Retailers Draw On Radio To Make Holiday Sales Season Bright.

For Dec. 9-15, 2019, the top 10 on the Media Monitors’ tally are: State Farm at 1, GEICO at 2, The Home Depot at 3, iHeartRadio at 4, Macy’s at 5, JC Penney at 6, McDonald’s at 7, Vicks at 8, American Express at 9 and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration at 10.

Story by Inside Radio

Coming down the homestretch, retailers are leaning on radio to make their holiday sales season bright. In the second to last full week to lure shoppers with seasonal specials, offers of free shipping and other perks, no fewer than seven major retailers are among the top 100 advertisers on the AM/FM airwaves for Dec. 9-15, according to Media Monitors, which tracks radio, TV and cable advertising in 85 markets.

Leading the parade is Macy’s, which jumps to No. 5 from No. 8 the previous week, with 33,337 spot detections. It’s followed closely by JC Penney at No. 6 with 32,180, down one position from the week earlier. Further down the latest tally are Kohl’s (No. 26), Old Navy (No. 40), Burlington Coat Factory (No. 62), HomeGoods-Marshalls-TJ Maxx (No. 66) and Target (No. 83).

Walmart, last year’s No. 55 advertiser on radio, is nowhere to be found on the latest list, even as it’s perched atop the National TV advertisers for the week and is No. 2 at National Cable. Goodwill, another seasonal advertiser, is No. 88, while Hallmark is marketing its holiday greeting cards, ranked No. 91. And as more Americans get ready to hit the road for the holidays, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has put its pedal to the metal, airing 25,039 safe driving messages to land at No. 10.

American Express, a rarity on the radio list, suddenly parachutes in at No. 9, with 29,766 spots. While it made a similar radio blitz around this time back in 2013 and is an occasional radio user, American Express was not among the top 100 radio advertisers in 2018. Its top 10 ranking for the current list makes it the highest ranking financial services advertiser, a lucrative category that BIA Advisory Services forecasts will spend a hefty $2.2 billion on radio advertising in 2020 or 12% of the broad umbrella category’s $18.8 billion outlay. Elsewhere on the latest radio list are Capital One (No. 13), Quicken Loans (No. 31), Discover (No. 41) and Navy Federal Credit Union (No. 67).

And finally, two Rental Services advertisers grace the latest Top 100: Ownabale is No. 43 and Aarons is No. 65.