Hot 100 from Stores Magazine

Spots N Dots The Daily News Of TV Sales August 7, 2017 RETAIL: “DIFFERENT” IS HOT HOT 100 FROM STORES MAGAZINE “There is no question that large, undifferentiated retail is in trouble and has been for some time,” Kantar Retail’s Chief Insights Officer says in introducing Stores magazine’s Hot 100 Retailers study for 2017, “but the headlines about the closing of American retailing is an overreaction.” Stores itself comments that while there is a distinct lack of big-box general merchandise retailers on the chart of retailers showing growth, there are plenty of companies on the list that exhibit differentiation in the marketplace as well as offer innovative merchandising and an appropriate value proposition for the intended target base. What’s hot in retailing, Stores concludes, is “different.” And “different” is a little bit of everything, from meal kits, to chain liquor stores, to niche supermarkets. But what is not happening is the collapse of bricks-and-mortar retailing, as Kantar projects online to account for just 18% of retail by 2022, and not get close to half for thirty or forty years. Online retailers do take several spots among the fastest growing companies, but there are plenty of bricks-and-mortar merchants on the list also—some of them aggressively expanding into new markets or building up locations in current markets. Blue Apron, coming off a small base in 2015, showed the greatest growth of any company percentagewise last year, more than doubling its business year-to-year. Wayfair, which has used TV to help build its customer base, ranked second with a 54% gain, now doing over $3 billion in annual revenue. Number three last year is a company not likely to stay on the list very long, Ascena Retail Group which had been building up its sales total mostly by mergers and acquisitions, a strategy that no longer looks to be a winning one. The parent of chains such as Ann Taylor, Catherines, and Dress Barn has actually gone into contraction mode this year, having announced plans to close 660 stores after a billion-dollar loss. Fourth on the list is another online retailer using TV to build up its customer base, pet supplies retailer Chewy. com. Again, coming off a small base, the company recorded a 48% sales increase last year. Its success has led to a buyout from bricks-and-mortar retailer PetSmart for more than $3 billion. And joining in the successful tactic of using television ads to grow a customer list, number five Build.com, grew its business by 38% last year. The rest of the top ten fastest-growers are c-store chains CST Brands, which acquired other c- stores and then itself was scooped up by Couche-Tard to become part of Circle K, online fashion retailer (and TV user) Justfab, Mexico’s Grupo Comercial, Southern California’s Gelson’s Markets and at number ten, a company you may have heard of recently called Amazon, up 25% over an already huge base. We’ll have lots more from this important analysis during the week, with many of the retailers listed possibly on the expansion trail coming into new markets.

ADVERTISER NEWS Toyota and Mazda have entered into a business and capital alliance establishing a joint venture to build vehicles in the U.S., jointly develop technologies for electric vehicles, develop connected-car technology and collaborate on advanced safety technologies. Among the plans are a new $1.6 billion plant in the U.S. to build Mazda crossovers and Corollas for the North America market…… Costco had a good July with strong traffic coming in the front door. U.S. comps were up 5.5% excluding gas, 6.0% including fuel……Having been cut out of the Walgreens/Rite Aid deal, Fred’s has to continue to run its existing business and comps remain negative, albeit it less negative than recent history. July comps were down 0.1% and second quarter comps are down 0.3%, compared to a 2.0% decline in the quarter last year ……Major foodmakers have been having a tough time in recent quarters and results from both Kraft Heinz and Kellogg show the negative trend is continuing. The former reported a 1.2% sales drop in the U.S. for its many well-known brands, while Kellogg, with varied products ranging from Frosted Flakes to Pringles was down 2% in North American sales. Both companies are making changes in their products to better appeal to changing consumer tastes including removing artificial ingredients in favor of simpler, more natural ingredients……Celebrity endorsers can make a huge difference if you have the right celebrity, and Weight Watchers certainly does—second quarter revenue was up 12.1% and subscribers at the end of the quarter were more than 20% higher than a year ago. Since Oprah bought 10% of the business in late 2015 its stock has risen sixfold and it’s estimated she has made about $340 million on her investment……Even though Amazon is buying Whole Foods Markets, competitor Sprouts Family Markets plans to expand its existing relationship with Amazon Prime Now to more than 20 locations in major markets by year’s end. Sprouts reported a good second quarter spurred on by its private labels, with comp store gains of 1.4% (5.5% on a two-year comp basis), while opening 13 new stores during the period. Five more have been added since the end of the quarter to reach a current total of 279 stores in 15 states……Shake Shack suffered a 4.3% traffic decline in the second quarter, more than offsetting a price and sales mix increase of 2.5% to produce a 1.8% same-store decline. But after many openings in the past year (and seven in the quarter), total sales were up 37.4%...... Habit Burger comps were up just 0.1% on a small increase in transactions but a small decrease in average check. It opened 10 more company-owned stores and one franchise to reach a total of 189.

