Weekly Spots

POSTED: August 27, 2012

(White Plains, NY) August 27, 2012 – According to Arbitron, Baton Rouge, Louisiana is the 81st largest radio market with a population of 589,600.

• Baton Rouge was founded in 1699 by French explorer Sieur d’lberville and called “le baton rouge” or “the red stick.” This term referred to the Native American settlements during the Creek Nation period in the late 15th and early 16th centuries.

• Baton Rouge’s largest industry is petrochemical production and manufacturing. Baton Rouge’s ExxonMobil facility is the 2nd largest oil refinery in the country and among the top 10 largest in the world.

• The arts and theater are important aspects of Baton Rouge. At the center of it all is the Shaw Center for the Arts, which houses the Brunner Gallery, LSU Museum of Art, the Manship Theater, as well as traveling exhibits. Other notable establishments include the Baton Rouge Gallery, The Baton Rouge Little Theater, and the Baton Rouge River Center, home of the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra.

• The sports scene in Baton Rouge revolves around its collegiate sports teams: LSU Tigers; Southern University Jaguars; and professional teams: Redfish Rugby; and the Baton Rouge Capitals, a minor league soccer team.

• The largest university in the city is Louisiana State University, or LSU, which has over 32,000 students. Southern University, Our Lady of the Lake College and Baton Rouge Community College are also located within the city metro area.

• Notable people from Baton Rouge include: music producer and judge of American Idol, Randy Jackson; Governor of Louisiana, Bobby Jindal; actor, Shane West; actress Donna Douglas, Elly May of Beverly Hillbillies fame; Major League Baseball players Andy Pettitte and Jonathan Papelbon; and U.S. Hall of Fame Gymnast, Carly Patterson; and NFL running back, Warrick Dunn.

BATON ROUGE SPOT TEN

The #1 radio advertiser last week in Baton Rouge was the U.S. DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION with 790 spots. Coming in #2 was BLUE CROSS & BLUE SHIELD OF LA with 512 ads, while GEICO was #3 airing 420 announcements. ALL STAR CHEVROLET was #4 with 405 spots and ALL STAR KIA was non-stop at #5 running 377 commercials. LOWE’S landed in #6 with 334 ads, while BELLE OF BATON ROUGE CASINO & HOTEL came up with lucky #7 with 296 spots. THE HOME DEPOT soared from #90 to #8 with 289 spots and ALL STAR VOLVO took #9 airing 280 commercials. TASTE OF TIGER TAILGATING (Live Nation) was #10 with 258 spots.

GOVERNMENT & UNIONS SPOT TEN

NATIONAL STATISTICS -

In this category the #1 advertiser on radio is the U.S. DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION with 29,478 spots. Coming in #2 was the U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES running 12,733 spots and the ARMY NATIONAL GUARD stood at #3 with 7,578 ads. The TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF STATE HEALTH SERVICES cleared 3,196 spots in Baton Rouge, while the U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY secured 3,066 announcements putting them at #5. The U.S. ARMY held #6 with 2,352 spots and the U.S. FOREST SERVICE was #7 running 2,218 spots. The U.S. DEPARTMENT OF VETERAN AFFAIRS was #8 with 2,033 spots and the U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY covered #9 with 1,687 ads. Coming in #10 last week was TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION with 1,592 spots. INTERESTING NOTE: The U.S. Government ran a total of 71,427 ads on the radio last week in America.

NATIONAL SPOT TEN

NATIONAL STATISTICS -

GEICO stays at #1 with 35,297 spots. THE HOME DEPOT came back from #17 to land in #2 with 31,913 ads. WAL-MART was solid at #3 with 31,077 spots and the U.S. DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION was #4 with 29,478 announcements. Down from #4 to #5 was MCDONALD’S with 27,808 spots.

Posted: August 27, 2012

Bayer Healthcare develops, manufactures and markets innovative products for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of diseases. The company thus plays an important part in improving the health of people and animals. This subgroup comprises four global divisions: Animal Health, Consumer Care, Medical Care and Pharmaceuticals.

The history of this company began on August 1, 1863 in Barmen, Germany. The founders were Friedrich Bayer and Johann Friedrich Weskott. The goal of the company was to produce and distribute man-made “dyestuffs”.

To gain financial stability, Bayer became a joint stock company known as “Farbenfabriken vorm. Friedr. Bayer & Co.” in 1881.

In 1897 Bayer Chemist, Felix Hoffmann chemically synthesized a stable form of ASA powder that relieved his father's rheumatism. The compound later became the active ingredient in aspirin named - "a" from acetyl, "spir" from the spirea plant (which yields salicin) and "in," a common suffix for medications. In 1915, Aspirin became available without a prescription.

Bayer flourished internationally with over 80% of their revenues in 1913 derived from exports.

In 1918, at the end of World War I, the U.S. assets of the German company now called Bayer AG were sold to Sterling for $5.3 million (directed under the Alien Property Custodian Act). The Bayer name stayed with Sterling for 76 years.

In 1925 Bayer relocated its assets to I.G. Farbenindustrie AG and Bayer was removed as a company from the commercial register. The Bayer cross trademark was still on pharmaceutical products sold by I.G. The Great Depression slowed down the company’s workforce during the late 1920s and early 1930s.

Near the end of World War II, American troops made it to the Leverkusen site. The Lower Rhine sites of I.G. were eventually taken over by Great Britain as it was in the area of the British occupation zone.

After World War II, I.G. was gone and a few new companies were created. In 1951 Farbenfabriken Bayer AG became a company. Bayer began expanding its company in foreign markets and within Germany. Bayer helped found Erdölchemie GmbH with help from Deutsche BP in 1957.

