Weekly Spots

POSTED: March 5, 2012

(White Plains, NY) March 5, 2012 – According to Arbitron, the Monterey-Salinas-Santa Cruz, CA market is the 86th largest radio market with a population of 568,100.

• The City of Monterey in Monterey County is located on Monterey Bay along the Pacific coast in Central California, thus the name Monterey.

• The city is noted for its rich history of resident artists beginning in the late 1800s and fisheries. Due to over-fishing, that industry perished.

• Two years before Woodstock, The Monterey International Pop Music Festival, a three-day concert, took place on June 16-18, 1967 at the Monterey County Fairgrounds. More than 200,000 attended and this was the first major American appearances by Jimi Hendrix and The Who, Janis Joplin and Otis Redding.

• Located at the southern end of Cannery Row, the Monterey Bay Aquarium, one of the largest in North America, hosts several important marine science laboratories. The street “Cannery Row” takes its name from the John Steinbeck novel. Mr. Steinbeck once lived in Monterey.

• The Monterey Jazz Festival began in 1958, presenting such artists as Louie Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, and Billie Holiday, and now claims to be "the longest running jazz festival in the world”.

• There are several institutions of higher education in the area, including California State University, Monterey Bay; the Naval Postgraduate School; the Monterey College of Law; the Monterey Institute of International Studies and Monterey Peninsula College, part of the California Community Colleges system.

• Some notable people from Monterey, CA include: Rocker Sammy Hagar; actors: Jeremy Sumpter, Joel Courtney, Tory Belleci and Carmen Brady; and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta.

MONTEREY SPOT TEN

The #1 radio advertiser down in Monterey last week was GEICO with 657 ads. Cashing in at #2 was CHASE with 436 spots, while AUTOZONE zoomed from #11 to #3 with 386 ads. GREAT CLIPS cut into the top ten at #4 with 357 spots and MATTRESS DISCOUNTERS WEST wound up in #5 with 349 commercials. MCDONALD’S was lovin’ it at #6 with 289 announcements, while REGIONALHELPWANTED.COM came in at #7 running 287 spots. PROACTIV SOLUTION was #8 with 279 spots and SAFEWAY STORES landed at #9 with 276 spots. JCPENNEY makes #10 airing 242 spots.

LEGAL SERVICES SPOT TEN

NATIONAL STATISTICS -

In Legal Services category the #1 firm in the land was MORGAN & MORGAN running 4,624 spots. LEGALZOOM took #2 with 3,186 spots, while CORDELL & CORDELL held court at #3 with 1,718 commercials. ANELLI XAVIER was #4 with 1,159 ads, while THOMASSEN LAW GROUP moved from #8 to #5 with 870 spots. GLEN J. LERNER & ASSOCIATES was #6 with 820 spots nationwide, while THE TICKET CLINIC was steady at #7 airing 792 spots. LAW OFFICES OF MANUEL SOLIS was #8 with 713 ads and MARTIN, HARDING & MAZZOTTI stayed at #9 with 399 spots. STEIGERWALT & ASSOCIATES were #10 with 575 spots.

NATIONAL SPOT TEN

NATIONAL STATISTICS -

GEICO keeps its grip on #1 with 53,681 spots last week. AUTOZONE took #2 with 30,149 ads, while MCDONALD’S landed at #3 with 28,515 commercials. ADVANCE AUTO PARTS was #4 with 19,239 spots and ALLSTATE appears at #5 this week with 18,656 spots. Of note: STATE FARM was #6 with 18,159 spots and PROGRESSIVE was #10 with 17,474 spots. All four major insurance companies appeared in the top ten last week on radio.

Posted: March 5, 2012

Knowing that the frustrations she and her friends had finding good contractors were not unique, Angie Hicks back in 1995 literally went door-to-door in Columbus, OH and recruited members and collected reports from friends and neighbors to help solve a problem.

