), the Spokane Indians in baseball of the Northwest League (Eastern Division), the Spokane Shock in arena football of the AFL (American West Division) and the Spokane Spiders in soccer of the Premier Development League (Northwest Division).

• Famous people from Spokane: Bing Crosby, singer and actor; Tom Foley, former Speaker of the House 1989-1994; John Stockton, all-time NBA assists leader on Utah Jazz, Mark Rypien, MVP Super Bowl XXVI; Ryne Sandberg, Chicago Cubs; Tom Sneva, 1983 Indianapolis 500 champion; Craig T. Nelson, star of TVs The District and Coach; Julie Sweeney, former Saturday Night Live actor and Jan-Michael Gambill, professional tennis player.

SPOKANE SPOT TEN

Last week in Spokane the #1 radio advertiser was THE HOME DEPOT with 717 spots. STATE FARM was #2 airing 510 announcements, while WAL-MART landed in #3 running 469 commercials. REGIONALHELPWANTED.COM was steady at #4 with 415 spots and NAPA drove into #5 with 390 ads. CUPID.COM loved #6 with 388 spots, while HUPPIN’S rose from #87 to #7 with 279 spots. FRED MEYER bagged #8 with 278 spots and GEICO slipped from #1 to #9 with 276 spots. And in at #10 was LES SCHWAB TIRE CENTERS with 274 spots.

CONSUMER ELECTRONICS SPOT TEN

NATIONAL STATISTICS -

In this category, CAR TOYS tops the list with 2,244 spots. BEST BUY was #2 airing 1,980 ads, while POWERMAT took #3 with 1,977 spots. AUDIO EXP MOBILE-ONE TX QUALITY AUTO was #4 with 1,457 spots and VIDEO ONLY was #5 running 1,309 commercials. CONN’S at #6 with 964 spots, while SONY secured #7 with 796 spots. C.CRANE COMPANY was #8 with 793 spots and INTERSTATE BATTERIES charged #9 running 759 spots. And coming in #10 was THE SOURCE (Bell Electronics) with 708 spots.

NATIONAL SPOT TEN

NATIONAL STATISTICS -

Back from #8, THE HOME DEPOT returns to #1 with 44,448 spots. WAL-MART climbs from #3 to #2 with 38,811 spots, while STATE FARM moves into #3 with 35,315 spots. Dropping from #1 to #4 (behind State Farm) is GEICO with 33,001 spots. And coming in #5 is MCDONALD’S with 26,822 spots.

Posted: December 12, 2011

Novartis International AG is a multinational pharmaceutical company based in Basel, Switzerland and was created in 1996 through the merger of Ciba-Geigy and Sandoz, companies with rich and diverse corporate histories.

Geigy started as a materials, dye and drug company in 1758 by Johann Rudolf Geigy-Gemuseus in Basel, Switzerland.

Ciba was the brainchild of Alexander Clavel, who in 1859 took up the production of fuchsine in his factory for silk-dyeing works in the same town of Basel. The name Ciba was derived from the phrase: Company for Chemical Industry Basel and had its beginnings in 1884.

Sandoz was founded in 1886 by Alfred Kern and Edouard Sandoz, in the same town. Sandoz first focused on dyes that were alizarine blue and auramine.

Fast forward about 100 years later and the three companies had diversified beyond textiles and dyes. Some of the milestones for each company:

In 1939, Geigy discovers DDT and then Butazolidin in 1949.

The psychedelic effects of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) were discovered at the Sandoz laboratories in 1943 by Arthur Stoll and Albert Hofmann. Sandoz began clinical trials and marketed the substance under the name Delysid for the treatment of a wide variety of mental ailments, ranging from alcoholism to sexual deviancy.

Sandoz withdrew the drug in the mid-60s, just in time for Harvard’s psychologist Timothy Leary to promulgate its use for recreational and spiritual experiences.

In 1970, Ciba and Geigy merged. In 1994, Sandoz acquired the Gerber Baby Food Company and two years later, Sandoz was absorbed by Ciba-Geigy and the new company was christened Novartis. Novartis comes from the Latin term “novae artes”, which means "new arts" or "new skills". In essence, Novartis means utilizing scientific research, imagination, and new technologies to provide ever-greater benefits for humankind.

In 2003, Novartis bought Mead Johnson and Company and in 2008 took over Alcon, Inc. a leading manufacturer of eye care products. In 2009, they introduced Prevacid, which was one of the largest prescription to over-the-counter roll outs.

According to public records, Novartis created revenues of $52.76 billion with net income of $10.21 billion in 2010, which represented a 9.8% increase in sales. They have 119,418 employees.

In the last 12 months, Novartis has run 480,157 spots on Cable. They ran the most in July at 53,198 spots. 52.24% of all the spots they ran ended up on Local Cable.

Novartis uses less radio than the other two media. In the last 12 months they ran 57,025 spots with the two biggest months being recently; October 22,651 and November 23,624 spots.

On TV, the large drug company ran 376,728 spots in the last 12 months with the hottest month being last December at 34,121 ads.