The early 1960s brought better sales to Bayer and a growing workforce. In 1971 Bayer Group reorganized its company into a ‘divisional corporate structure’. Bayer bought two United States laboratories during the 1970s, Cutter Laboratories in 1974 and Miles Laboratories in 1978 in order to gain ground in the U.S. pharmaceutical industry.

In 1994, Bayer bought the North American company Sterling Winthrop which let Bayer have the rights to the name “Bayer” in the U.S.

Today, 66.4% of their business deals with Healthcare, 24.7% in crop science and 8.1% in material science. They have 111,800 employees.

According to their annual report, Bayer total revenue was $45.5 billion with a net income of $2.99 billion, which was up 4.1% in 2011.

On Local Cable, Bayer ran grand total of 1,641,345 spots in the last 12 months. As a matter of fact, more than 71% of all the spots they ran were on Cable TV. Their hottest month was last month July 2012 when they cleared 190,581 spots.

On the Radio, Bayer ran the least of the three media with only 64,523 spots in the last 12 months. Their biggest month was January 2012 when they ran 30,514 spots. To put this in perspective, last month July 2012, they only ran 209 spots nationwide.

On Broadcast TV, Bayer ran 579,068 spots in the last 12 months with their biggest month being this July 2012 when they ran 64,954 ads.

POSTED: August 27, 2012

Lending Tree, LLC was started by Doug Lebda, CPA with PriceWaterhouseCoopers, when he and his wife, Tara, wanted to buy a small townhouse. Even though they were both knowledgeable about personal finance, they quickly discovered that researching rates and shopping among banks and lenders was time-consuming and complex.

Creating an online lending marketplace that quickly and easily matches borrowers and lenders, helped consumers choose from multiple offers. They further simplified the process by allowing borrowers to complete one simple, secure online form. Multiple lenders can see the form and offer customers their most competitive deal.

Many of the nation's largest lending institutions, as well as a wealth of regional and local lenders, have joined the LendingTree.com marketplace. The diverse network allows LendingTree to offer a broad range of lending products, including purchase mortgages, refinance loans, home equity loans and lines of credit, auto loans, personal loans, and credit cards, as well as access to student loans and commercial lending products.

In 2003, LendingTree, LLC caught the eye of media mogul Barry Diller and was acquired by his company IAC/InterActiveCorp.

In 2008, LendingTree spun-off from IAC to join newly established Tree.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: TREE). Tree.com is the parent company of several well-known brands and businesses in the financial services and real estate industries including LendingTree, LLC, LendingTree Loans SM, GetSmart.com, HomeLoanCenter.com, RealEstate.com, RealEstate.com, REALTORS® iNest.com and Domania.com. Together these sites serve as an ally for consumers who are looking to comparison shop loans, real estate and other financial products from multiple businesses and professions who compete for their business.

According to their latest annual report, Tree.com, the parent company created revenues of $54.62 million with losses of $-49.71 million. They have 835 employees.

Quicken Loans Inc. was previously Rock Financial Corp and was founded in 1985 by Dan Gilbert. Daniel "Dan" Gilbert is the chairman and founder of Quicken Loans Inc., and quite the sportsman. He is the majority owner of the National Basketball Association's Cleveland Cavaliers; the American Hockey League's Lake Erie Monsters; the Arena Football League's Cleveland Gladiators; and the NBA Development League's Canton Charge. Gilbert is also the operator of the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, and chairman of Rock Gaming, which opened Horseshoe Casino in downtown Cleveland in May 2012.

In October 1997, Rock Financial became affiliated with title insurance company, Title Source Inc., to help support its residential lending business.

In May 1998, Gilbert took Rock Financial public, launching a successful IPO underwritten by Bear Stearns, Inc. and Prudential Securities.

Initially a branch-based lender, the company launched Rockloans.com in January 1999, which quickly positioned the company as one of the fastest growing online direct mortgage lenders on the Internet.

In December 1999, Intuit Inc. (makers of market-leading software Quicken, TurboTax and QuickBooks) purchased Rock Financial. The company was renamed Quicken Loans.

In August 2002, Gilbert led a small group of private investors in purchasing the Quicken Loans Inc. subsidiary back from Intuit; Quicken Loans has been privately held since. The company retained all Quicken Loans branding and marketing initiatives.

Today, Quicken Loans employs approximately 4,000 people and closes loans in all 50 states and 3,100 counties throughout the United States. The company closed $30 billion in home loans in 2011.

In August 2010, Quicken Loans moved its headquarters and 1,700 full-time team members to downtown Detroit and then in October 2011, Quicken Loans moved an additional 1,500 team members to the Chase Tower Building (owned by Gilbert), with a commitment to bring the remaining 1,000 Michigan-based team members to Detroit by Spring 2012.

On Local Cable, Quicken Loans ran 127,118 spots in the last 12 months, compared to LendingTree who ran 71,700 ads. Quicken Loans was hottest last month, July 2012, with 17,301 spots, while LendingTree ran the most last September 2011 with 11,611 ads.

Radio seems to be more Quicken Loans domain with 456,045 spots in the last 12 months, while LendingTree ran only 9,388 spots. LendingTree ran the most radio spots in the month of September 2011 with 3,807 spots. It should be noted that LendingTree ran no radio in the month of February, May, June or July 2012. Quicken Loans was consistent throughout the last 12 months with their hottest month being December 2011 with 50,874 spots.

On Broadcast TV the battle is much tighter. Quicken Loans ran 26,214 ads in the last 12 months, while LendingTree cleared 21,424 spots. Quicken Loans biggest month was June 2012 with 3,569 spots and LendingTree ran the most spots in September 2011 at 3,921 units.

Posted: August 27, 2012

For The Current Spots: