Bank of America and subsidiary Merrill have barnstormed their way onto U.S. radio in a big way in fourth quarter. After testing the waters with 5,647 spots for the week of Oct 12-18, Bank Of America tripled its allocation one week later, putting it at No. 36 on the Media Monitors list, which tracks advertising in 110 markets. By early November the financial institution was radio’s biggest client based on spot volume, perched in the top spot for two consecutive weeks (Nov. 2-8 and Nov. 9-15). It has remained top five for the past two weeks, ranked No. 3 in the most current tally (Nov. 16-22) with 46,496 spot occurrences.
Apparently pleased with the outcome from their radio investment, Bank Of America subsidiary Merrill (previously branded as Merrill Lynch) has gone from nowhere to the top 10 during the span of three weeks. The investing and wealth management division of Bank of America finished No. 7 in the latest compilation with 33,680 spots after debuting the week prior at No. 22 with 22,143.
BofA isn’t the only advertiser in the Banks-Credit Unions-Mortgage-Finance Service category to make ample use of the AM/FM airwaves to market its products. Capital One is No. 23 with 20,890 spots, Quicken Loans is No. 25 (20,386), Discover is No. 45 (13,309) and Navy Federal Credit Union is No. 66 (9,623). All are regular radio users who now have some company from Bank Of America.
Heading into the thick of the holiday shopping season, department stores Kohl’s (No. 32), Macy's (No. 33) and JC Penney (No. 39) continue to make radio part of their media mix. Meanwhile, Nissan North America has launched a substantial national radio campaign for its redesigned 2021 Rogue, spending a second week at No. 10 with 31,069 spots.
For Nov. 16-22, 2020, the top 10 on the Media Monitors compilation are The Home Depot at 1, iHeartRadio at 2, Bank Of America at 3, GEICO at 4, “Stuff They Don’t Want You To Know” at 5, Progressive at 6, Merrill at 7, Bristol Myers Squibb-Pfizer at 8, Vicks at 9 and Nissan Rogue at 10.