NETWORK NEWS Iconic actor Sylvester Stallone (Rocky, The Expendables) has booked a guest appearance on the second season of the NBC hit family drama This Is Us. Stallone will play himself in the guest shot. Milo Ventimiglia, who plays Jack on the series, co-starred with Stallone as Rocky Balboa’s son in the 2006 movie Rocky Balboa. The announcement was made at the Television Critics Association summer meeting last week. NBC also announced at the TCA that the revival of Will & Grace is being extended into a 13-episode second season. In addition, the first season of the reboot will consist of 16 episodes. “There’s been such an outpouring of love from the fans,” said NBC chairman Bob Greenblatt, “We had the first table reading yesterday of the first episode, and it was extraordinary. We are a very grateful network, and we’re more than thrilled to have this show on the air for a minimum of two seasons.” The Will & Grace reboot will anchor a new Must See TV Thursday line-up this fall…… Sydelle Noel (GLOW) has been cast in a recurring role in the CW DC series Arrow. Variety is reporting that Noel will play Samanda Watson, an FBI agent with will be investigating Oliver Queen’s connection to the Green Arrow. Producers describe her character as “intelligent and poised with a no-nonsense attitude.” She is a woman who won’t rest until Green Arrow’s secrets are revealed. Noel joins previously announced new cast members, Juliana Harkavy and Katie Cassidy…… ABC has postponed its live-musical version of The Little Mermaid. Originally, the live production of the Broadway musical was scheduled for October 3rd. A new premiere date has not been set. An ABC spokesperson said in a statement regarding the postponement, “We love the idea of doing a live musical and want to make it wonderful. The project is so unique that we are making best efforts to do it next year and want to give it all the attention it deserves.” The Little Mermaid was ABC’s first entry in the live-musical broadcast trend that was kicked off by NBC’s The Sound of Music Live in 2013. Fox later jumped into the game with Grease Live……The ABC hit drama Grey’s Anatomy has tapped Abigail Spencer (Rectify, Timeless) in a recurring role as Megan Hunt, sister to Owen. The role was previously played by Bridget Regan who had to be replaced due to scheduling conflicts. Regan stars in the TNT drama The Last Ship. Spencer is gearing up for a second season on Timeless, the NBC series that was canceled and the un-canceled. There’s no word yet on how many episodes Spencer will appear in, but ABC says the recurring role will be a “multi-episode arc.” DONE DEAL Darryll Green, a veteran media executive with large market experienced, has been appointed to vice president and general manager of WFTX in Ft. Myer, Florida. The Fox affiliate is owned by E. W. Scripps Company. Most recently, Green was with Urban Radio Broadcasting, where he was the market president responsible for six radio stations. Prior to that, he was the vice president and chief operating officer, focusing on the 16-station radio group.

ECONOMIC NEWS There’s more good news for the economy from the July jobs report, which says employers added another 209,000 people to their payrolls during the month and the unemployment rate fell to 4.3%, matching a low set sixteen years ago. Health care, leisure and hospitality sectors led the gains for the month, with manufacturing up for the second straight month. Marketwatch notes what it calls “The Amazon economy,” as over the last twelve months, the retail sector has actually lost a net of 7,000 jobs (department stores are down 23,400 jobs in a year) while the “non-store retailing” category is up close to 28,000, and the “transportation and warehousing” category is up more than 90,000.

FOX, ION DEAL COMING??? Here’s a deal that could make a huge change in television if it were to happen: Bloomberg is the first to report that talks are underway between Fox and Ion about a possible deal that could have major implications for many current Fox affiliates, especially those owned by Sinclair. Sinclair is already the biggest operator of Fox affils with 26, and has a deal pending that would bring in Tribune’s 14 Fox-affiliated stations. The Wall Street Journal adds that a partnership of Ion, which owns 60 local stations, would give Fox much more control over its distribution and more leverage with Sinclair and any other affiliate group that has stations in markets where Ion currently owns a station.

BUSINESS BYTES Furniture Today says Amazon is teaming with online mattress retailer Tuft & Needle in what may be a big bricks-and-mortar partnership. The first joint store will open in Amazon’s home town of Seattle featuring both companies’ logos, and will feature Tuft & Needle’s products along with electronics supplied by Amazon. “We view Amazon as the most powerful force in the future of retail,” Tuft & Needle co-founder Daehee Park said. “Instead of resisting it like many other brands, we are fully embracing our relationship with them. If this works for Tuft & Needle, other retail categories can learn from this experiment to plug into Amazon and overtake their own incumbents.” The American Gaming Association, the lobbying group representing the casino industry, has issued a new code of conduct with some consumer protection measures meant to promote responsible gambling, and some new guidelines for casino advertising. The new code asks casino operators to be more “transparent” and explain more fully the odds of winning or losing and to train employees on procedures for various situations including underage gambling. As to advertising, which was once non-existent on TV and then for many years was restricted from showing actual gambling in commercials, the creative must not make claims that gambling will enable a person’s social, financial, or personal success. The gambling industry generally maintains that 98-99% of its customers gamble responsibly.”

