Weekly Spots

POSTED: December 3, 2012

(White Plains, NY) December 3, 2012 – According to Arbitron, Miami, FL is the 11th largest radio market with a population of 3,781,100.

• Miami holds the distinction of being "the only major city in the United States conceived by a woman, Julia Tuttle," who was a local citrus grower and a wealthy Cleveland native. In 1894–95 there was a terrible freeze that killed all the crops north of Miami. Julia Tuttle convinced Henry Flagler, a railroad tycoon, to expand his Florida East Coast Railway to the region, and thus, Miss Tuttle became known as "the mother of Miami."

• Miami was officially incorporated as a city on July 28, 1896 with a population of just over 300.

• Miami is recognized as a global city because of its importance in finance, commerce, media, entertainment, arts and international trade. The city is home to many company headquarters, banks, and television studios. It is an international center for popular entertainment in television, music, fashion, film, and the performing arts.

• The city's Port of Miami is known for accommodating the largest volume of cruise ships in the world and is home to many cruise line headquarters.

• Miami sports the Miami Dolphins of the NFL; Miami Heat of the NBA; Miami Marlins of the MLB; and the Florida Panthers of the NHL.

• Universities in Miami include: Barry University, Carlos Albizu University, Florida International University (public, largest university in South Florida), Florida Memorial University, Johnson and Wales University, Keiser University, Miami Dade College, Miami International University of Art and Design, Nova Southeastern University, St. Thomas University and the University of Miami.

• Some famous faces from Miami include: Bob Vila – TV personality; Alexa Vega – actress; Sidney Poitier - Academy Award-winning actor; Eva Mendes – actress; David Archuleta – singer from American Idol; rapper Pitbull and some people who were born in Cuba but moved to Miami as babies, actor Andy Garcia; baseball player Jose Canseco;; and the famous singer Gloria María Milagrosa Fajardo García de Estefan.

MIAMI SPOT TEN

The #1 radio advertiser in the Miami market last week was T-MOBLE with 943 spots. THE HOME DEPOT powered into #2 running 839 commercials, while WAL-MART moved from #30 to #3 with 715 ads. 1-800-411-PLAN was #4 with 683 spots and UNIVISION was #5 airing 620 spots. FLORIDA LOTTERY was #6 with 554 ads, while the HONDA DEALER ASSOCIATION was solid at #7 with 539 spots. PUBLIX was #8 with 473 ads and AUTOZONE zoomed from #24 to #9 with 462 spots. 1-800-NEEDHELP moves from #47 to #10 last week with 426 spots.

WIRELESS CARRIER SPOT TEN

NATIONAL STATISTICS -

The top dog in Wireless was T-MOBILE with 22,754 spots last week. Coming in #2 was VERIZON WIRELESS with 15,849 spots, while AT&T WIRELESS was solid at #3 with 14,786 spots. CRICKET took #4 with 6,367 and METROPCS landed at #5 airing 6,361 commercials. BOOST MOBILE was #6 running 3,230 spots, while NET10 took #7 with 2,477 ads. U.S. CELLULAR stayed at #8 with 1,921 spots and SPRINT NEXTEL dropped from #4 to #9 with 1,842 spots. #10 was ASSURANCE WIRELESS with 1,752 spots.

NATIONAL SPOT TEN

NATIONAL STATISTICS -

We have a new #1 on the National Spot Ten; it’s GEICO with 43,446 spots. Dropping to #2 was THE HOME DEPOT with 40,243 and moving into #3 was MCDONALD’S with 27,984 ads. T-MOBILE surges from #10 to #4 with 22,754 spots, while LOWE’S slips from #4 to #5 with 21,996 spots.

Posted: December 3, 2012

Rosetta Stone began with one man’s quest for a better way to learn a language. Allen Stoltzfus began studying Russian in the 1980s, but became frustrated with his slow progress. Fortunately, he knew there was a better way to learn a language, through immersion, which he had experienced years earlier while studying in Germany. Allen’s command of German was a direct result of being a part of the culture and the world of Germany, instead of sitting in a classroom. He immersed himself in the language, and discovered German the way he had acquired his first language…naturally and without translation.

And so, an idea was born. Allen envisioned using computer technology to simulate the way that people learn their native language—with pictures and sounds in context, and with no translation. Allen went to his brother-in-law, John Fairfield, who had a Ph.D. in computer science, to explore the possibilities. John loved the idea, but he and Allen had to wait until technology caught up with their vision.

In 1992 when Fairfield Language Technologies was founded in Harrisonburg, Va. Allen, the company’s Chairman and President, recruited his brother, Eugene Stoltzfus, from the world of architecture to be the company’s first Executive Vice President. Eugene also lent design expertise to the structural and visual components of the program, which quickly went from a dream to a reality.

Allen, John and Eugene called their product “Rosetta Stone,” named after the artifact that had unlocked the secrets of Egyptian hieroglyphics for linguists.

Allen passed away in 2002, but his legacy of achievement and innovation inspires the company to this very day. Eugene filled the role of President and Chairman until the end of 2005. Tom Adams was named CEO in 2003.

