Weekly Spots

POSTED: December 19, 2011

(White Plains, NY) December 19, 2011 - According to Arbitron, Grand Rapids, Michigan, is the 69th largest radio market with a population of 722,000.

• Around A.D. 1700, the Ottawa Indians moved into the area and founded several villages along the Grand River. The Grand Rapids area was first settled by Europeans near the start of the 19th century by missionaries and fur traders.

• In 1826 Detroit-born Louis Campau, the official founder of Grand Rapids, built his cabin, trading post, and blacksmith shop on the east bank of the Grand River near the rapids. He returned to Detroit, then came back a year later with his wife and $5,000 of trade goods to trade with the native tribes.

• Grand Rapids is home to five of the world's leading office furniture companies and is nicknamed the "Furniture City".

• In 1945, Grand Rapids became the first city in the United States to add fluoride to its drinking water.

• The Grand Rapids area is home to Alticor/Amway, Highlight Industries, Spartan Stores, Foremost Insurance Company, Meijer, GE Aviation, Wolverine World Wide (a designer and manufacturer of shoes, boots and clothing), MC Sports, Inc., Universal Forest Products, Schuler Books & Music and Spectrum Health, the largest employer in West Michigan with 16,000 staff and 1,500 physicians.

• Professional sports include: in the Midwest Baseball League, the West Michigan Whitecaps; in the American Basketball Association, the Grand Rapids Flight; in the American Hockey League, the Grand Rapids Griffins and in indoor football, the Grand Rapids ThunderHawks.

• In higher learning, Grand Rapids is home to Aquinas College, Calvin College, Cornerstone University, Grace Bible College, Kuyper College and Grand Rapids Community College.

• Grand Rapids was the hometown of Gerald Ford, the 38th President of the United States along with Wally Pipp, the baseball player who was replaced by Lou Gehrig; Del Shannon, singer song-writer; Andy Richter, Cohan O’Brien’s sidekick and Dick and Richard DeVos big wigs at Amway.

GRAND RAPIDS SPOT TEN

In the wood city last week, the #1 radio advertiser was MEIJER with 467 spots. Coming in #2 was STATE FARM with 444 ads, while CHRYSLER JEEP DODGE appeared in #3 position airing 401 spots. MACY’S moved from #16 to #4 with 390 commercials and MCDONALD’S was #5 running 353 spots. MICHIGAN LOTTERY took #6 with 353 spots, while MENARDS was #7 with 347 ads. WAL-MART was solid at #8 with 342 announcements, while FAMILY FARE – D&W FRESH MARKET leaped from #31 to #9 airing 330 spots. Pfizer’s LIPITOR took #10 with 302 spots.

FINANCIAL PRODUCTS SPOT TEN

NATIONAL STATISTICS -

In the Financial products and services category, WESTERN UNION was #1 with 5,120 spots for all those people wiring money home for the holidays. JOHN CUMMUTA WEALTH BUILDING PROGRAM was #2 with 4,111 ads, while SUPERSONICPAYDAY stayed at #3 with 3,043 spots. FREEDOM DEBT RELIEF was #4 airing 2,958 announcements and CHECK INTO CASH found #5 with 1,788 commercials. CONSOLIDATED CREDIT COUNSELING SERVICES was #6 with 1,766 spots, while DOLLAR LOAN CENTER was #7 with 1,146 spots. REDNESS FINANCIAL was #8 with 1,115 ads and RICH DAD maintained at #9 with 985 spots. And coming in #10 was PEACHTREE FINANCIAL SOLUTIONS with 828 spots.

NATIONAL SPOT TEN

NATIONAL STATISTICS -

Tis the season for the king of retail to take the top spot again. WAL-MART was #1 with 41,538 spots. STATE FARM is for real moving from #3 to #2 with 34,771 spots, while GEICO feels the heat moving from #4 to #3 with 31,765 ads. MACY’S also moves up from #7 to #4 with 27,615 commercials and MCDONALD’S maintains at #5 with 25,013 spots.

Posted: December 19, 2011

Ally Bank is a unit of Ally Financial (formerly GMAC), which officially changed its name to Ally Bank on May 15, 2009 and is headquartered in Midvale, Utah.

The original company GMAC was founded in 1919 in Detroit, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and Toronto. The letters stood for General Motors Acceptance Corporation (GMAC), a provider of financing to automotive customers.

Since then, the business has expanded to include insurance, direct banking, mortgage operations and commercial finance and uses the term “bank” to define itself.

In 1999, GMAC Commercial Finance Group was established and in 2000, GMAC launched SmartAuction, an Internet-based automobile auction house.

In 2005, they got into the mortgage business big time with Residential Capital, LLC (ResCap), a global real estate finance business, which has had to restructure itself due to the mortgage crisis.

According to their web site, Ally is the official preferred source of financing for General Motors, Chrysler, Saab, and Thor Industries and they serve more than 15 million consumers and dealers.

They reported a net loss of $210 million for the third quarter of 2011, compared to net income of $113 million in the prior quarter and net income of $269 million for the third quarter of 2010.

They reasoned the decline in third quarter income was largely driven by a $471 million pre-tax loss related to the negative impact of the mortgage servicing rights (MSR) valuation, net of hedge, resulting from a decline in interest rates and market volatility. In short, they are still suffering from the mortgage collapses.

