Weekly Spots

POSTED: January 23, 2012

(White Plains, NY) January 23, 2012 – According to Arbitron, Buffalo-Niagara Falls is the 55th largest radio market with a population of 980,700. Three years ago they were the 52nd market.

• Buffalo, in western New York, received its name from the creek that flows through it, and likely dates from the mid-18th century, when the area was first settled by Europeans.

• The city got the nickname “City of Light” due to the fact it was the first complete city to be lit up with electrical lighting. But, on the dim side, President William McKinley was shot and mortally wounded at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo on Sept. 6, 1901.

• Buffalo is most famous for the way one prepares hot-spicy chicken wings, thus the name Buffalo Wings. The legend goes something like this: Teressa and Frank Bellisimo owned the Anchor Bar in Buffalo, NY. She invented Buffalo chicken wings in 1964 when her son Dominic and his friends came to the bar looking for a quick late night snack.

• Professional sports in Buffalo include a Minor League Baseball team called the Buffalo Bisons, an NFL team known as the Buffalo Bills, a tough hockey team known as the Buffalo Sabres, and a Soccer franchise with the name, Queen City FC.

• Famous people have spent time in Buffalo, like Mark Twain who was the editor of the Buffalo Express, or F. Scott Fitzgerald, but the list of natives is also impressive. Actors Wendie Malick and Jesse L. Martin were born in Buffalo, as well as TV writers Tom Fontana and David Milch. The Goo Goo Dolls are from Buffalo, as well as the light jazz band Spyra Gyra. Baseball greats Warren Spahn and Orel Hershiser along with singers Rick James, Brian McKnight and Grover Washington, Jr. call Buffalo home.

BUFFALO SPOT TEN

In Buffalo the #1 radio advertiser last week was GEICO with 428 spots. AGELESS MALE was #2 with 399 vitamins, I mean spots. ROSWELL PARK CANCER INSTITUTE was ranked #3 with 388 ads, while H&R BLOCK poured it on moving from #22 to #4 with 360 spots. And in a very encouraging sign for the economy, GEICO RECRUITMENT was #5 running 359 ads and AUCTION DIRECT USA was #6 with 342 commercials. CATHOLIC CHARITIES christened #7 with 300 announcements, while MCDONALD’S moved from #12 to #8 with 268 spots. LOWE’S landed in #9 running 266 spot and ATWAL EYE CARE saw their way to #10 with 258 spots.

MEDICATED PRODUCTS & REMEDIES SPOT TEN

NATIONAL STATISTICS -

Topping this category was ALKA-SELTZER with 6,137 ads, while AMBEREN was #2 with 6,131 spots. COLD-EEZE was #3 with 3,844 commercials and ALLEGRA held steady at #4 with 3,760 spots. ADVIL took the pain away at #5 with 3,713 ads and PROFOOT stepped into #6 with 2,200 announcements. MOVE FREE was #7 with 2,037 spots, while UNISOM took #8 airing 1,711 spots. Staying warm at #9 was THERMACARE with 1,671 spots and ICY HOT was #10 with 1,428 spots.

NATIONAL SPOT TEN

NATIONAL STATISTICS -

GEICO stays at #1 airing 44,251 spots last week. H&R BLOCK, the seasonal blockbuster, soared from #15 to #2 with 40,802 spots. MCDONALD’S was #3 with 26,199 ads, while TURBO TAX turned it on at #4 with 23,698 commercials. And landing in #5 was LOWE’S with 20,398 spots.

Posted: January 23, 2012

Frito-Lay North America is a division of PepsiCo and manufactures, markets and sells corn chips, potato chips and other snack foods.

The primary snack food brands produced under the Frito-Lay name include Fritos corn chips, Cheetos cheese-flavored snacks, Doritos and Tostitos tortilla chips, Lay's potato chips, Ruffles chips and Walkers potato crisps (Europe).

In 1932, C.E. Doolin entered a small San Antonio cafe and purchased a bag of corn chips. Little did he dream this savory chip would become one of the nation's most popular snacks.

Mr. Doolin learned that the manufacturer of the chips was eager to sell his small business, so he purchased the recipe, and began to sell FRITOS® Corn Chips from his Model T Ford.

That same year, Herman W. Lay began his potato chip business in Nashville. Not long after, Mr. Lay purchased the manufacturer, and the H.W. Lay & Company was formed. The success of Frito-Lay is a tribute to two entrepreneurs' dreams.

H.W. Lay & Company became one of the largest snack food companies in the Southeast, and LAY'S® brand Potato Chips is still America's favorite potato chip.

In 1961, the Frito Company and the H.W. Lay Company merged and became Frito-Lay, Inc. Frito-Lay brands account for 59% of the U.S. snack chip industry.

Recently, Frito-Lay North America continued to expand its product lines with acquisitions such as Stacy's Pita Chip Company, which represented Frito-Lay's desire to participate more broadly in the $90 billion macro-snack category -particularly with snack foods made with more natural ingredients.