POSTED: December 12, 2011

Royal Dutch Shell, commonly known simply as Shell, is a multinational petroleum company of Dutch and British origins. One of the six "supermajors" (vertically integrated private sector oil exploration, natural gas, and petroleum product marketing companies), Shell was listed as the world's largest corporation for 2009 by Fortune. The company's headquarters are in The Hague, Netherlands, with its registered office in London (Shell Centre).

The company's main business is the exploration for and the production, processing, transportation, and marketing of hydrocarbons (petroleum and natural gas). Shell also has a significant petrochemicals business (Shell Chemicals), and an embryonic renewable energy sector developing wind, hydrogen and solar power opportunities.

The Royal Dutch Shell Group was created in February 1907 when the Royal Dutch Petroleum Company and the "Shell" Transport and Trading Company Ltd of the United Kingdom merged their operations– a move largely driven by the need to compete globally with the then predominant US petroleum company, John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil.

In 1919, Shell took control of the Mexican Eagle Petroleum Company and in 1921 formed Shell-Mex Limited which marketed products under the "Shell" and "Eagle" brands in the United Kingdom. In 1932, partly in response to the difficult economic conditions of the times, Shell-Mex merged its UK marketing operations with those of British Petroleum to create Shell-Mex and BP Ltd, a company that traded until the brands separated in 1975.

In November 2004, following a period of turmoil caused by the revelation that Shell had been overstating its oil reserves, it was announced that the Shell Group would move to a single capital structure, creating a new parent company to be named Royal Dutch Shell plc, with its principal listing on the London Stock Exchange and the Amsterdam Stock Exchange.

Shell has 101,000 employees and in their latest financial report stated that Royal Dutch Shell’s third quarter 2011 earnings were $7.2 billion compared with $3.5 billion the same quarter a year ago. This is a 105% increase over third quarter, 2010.

BP has transformed from a local oil company into a global energy group.

Their history began more than 100 years ago with the adventurer William Knox D'Arcy, who, in 1908, discovered oil in Persia (now Iran). This was the first oil discovery in the Middle East. In April 1909, the Anglo-Persian Oil Company was incorporated. This company was the predecessor of BP.

In 1935, after Persia became Iran, the company renamed itself Anglo-Iranian Oil. After World War II, the company became the focus of discontent among Iranians, who charged that the dividends they received from oil production were too small. In 1951, under the leadership of Mohammed Mossadeq, Iran nationalized its oil industry.

This led to a 1953 coup that resulted in Mossadeq's overthrow. The British government and the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency were implicated in the coup, which some critics charged was undertaken in part to protect Anglo-Iranian Oil's profits in the region.

By 1954, Anglo-Iranian Oil was renamed British Petroleum and resumed oil production in Iran. BP continued its Iranian operations until 1979, when the regime of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini confiscated the company's assets in Iran.

The situation in Iran demonstrated to BP leadership the hazards of depending on one country for its oil. During the early 1950s, BP expanded into other parts of the Middle East, as well as Canada, Africa, and Europe. BP became a key player in Alaska after the discovery of oil at Prudhoe Bay. It further expanded its activities in the United States when it acquired marketing and refining capacity from Atlantic Richfield (Arco).

For years, the British government had owned a stake in BP. This changed in the 1980s under the privatization policy of then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. By 1987, the British government had sold its holdings in BP.

Under the leadership of Lord Browne as its chief executive, BP became larger due to a series of major acquisitions. In 1998, BP merged with Amoco, creating a new company, BPAmoco. This new name was short-lived, however, and the company was renamed BP in 2000. That year, BP acquired two other companies: Arco and Burmah Castrol.

BP's growth over the years has not been without its problems. In 2005, an explosion at a BP refinery near Houston, Texas, killed 15 workers and injured dozens more. BP has since admitted that mismanagement on its part played a role in the disaster.

In 2006, a pipeline leak, resulting from line corrosion, spilled thousands of gallons of oil in Alaska. As a result, BP replaced miles of pipeline and closed leaking wells in the Prudhoe Bay area.

On April 20, 2010, the semi-submersible exploratory offshore drilling rig Deepwater Horizon exploded after a blowout; it sank two days later, killing 11 people and injuring 17 others. Experts estimated 35,000 to 60,000 barrels per day escaped the well before it was capped, but it is a matter of ongoing debate.

During the disaster, BP CEO Tony Hayward became the target of much of the frustration of those who make their money from the fishing and tourist industries. 146 days after the accident, the relief well permanently killed the exploratory well.

On July 27, 2010, BP confirmed that Bob Dudley would replace Tony Hayward as the company's CEO.

In 2010, BP grew 25.5% in sales delivering revenues of $192.44 billion with a net income of (minus) $-2.42 billion. They have 79,700 employees.

On Local Cable, Shell ran 127,268 spots in the last 12 months against BP’s 74,416 ads. Shell’s biggest month was April 2011 with 21,906 spots, while BP ran hottest last December 2010 with 16,160 spots.

On Radio, Shell ran slightly behind BP. Shell ran 112,164 spots, while BP ran 161,196 spots in the last 12 months. BP ran 22,966 spots last December and then hit 21,183 this October. Shell’s biggest month on radio was May 2011 when they ran 20,458 spots.

On TV, Shell kept their powder dry with only 12,746 spots ran in the last 12 months, while BP ran 61,732 spots. BP biggest month was last December with 13,978 ads.

Posted: December 12, 2011

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