After the first year, armed with more than 1,000 members throughout Columbus, Angie had laid the foundation for what would become one of the fastest growing companies in the U.S. Angie Hicks holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a bachelor’s degree in economics from DePauw University, in Greencastle, IN.

A working mother herself, Angie has ensured Angie’s List continues to evolve to meet the ever-changing, dynamic needs of today’s families and homeowners. Angie’s List claims to publish only reliable information and provide useful information to help its members find good contractors or service companies for everything from major home renovation to emergency car repair to a clown for a kid’s birthday party.

Angie’s List is on the NASDAQ: ANGI and latest reports shows revenue in 2011 of $90 million, but net income was -$49 million last year. But they did grow by 52.5% in sales for 2011. They web site claims they are in more than 200 cities in all 50 states, have 400 employees and 1.2 million members.

More than 86% of all Angie’s List spots run on Cable. In fact, in the last 12 months they ran 400,091 spots with the biggest month being July, last summer, when they ran 47,541 spots.

On the Radio, Angie ran 35,215 spots in the last 12 months with last May being the biggest month with 4,019 spots.

On TV, Angie’s List ran only 29,858 ads with July being the biggest months with 7,791 spots.

POSTED: March 5, 2012

State Farm, headquartered in Bloomington, IL, insures more cars and homes than any other insurer in the United States since 1942 and is the leading insurer in Canada as well.

It was founded in 1922 by retired farmer and insurance salesman George Jacob, “GL” Mecherle who cared about fairness and doing the right thing for the customer. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company is the parent of the State Farm family of companies.

State Farm has over 17,700 agents serving their more than 81 million policy and account holders.

State Farm’s famous jingle, “Like a Good Neighbor, State Farm is There”, was written by Barry Manilow in 1971.

State Farm Mutual owns more than a dozen companies which encompass insurance, management, investment and banking. They have 66,000 employees and the combined net worth for the State Farm group increased in 2010 by $3.1 billion to end the year with revenues of $61.2 billion. Figures on 2011 are not available.

The Allstate Corporation (NYSE: ALL) is the largest publically held personal lines insurer and the second largest overall insurer in the United States. The company was founded in 1931 as a part of Sears, Roebuck & Co., went public in 1993, and became a completely independent company after Sears divested its shares in 1995. It is currently a Fortune 100 company with $133 billion in total assets.

Allstate sponsors many sporting events including the Allstate Sugar Bowl, the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard NASCAR race, and the Olympics.

The Allstate name is associated with reliability and financial strength and has turned its slogan “You’re In Good Hands With Allstate” into one of the most widely recognized in business history. Since 2004, spokesperson Dennis Haysbert, has modified the slogan asking, “That’s Allstate’s stand. Are you in good hands?” The company’s most recent campaign features Dean Winters as the character of “Mayhem”, who is seen causing various hazardous situations for drivers.

Allstate also utilizes various forms of social media like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter to bring more widespread attention to the company.

Allstate Financial Services target the retiree market as well as the vast and often financially underserved segment of middle income consumers, who need loans.

According to their 2011 annual report, Allstate had revenues of $33.17 billion with net income of $788 million, which represented a 2.8% growth in sales. The have 37,600 employees.

On Cable Allstate topped State Farm. State Farm ran 625,486 spots in the last 12 months, while Allstate ran 982,063 ads. State Farm ran hottest in December with 71,436 spots and Allstate ran the most spots in January with 129,077 and then follow with a strong February of this year with 118,344 spots.

On the Radio, State Farm powers over Allstate. State Farm ran 1,063,075 spots against Allstate’s 490,625 ads in the last 12 months. State Farm pushed hardest in the month of October with 181,995 spots. Allstate on the other hand ran hottest in November on radio with 108,766 ads.

On TV, both insurance giants have been conservative in the last 12 months. State Farm ran 185,411spots, while Allstate ran 247,471 spots. State Farm ran hottest in December with 29,097 spots and Allstate ran the most spots to begin 2012 in January with 30,493 spots.

Posted: March 5, 2012

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