Weekly Spots

POSTED: December 26, 2011

(White Plains, NY) December 26, 2011 - According to Arbitron, Houston, TX is the 6th largest radio market with a population of 4,984,000.

• Houston was founded on August 30, 1836 by brothers Augustus Chapman Allen and John Kirby Allen on land near the banks of Buffalo Bayou.

• The city was incorporated on June 5, 1837 and named after then-President of the Republic of Texas, Sam Houston. Yes, Texas was its own country once.

• Houston is the largest city (square miles) within the state of Texas, and known as "the energy capital of the world”; with headquarters of some of the major players in energy and fuel: BP, Cabot Oil, Citgo, Conoco Phillips, Frontier Oil, Halliburton, Marathon Oil, Pennzoil and Shell’s US headquarters. It was also the home of the disaster in energy Enron.

• Houston has more than sixty colleges, universities and other degree-granting institutions. The University of Houston has more than 36,000 students from 130 countries.

• Houston has teams for nearly every major professional sport. The Houston Astros (MLB), Houston Texans (NFL), Houston Rockets (NBA), Houston Dynamo (MLS), Houston Aeros (AHL), Houston Wranglers (WTT), Houston Takers (ABA), Houston Energy (IWFL), Houston Leones (PDL), and the H-Town Texas Cyclones (NWFA). Sports have always been important to the city of Houston.

• Some famous people from Houston, Texas include: actresses Hilary and Hailey Duff; film director Wes Anderson; actress Jennifer Garner; singer Beyonce Knowles; actor Dennis Quaid, and founder of Dell Computers, Michael Dell.

HOUSTON SPOT TEN

In Houston last week, the #1 radio advertiser was GALLERY FURNITURE with 1279 spots. Coming in #2 was WAL-MART with 886 ads, while STATE FARM appeared in #3 position airing 727 spots. GEICO moved from #16 to #4 with 656 commercials and JCPENNEY was #5 running 629 spots. XFINITY BUNDLE took #6 with 615 spots, while LOWE'S was #7 with 504 ads. TAMIFLU was solid at #8 with 498 announcements, while ACE CASH EXPRESS leaped to #9 airing 497 spots. Safeways’s RANDALLS took #10 with 484 spots.

MOTION PICTURES SPOT TEN

NATIONAL STATISTICS -

In the Motion Pictures category, THE DARKEST HOUR was #1 with 2,436 spots. WAR HORSE MOVIE was #2 with 1,389 ads, while THE DEVIL INSIDE came in at #3 with 1,251 spots. EXTREMELY LOUD & INCREDIBLY CLOSE was #4 airing 549 announcements and ALVIN & CHIPMUNKS CHIPWRECKED found #5 with 77 commercials. YOUNG ADULT was #6 with 67 spots, while THE ULTIMATE WAVE TAHITI was #7 with 60 spots. NEW YEAR'S EVE was #8 with 56 ads and ¡QUÉ JOYITAS! maintained at #9 with 51 spots. And coming in #10 was WE BOUGHT A ZOO with 50 spots.

NATIONAL SPOT TEN

NATIONAL STATISTICS -

STATE FARM was #1 with 37,201 spots. GEICO is moved to #2 with 34,481 spots, while WAL-MART moved to #3 with 31,630 ads. MCDONALD'S also moved to #4 with 23,708 commercials and TOYS "R" US comes in at #5 with 23,387 spot s.

Posted: December 26, 2011

Kmart was born more than one hundred years ago. Sebastian Spering Kresge opened a modest five-and-dime store in downtown Detroit and changed the entire landscape of retailing.

The store that Kresge built has evolved into an empire of more than 1,500 stores and an Internet presence that reaches millions of customers. The Kmart name has become a symbol of Americana, standing for quality products at low prices.

When Kresge opened his first store in 1899, he sold everything for 5 and 10 cents. The low prices appealed to shoppers and allowed him to expand to 85 stores in 1912, with annual sales of more than $10 million.

By the mid-1920s, the S.S. Kresge Company was opening locations that sold items for $1 or less, a precursor to the current dollar discount stores seen in every corner of America.

Ten years later in 1937, Kresge opened a store in the country's first suburban shopping center -- Country Club Plaza in Kansas City, Missouri.

In 1959, it was evident that the company needed to change so, Harry B. Cunningham became Kresge’s president. Under Cunningham's leadership, the first Kmart discount department store opened in 1962 in Garden City, Michigan. Seventeen additional Kmart stores opened that year, leading to corporate sales of more than $483 million that year.

Just four years later in 1966, sales in 162 Kmart stores and 753 Kresge stores topped the $1 billion mark. In 1976, S.S. Kresge made history by opening 271 Kmart stores in one year, becoming the first-ever retailer to launch 17 million square feet of sales space in a single year.

In 1977, nearly 95 percent of S.S. Kresge Company sales were generated by Kmart stores. To reflect this dramatic impact, the company officially changed its name to Kmart Corporation. Ten years later, Kmart sold the remaining Kresge stores to fully concentrate on discount merchandising.