The parent company Pepsico had revenues of $57.84 billion in 2010 with a net income of $6.32 billion. The parent company has 294,000 employees, while the Frito-Lay division claims more than 45,000 employees.

On Local Cable TV, Frito-Lay ran 204,384 spots in the last 12 months. In fact, 60.02% of all the spots they ran were on Cable. Their hottest month was August when they ran 30,974 spots.

On Radio, Frito-Lay appears to deploy a season approach to advertising. They ran a total of 119,420 spots in the last 12 months, with the most from April to August. They peaked in July with 38,261 spots.

On TV, Frito-Lay seems to be staying away from the dip with only 16,716 spots in the last 12 months. The biggest month was May with 3,620 spots.

POSTED: January 23, 2012

Macy’s, originally named R.H. Macy & Co. was founded by Rowland Hussey Macy, a Quaker businessman. He opened the first New York City store on 6th Ave. at 14th Street. On the company's first day of business, which was October 28, 1858, the sales totaled $11.06 (Approximately $287.37 in today’s economy).

In the 1850s, inspired by the red star tattooed on his arm, Macy replaced his store’s original trademark rooster with one of the most recognizable retail marks of all time: the Macy’s red star.

In 1862, Macy’s was the first department store to introduce the in-store Santa that promoted a new holiday standard for department stores worldwide. Macy’s was also the first department store to showcase elaborate holiday window displays in 1864.

Macy’s employed the very first female retail executive in 1866, Margaret Getchell. In 1902 Macy’s moved uptown to 34th street and Herald Square into a 9 story building with 33 elevators and 4 escalators, the first American store to use them. Once finished with their 7th avenue addition in 1924, Macy’s declared itself the world’s largest store. Macy's is about to create another miracle on 34th Street with a $400 million revamp of its fabled flagship store in New York City.

Macy’s kicked off their first Thanksgiving Day Parade in 1924, which was originally called the “Macy’s Christmas Parade” and featured live animals from the Central Park Zoo. The classic holiday 1947 movie, “Miracle on 34th Street” was based on Macy’s.

Macy’s sponsored the first “Macy’s Fireworks Spectacular” in 1976, which is now the largest fireworks display in America and a 4th of July tradition in the city of New York.

In 1994 Macy’s joined Federated Department Stores Inc. to create the largest department store retailer in America. In 2007 Federated Department Stores, Inc. became Macy’s Inc., which built on the nationwide strength of the Macy’s brand.

The company’s latest annual report shows Macy’s revenues at $25 billion with net income of $847 million, which represented a 6.4% increase in sales for 2011. They have 166,000 employees. That is up 5,000 employees from a year ago.

Kohl's Corporation is a department store chain headquartered in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, a suburb of Milwaukee. The company currently operates 1,129 stores in 49 states. Kohl's mission, as stated in store and online, is to be the leading value-oriented, family-focused, specialty department store.

Kohl’s was founded by Max Kohl, who had previously operated grocery stores. His first Kohl's supermarket was built in 1946, which grew to a southeastern Wisconsin chain known as Kohl's Food Stores.

In 1962, he started his first department store, Kohl's Department Store, in Brookfield, Wisconsin. He positioned Kohl's between the higher-end department stores and the discounters, selling everything from candy to engine oil to sporting equipment.

In 1972 the British-American Tobacco Company's BATUS Inc., bought a controlling interest in Kohl's Corp., which at the time operated 50 grocery stores, six department stores, three drug stores and three liquor stores. The Kohl family, led by Allen and Herb Kohl, continued to manage the company until 1979. In 1983, the grocery stores were sold to A&P.

A group of investors, including the senior management, purchased the company in 1986. Kohl’s added 27 more stores in the next two years then purchased Chicago-based MainStreet, which gave them 26 more stores. In 1992, the company went public and a period of expansion covered the next ten years as they opened stores nationwide.

According to their latest annual report Kohl’s net sales in 2010 was $18.4 billion, which was a 7.1% increase over 2009. They have 29,000 employees. As of January, 2011, Kohl’s employed approximately 136,000 associates, including 29,000 full-time and 107,000 part-time associates.

On Cable, Macy’s outspent Kohl’s. Macy’s cleared 287,411 spots in the last 12 months, while Kohl’s ran 118,834 ads. Macy’s biggest month was December, of course, with 54,646 spots aired and Kohl’s hottest month was also December when they ran 20,923 spots.

On the Radio, it was a close battle. Macy’s ran 504,159 spots, while Kohl’s beat them slightly with 550,832 ads in the last 12 months. With radio spots, Kohl’s ran the most in November with 74,567 into December’s 61,435 ads. Macy’s ran the most radio spots in December at 96,616 spots.

On TV, Macy’s gets a start with 263,664 spots in the last 12 months compared to Kohl’s 122,574 spots. Macy’s ran 50,718 spots in December, while Kohl’s ran the hottest in November with 21,902 spots.

Posted: January 23, 2012

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