VIDEO AD VIEWING TIME UP A quarterly report from Extreme Reach—a cloud technology platform for TV and Video ad workflow and Talent and Rights management—finds a significant increase in consumer response to video advertising. The average amount of time viewers spent watching video ads has increased across the board by 19% from a year ago. Viewability has seen an overall increase of 20% over Q2 of 2016. And completion rates are up by 20%, with a 36% increase for premium publishers since this time last year. Extreme Reach says changes in click-through rates (CTR) demonstrate changing screen preferences. Media aggregators, which most commonly run the bulk of their impressions on desktop, experienced a 54% increase in CTR. Premium publishers, which are running more impressions on mobile/tablet and Connected TV, saw a 37% decrease in CTR over the past year. Meanwhile, there was a 17% drop in video in-banner ads over the last year.

ACCOUNT ACTIONS Adweek reports Coty has selected R/GA to handle creative marketing for Clairol and Wella after a review. The hair care brands were recently acquired from P&G…… el Jimador tequila, a Brown- Forman brand, has chosen Scoppechio, Louisville, KY, as its agency of record. First efforts will be dedicated to brand support revolving around the Day of the Dead celebration in October. Other marketing efforts will be connected to the timing of World Cup Soccer.

AVAILS

KBLR, the Telemundo owned-and-operated station serving Las Vegas, Nevada, seeks a Local Sales Manager. The LSM is responsible for leading the local sales efforts for Las Vegas, and will manage AEs on sales targets, pricing strategies and business development goals. Minimum 10 years’ experience in the television sales industry, as well as experience working with advertising agencies and direct clients required. Strong comprehension of Telemundo’s competitive strength and market conditions to generate premium value for our platforms. CLICK HERE to apply now. EOE.

KFVS-TV, the Raycom-owned CBS affiliate in Cape Girardeau, MO seeks a dynamic Director of Sales. The candidate must be an innovative leader who knows how to maximize revenue on all platforms. A successful track record driving LOCAL and DIGITAL revenue. Must have experience coaching, training and leading team members to consistently grow market share and new revenue streams. Three years television sales management experience and college degree preferred If qualified, please submit resume with your application HERE. No calls please. EOE/M/F/D/V

Sports Radio Account Executive, WCMC-FM, Raleigh NC. We’re looking for a professional with a positive outlook, incredible drive, and tenacious “can do” attitude! This position will focus on managing and growing existing station key accounts as well as developing new business on 99.9 The Fan ESPN Radio, Buzz Sports Radio and a host of other sports related digital and event marketing opportunities. CLICK HERE for more info or to apply. EOE M/F. All CBC properties are tobacco free. Capitol Broadcasting Company participates in E-Verify.

ABC6 in Providence, Rhode Island is looking for a sales professional with sales experience to join this growing ABC affiliate as an Account Executive. We need an enthusiastic, accountable individual to work with local and regional clients– at the agency and local levels. This position is a great opportunity for someone looking for a move into a top 60 market. Please send resume to [email protected]. No calls please. WLNE-TV/ABC6 is and equal opportunity employer.

The Sun, the Sand, and the Ocean! What better place is there than the Mobile-Pensacola DMA to be in Television Sales? WKRG/WFNA/MeTV/Bounce in Mobile, AL is looking for 3 individuals that are “C” students that want to make “A” money and could locate in either our Mobile or our Pensacola office. If you can sell, then we want you. A generous compensation plan along with great company benefits await the right individuals. Send cover letter, resume, and references to [email protected]. EOE.

Entravision, Boston MA, is looking for an extraordinary ad sales professional who wants to join a dynamic team as the Digital Sales Manager. This person will maximize advertising revenue by selling to digital focused advertising agencies and direct clients. Must aggressively manage new business development opportunities with key accounts and additional accounts. Digital advertising sales experience is required; prefer 2+ years of digital sales experience, with key agency contacts. To apply, please send your cover letter/resume to: Carlos Sporleder, Digital Regional Manager, [email protected].

I Just heard Chris Christie got booed while performing CPR on a choking victim. – Conan O’Brien

According to every commercial that’s on late night tv, it seems evidently everyone watching either has bad joints, or needs a catheter. – Larry The Cable Guy

------SPOTS N DOTS The Daily News Of TV Sales August 7, 2017 Phone: 888-884-2630