Life for Kmart continued to improve until 2002 when they were forced into bankruptcy. They emerged from Chapter 11 in May of 2003 and in 2004 announced that they would purchase Sears Roebuck. Under the merger agreement, they changed their name to Sears Holdings Corporation.

Kmart currently employs more than 133,000 employees, while their parent company Sears Holdings has 312,000 employees. According to the Sears annual report, they produced $43.33 billion in revenues with a net income of $133 million.

Most of Kmart’s ads were run on Cable – 58.66% as a matter of fact. They ran a total of 306,872 spots in the last 12 months. The biggest month was last month, November, with 60,292 ads. The lowest month was last March 2011 with only 4,656 spots.

On Radio, Kmart looks like they finally found the radio by the end of the year. They ran 48,547 spots in the last 12 months with the biggest months being October 2011 with 12,963 spots and November 2011 with 15,364 ads.

On TV, Kmart ran a total of 167,688 spots; about half of what they ran on Cable. The biggest month was November 2011 with 30,784 spots followed by last December 2010, when they ran 28,097 spots.

POSTED: December 27, 2011

SUBWAY is another amazing start-up story. In 1965, Fred DeLuca and Dr. Peter Buck team up to open their first submarine sandwich shop in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Originally called "Pete's Super Submarines", they sold 312 sandwiches the first day. The average cost of a sub was between 49 and 69 cents.

In 1975, the chain's flagship sandwich, the classic BMT was first introduced. Going along with the subway transportation theme, it was named for the Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit system; later it was referred to as "Biggest, Meatiest, Tastiest" in an ad campaign.

In 1983, The SUBWAY chain was ranked number one in the sub sandwich category by 'Entrepreneur' magazine, a spot that it has consistently held throughout the years. A year later, The SUBWAY restaurant chain opened its 1st International location in Bahrain in the Middle East. In 1985, the chain celebrated the 500th store.

The SUBWAY chain reached the goal of 5,000 restaurants with a restaurant opening in Texas in 1990. Five years later in 1995, the chain celebrated its 30th anniversary with the opening of the 11,000th location. The first SUBWAY locations then opened in China, Costa Rica, Egypt, El Salvador, Honduras, Ireland, Jamaica, New Zealand, Spain and Taiwan.

In 1996 SUBWAY launched their website, www.subway.com. Later in 2000, Jared Fogle, the man who lost 245 pounds by including low fat SUBWAY sandwiches in a diet and exercise program of his own design, was introduced to the world in the first in a series of television commercials. Tae-Bo inventor, Billy Blanks was featured in a SUBWAY TV commercial to help promote the SUBWAY brand as a healthier alternative to fatty fast food.

The SUBWAY brand is the world's largest submarine sandwich chain with more than 34,000 locations around the world. According to MSN Money web site, there are now more SUBWAY locations than McDonald’s. And Bloomberg’s reported that the $5 foot-long - a foot-long sub for $5 - generated $3.5 billion in sales in 2009.

Quiznos began with the first toasted sub made in the first restaurant in 1981 on the corner of 13th and Grant in Denver, CO. Rick Schaden, future CEO, had the Classic Italian in 1984 and in 1987 bought his first outlet in Boulder.

In 1991, Rick and his father Dick bought the Quiznos franchise operation. By 1993, they sold their 2.5 millionth sub and by 1995 they had 100 restaurants.

By 2002, they sold 89 million subs and in 2003 became the second largest sub chain. In 2010, they announced that their restaurants were going green and the new image positioner became Subs – Soups – Salads.

The company's first major advertising push was a successful advertising campaign during the 2002 Super Bowl. Early TV spots advertised the innovation of toasting sandwiches, as compared to the inventor of pants (humorously contrasted with men wearing bushes).

There are over 4,000 Quiznos shops located in the United States, 300 in Canada, and 100 more scattered across the world.

Apparently, Quiznos is just a made-up name without a major back story. The original name of the sandwiches was Quizno’s and the company name was Quizno, but now they are owned by QIP Holder, LLC. Rick Schaden remains as Chairman with his family controlling the company, and rather ironically, their president is named Greg MacDonald.

Most recently, Quiznos has endured a major law suit brought by more than 10,000 of their now or former franchisees. They settled in 2009. At issue, the chain’s supply chain and food costs, marketing and advertising funds. Those involved in the suit will share a little under $12.5 million dollars and the company has promised to help the franchisees and disclose more of their financial records. This process will continue through 2012 and obviously has had an effect on their advertising campaigns.

This is certainly a David and Goliath situation. Subway ran 606,919 spots in the last 12 months on Cable, while Quiznos ran only 20,886 spots. Subway’s biggest month was August with 66,308 spots, while Quiznos ran no spots February through September, then started again with 18,460 spots in October 2011.

On Radio, Subway ran 556,970 spots against Quiznos 28,981 spots in the last 12 months. Quiznos’ biggest month was June with 26,456 ads, while Subway ran hottest last December 2010 with 58,761 spots.

On TV, Subway aired 375,284 spots in the last 12 months, while Quiznos only ran 2,027 spots nationally in the same period. Subway was biggest in July with 39,547 ads, while Quiznos ran hottest October 2011 with 1,828 spots.

Posted: December 27, 2011

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