Weekly Spots

POSTED: July 23, 2012

(White Plains, NY) July 23, 2012 – According to Arbitron Hartford, CT is the 52nd largest radio market with a population of 1,071,900.

• Hartford, the capital of the State of Connecticut, is located on the Connecticut River, 24 miles south of Springfield, Massachusetts.

• Hartford is nicknamed the "Insurance Capital of the World" because many of the world's insurance companies are headquartered there. Some of the bigger names: Travelers, Aetna, The Hartford, The Phoenix Companies, Inc. and one of the most unusual names for an insurance company, Hartford Steam Boiler.

• Hartford is also home to CIGNA, Colt Firearms, U.S. Fire Arms and United Technologies.

• The Wadsworth Atheneum and Trinity College are located in the Hartford area, along with the Hartford Conservatory, the University of Connecticut - School of Business, the Hartford Seminary, the University of Connecticut School of Law and Rensselaer at Hartford.

• The University of Connecticut men's and women's basketball team - the UConn Huskies - also play a number of their home games at the XL Center downtown Hartford.

• Some famous residents of Hartford include: Brooke Burke - model dancer; Mark McGrath – TV host and lead singer of Sugar Ray; Stephenie Meyer - author of the novel Twilight; and Eric Mangini - former head coach of New York Jets.

HARTFORD SPOT TEN

In Hartford last week the #1 Radio advertiser was THE HOME DEPOT with 885 spots. GEICO was #2 airing 782 commercials, while KEY HYUNDAI landed in #3 with 627 spots. SIX FLAGS THEME PARKS was #4 running 486 spots and SLEEPY’S rested at #5 with 464 ads. The FORD DEALER ASSOCIATION soared from #73 to #6 with 463 spots, while the NISSAN DEALER ASSOCIATION moved from #16 to #7 with 424 spots. GOODWIN COLLEGE was #8 with 410 spots and BOB’S DISCOUNT FURNITURE is #9 with 407 spots. AUTOZONE zoomed from #42 to #10 with 345 spots.

EYE CARE & PRODUCTS SPOT TEN

NATIONAL STATISTICS -

In this category, we see LASIKPLUS is the #1 player with 4,167 spots. CRIZAL moved from #59 to #2 with 3,369 spots, while PEARLE VISION was clearly in #3 with 854 commercials. LASIK OF NEVADA was #4 with 495 spots and ELLIS EYE & LASER MEDICAL CENTER leaped from #36 to #5 airing 361 spots. 20/20 INSTITUTE took #6 with their 263 spots, while MANN EYE INSTITUTE & LASER CENTER was #7 with 253 ads. CLEAR SIGHT saw #8 with 241 spots and LODEN VISION CENTERS was #9 with 237 spots. Coming in #10 was 20/20 EYEGLASS SUPERSTORE with 235 spots.

NATIONAL SPOT TEN

NATIONAL STATISTICS -

For the 16th week in a row, THE HOME DEPOT tops our list with 71,289 spots. Coming in #2 was GEICO with 34,667 spots, while AUTOZONE zooms up from #14 to #3 with 30,885 spots. MCDONALD’S once again owns #4 and they are “Lovin it” with 27,069 spots and O’REILLY AUTO PARTS was #5 airing 22,307 spots.

Posted: July 23, 2012

CarMax Inc is a used and new car retailer founded in 1993 and headquartered in Richmond, Virginia. CarMax Richard Sharp and W. Austin Ligon crafted the business model for CarMax. Both men at the time worked for Circuit City, where they drew their inspiration for CarMax’s business concept. When the business began, CarMax was a subsidiary of Circuit City.

In October of 1993, CarMax had opened their first store. Prices were fixed, so haggling was not an option. Kiosks allowed customers to look at the store’s merchandise, making it easier for a customer to focus on what they wanted.

New cars were introduced in 1996. Up until that point, CarMax had only been selling used cars at their superstores. That same year, Circuit City made the decision to sell between fifteen and twenty percent of CarMax to the general public to stabilize finances.

By February of 1997, the public offering was completed. This decision allowed the store to increase from seven superstores to twenty-three by the middle of 1998 from the time the offer was introduced. In 2005, CarMax had thirty-seven used car lots and 17 new car lots.

Today they have over 100 stores across the nation and more than two million cars are sold each year. Thomas Folliard is the current Chief Executive Officer/President/Director of CarMax. The Chief Financial Officer and Senior Vice President is Thomas W. Reedy.

CarMax was named one of the ‘Fortune 100 Best Companies To Work For’ in 2011, and according to their website, has been given this award the past seven years in a row.