But we all have a stake in the Ally Bank. As of May 15, 2011, 73.8% of the enterprise is owned by the U.S. Treasury, 9.9% owned by GM Trust, 8.7% owned by Cerberus & Affiliates and the rest, 7.6% by 3rd party investors.

On Local Cable, Ally Bank ran a total of 154,569 spots in the last 12 months. The biggest month was September when they ran 19,150 spots.

On Radio Ally Bank ran 137,071 spots in the last 12 months with December 2010 holding only 244 spots nationwide as the low point and the biggest month was January 2011 when they ran 21,065 radio spots.

On TV Ally Bank ran only 26,494 spots in the last 12 months with the largest month being January of this year with 4,223 spots.

POSTED: December 19, 2011

Procter and Gamble (NYSE:PG) was founded in 1837 by two men who met by chance. William Procter, emigrating from England after his dry-goods store was robbed. He established himself as a candle maker in Cincinnati, which was a busy center of commerce and industry in the early nineteenth century.

The other half, James Gamble, came from Ireland and became an apprentice to a soap maker. The two might never have met had they not married sisters Olivia and Elizabeth Norris, whose father convinced his new sons-in-law to become business partners. As a result, in 1837, a bold new enterprise was born: Procter & Gamble.

They started out selling soap and candles, two important items of the day. Procter & Gamble began to market a new product, an inexpensive soap that floats in water. The company called the soap Ivory.

By 1859, sales reached $1 million and they had 80 employees.

During the American Civil War, the company won contracts to supply the Union Army with soap and candles.

In addition to the increased profits experienced during the war, the military contracts introduced soldiers from all over the country to Procter & Gamble's products.

William Arnett Procter, William Procter's grandson, began a profit-sharing program for the company's workforce in 1887. By giving the workers a stake in the company, he correctly assumed that they would be less likely to go on strike.

The company's leaders began to diversify its products as well and, in 1911, began producing Crisco, a shortening made of vegetable oils rather than animal fats.

As radio became more popular in the 1920s and 1930s, the company sponsored a number of radio programs. As a result, these shows often became commonly known as "soap operas".

The company introduced "Tide" laundry detergent in 1946 and "Prell" shampoo in 1947. In 1955, Procter & Gamble began selling the first toothpaste to contain fluoride, known as "Crest". Branching out once again in 1957, the company purchased Charmin Paper Mills and began manufacturing toilet paper and other paper products. Once again focusing on laundry, Procter & Gamble began making "Downy" fabric softener in 1960 and "Bounce" fabric softener sheets in 1972. One of the most revolutionary products to come out on the market was the company's "Pampers", first test-marketed in 1961.

In January 2005 P&G announced an acquisition of Gillette, forming the largest consumer goods company, and creating the demand for the FTC to ask them to sell several highly successful brands and divisions.

According to their annual report, fiscal year 2011, they produced revenues of $82.56 billion with a net income of $11.80 billion, which represented a 4.6% increase in sales. They have 129,000 employees.

Unilever (NYSE:UN) is a British-Dutch multinational corporation that produces many of the world's consumer product brands in foods, beverages, cleaning agents and personal care products.

Unilever was founded the first day of 1930 by Antonius Johannes Jurgens, Samuel van den Bergh and William Hulme Lever, 2nd Viscount Leverhulme. The merging of operations of the British soapmaker Lever Brothers and Dutch margarine producer Margarine Unie made sound commercial sense since palm oil was a major raw material for both products.

By 1980 soap and edible fats contributed just 40% of profits, compared with an original 90%. They were out to expand into many other areas beyond fats and soaps.

In 1987 Unilever acquired Chesebrough-Ponds, the maker of Ragú, Pond's, Aqua-Net, Cutex Nail Polish, and Vaseline. In 1989 Unilever bought Calvin Klein Cosmetics, Fabergé, and Elizabeth Arden, but the latter was later sold in 2000 to FFI Fragrances.

In 1996 Unilever purchased Helene Curtis Industries, giving the company a powerful new presence in the shampoo and deodorant market. The purchase brought Unilever the Suave and Finesse hair-care product brands and Degree deodorant brand.

In 2000 the company absorbed the American business Best Foods, strengthening its presence in North America and extending its food division. In April 2000, Unilever added a few pounds with Ben & Jerry's and then took a few off with Slim Fast.

According to their 2010 annual report, Unilever created revenues of $44.26 billion and a net income of $4.24 billion, which represented an 11.1% growth in sales last year. They have 165,000 employees.

You can see that Cable is very important to P&G. They ran 5,363,975 spots in the last 12 months. Unilever products were seen 887,084 times in the same date range. P&G biggest month was last month, November 2011 with 543,609 spots. Unilever ran hottest in July with 107,896 spots.

Radio was not as important to these two companies as Cable and TV. In the last 12 months, Unilever ran 48,467 spots against P&G’s 59,613 spots.

On TV, Unilever ran 17.85% of the ads that P&G ran in the last 12 months. Unilever ran 412,104 spots, while P&G ran 2,308,562 spots. P&Gs hottest month was October 2011 with 237,534 spots, while Unilever ran the most spots last April with 46,067 ads.

Posted: December 19, 2011

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