In 2006, the company was sold to investment firms ABS Capital Partners and Norwest Equity Partners, and was renamed after their signature product. The company became publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange (RST) in April 2009, providing language-learning solutions for more than 30 different languages in more than 150 countries.

Rosetta Stone expanded to offices in London, Munich, Tokyo, Seoul, and Boulder, Colorado, while maintaining its executive offices in Washington, D.C.

According to their 2011 annual report they created revenues of $268.45 million, which presented a 3.7% increase in sales. They lost $19.99 million in 2011 and they have 1,888 employees. Two years ago they claimed 922 employees.

On Local Cable Rosetta Stone ran 58,767 spots in the last 12 months. Their biggest month was August with 9,094 ads.

On the Radio, Rosetta Stone cleared 445,460 spots in the last 12 months. Almost 78% of all the spots they ran were on radio. They ran hottest in January with 65,449 spots.

On Broadcast TV, Rosetta Stone ran 67,093 spots with a peak month of June 2012 when they ran 8,360 spots.

POSTED: December 3, 2012

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc (NYSE:WMT) is a chain of large, discount department stores. Founded by Sam Walton in 1962, it was incorporated on October 31, 1969.

Sam Walton, a businessman from Arkansas, began his retail career when he started work on June 3, 1940, at a J.C. Penney store in Des Moines, Iowa where he remained for 18 months. In 1945, he purchased a Ben Franklin variety store in Newport, Arkansas; the store was a franchise of the Butler Brothers chain. It was here in this first store that Walton pioneered many winning concepts such as making sure his shelves were consistently stocked with a wide variety of goods.

Walton was extremely successful in running the store in Newport. When the lease came up for renewal, he opened a new Ben Franklin franchise in Bentonville, Arkansas, but called it "Walton's Five and Dime." There, he achieved higher sales volume by marking up slightly less than most competitors.

Walmart's operations are organized into three divisions: Walmart Stores U.S., Sam's Club, and Walmart International. The company does business in nine different retail formats: supercenters, food and drugs, general merchandise stores, bodegas (small markets), cash and carry stores, membership warehouse clubs, apparel stores, soft discount stores and restaurants.

According to their 2011 annual report, they created revenues of $443.85 billion with a net income of $15.77 billion, which represented a 5.9 % growth in sales. They employ 2.2 million people.

Target (NYSE:TGT) began when George D. Dayton opened a Goodfellows in downtown Minneapolis in 1902. The company was called the Dayton Dry Goods Company.

By 1922, they had changed their name to just the Dayton Company and they created WBAH radio, one of only six radio stations in Minneapolis and the first one to be operated by a department store in the Twin Cities.

By 1956, they had expanded into the suburbs of Minneapolis with shopping centers; in fact, their Southdale Mall was the nation's first fully enclosed shopping center.

The Dayton Company moved away from the department store model and entered mass market discount merchandising with the opening of its first Target store in Roseville, Minnesota on May 1, 1962. Four years later, they opened their first Target store outside of Minnesota and they picked Denver as the location.

In 1967, they had grown into five autonomous divisions: Dayton department stores, Target stores, B. Dalton booksellers, Dayton Jewelers and Dayton Development Company. In 1968, The Target bull's eye logo was redesigned to its current appearance.

In 1969, they joined forces with the J.L. Hudson Company of Detroit to create Dayton-Hudson Corporation. In 1978, they purchased Mervyn's of California. In 1990, they purchased Marshall Field's in Chicago.

In 1995, the first SuperTarget® store was opened in Omaha, Nebraska. Marshall Field's was sold to Macy's in 2004 and also Mervyn's was sold to an investment group and then subsequently went bankrupt.

Target grew and eventually became the largest division of Dayton Hudson Corporation, culminating in the company being renamed as Target Corporation in August 2000.

Target's slogan is "Expect More. Pay Less" and after 19 years of being known for "Always Low Prices," Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, recently changed its slogan to "Save Money. Live Better.”

According to Target's 2011 annual report, they produced revenues of $69.87 billion and delivered a net income of $2.93 billion, which represented a 3.7% increase in sales growth. They have 365,000 employees.

On Local Cable, Wal-Mart was way out ahead with 528,083 spots in the last 12 months, while Target ran 234,666 spots. Wal-Mart's biggest Cable month was December 2011 with 122,591 spots. Target went all in for the month of December 2011 as well with 53,490 ads.

On the Radio, Wal-Mart made major gains in the last 12 months with a total of 962,023 spots, while Target topped out at 152,224 spots. Wal-Mart ran the most radio spots in December 2011 with 159,105, but also poured it on in July when they cleared 147,886 spots. Target ran the most spots in November 2012 with 46,305, which might be an early start to holiday campaigns.

On Broadcast TV the two big box giants are closer with Wal-Mart hitting 380,953 spots in the last 12 months compared to Target's 263,835 ads. Wal-Mart's biggest month of the year was last month with 61,767 spots, while Target biggest month of the year was last December 2011 with 52,774 spots.

Posted: December 3, 2012

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