According to their 2011 annual report, CaxMax created revenues of $10 billion with a net income of $413.80 million, which presented an 11.5% increase in sales. They have 16,460 employees.

On Local Cable, CarMax ran 40,208 spots in the last 12 months. Their biggest month was last January 2012 when they cleared 4,988 spots.

76.35% of all CarMax spots were run on radio, which totaled 313,717 in the last 12 months. Their hottest month was last August with 38,082 ads.

On Broadcast TV, CarMax ran 56,959 spots in the last 12 months with their hottest month being August 2011 when they ran 7,820 spots.

POSTED: July 23, 2012

Visa came to life in 1976 when the BankAmericard, introduced in 1958 by the Bank of America, became known as a Visa card. The BankAmericard program was taken under control by the National BankAmericard Inc. in 1970 and then in 1974, the International Bankcard Company formed to manage the BankAmericard program in other countries. In order to unite the businesses abroad, the BankAmericard became known as Visa.

In 1979, Visa introduced its customers to Visa Travelers Cheques in four currencies and by 1986 Visa was available in twenty-one currencies. In 1983 Visa marketed their 24 hour automated teller machines to make traveling easier for their consumers by providing them with cash wherever they were in the world. Visa obtained Interlink in 1989 allowing the company’s customers to sign their name electronically. By 1995 Visa launched its first Visa Check Card, and helped to create a new chip card with Europay and MasterCard, so that all chips could be read no matter what terminal you were at.

The international prepaid card known as Visa TravelMoney was created in 1996 and by 2007 Visa became a global corporation called Visa Inc. Visa Inc. in 2008 was introduced to the New York Stock Exchange as the ticker symbol “V”. The now famous ad campaign, “More People Go With Visa” began in 2009.

Visa’s products and services include debit, credit, prepaid, and products and services for commercial and government purposes. VisaNet, Visa’s electronic authorization system, continues to ensure safe electronic payments.

As of last September, there were 269 million Visa credit cards in circulation and 397 million debit cards (Source: Visa)

According to their 2011 annual report, Visa had revenues of $9.19 billion with a net income of $3.65 billion, which was a 13.9% increase in sales. They have 7,500 employees.

American Express started out in Albany, NY in 1850 as the first and most successful express delivery business to arise during the rapid westward expansion of the United States. It was founded as a joint stock corporation by the merger of the express companies owned by Henry Wells (Wells & Company), William Fargo (Livingston, Fargo & Company), and John Warren Butterfield (Wells, Butterfield & Company. Yes, the very same Wells Fargo.

The U.S. Postal Service at the time was slow, expensive and nonexistent in many areas. Nothing larger than a letter-sized envelope could be sent by mail, and certainly nothing valuable, as a fair number of deliveries were lost or stolen on the journey.

Although in its early years American Express was not itself a financial services company, its largest and most consistent clients were banks. Delivering the banks’ typically small parcels – stock certificates, notes, currency and other financial instruments – was considerably more profitable than transporting larger freight. Soon the company would scale down its parcel and freight delivery business in favor of creating and selling its own financial products.

In 1882, American Express launched the money order business, which proved an almost instant success. The company introduced the world’s first Travelers Cheque in 1891 and within ten years was selling more than $6 million annually.

In 1905, the U.S. Immigration Department awarded a contract to American Express to provide official currency exchange services. Over the years, countless newcomers completed their first business transactions in the United States at the American Express teller’s window on Ellis Island.

American Express issued its first charge card in 1958. Within five years, more than 1 million cards were in use at approximately 85,000 establishments within and outside the United States. Today there are 48.9 million American Express cards in circulation (Source: AmericanExpress.com).

American Express created revenues of $32.27 billion with a net income in 2011 of $4.84 billion which represented a 6.7% growth in sales. They have 62,500 employees.

On Local Cable, American Express slightly leads Visa. In the last 12 months, American Express placed 118,578 commercials on Local Cable, whereas Visa ran 99,633 spots. Visa’s hottest month was last month, June 2012, with 33,765 ads. American Express ran hottest in April 2012 with 26,100 ads.

On Radio, Visa almost doubled American Express. In the last 12 months, American Express ran 80,748 spots, while Visa cleared 159,416. American Express ran the most last September 2011 at 22,483 spots, while Vida ran hottest last May with 32,538 spots and last month June, was pretty good too, with 32,338 spots.

On Broadcast TV, Visa ran 26,329 spots in the last 12 months, while American Express ran 39,690 spots. Visa ran the most in December with 5,693, and then ran close to that in May with 5,689 spots. American Express ran hottest in September 2011 with 9,123 spots.

Posted: July 23, 2012

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