San Francisco: Retail is revving up

San Francisco is a healthy media market with spending and unit pricing flat to up slightly versus a year ago.

Retail spending has also been flat this year, but buyers say that will change soon.
 
"It sounds like a lot of retail clients are relatively flat for the time being, but with the holidays coming up I anticipate that spending level will increase soon," says Jill Redmann, senior broadcast buyer at Haworth Marketing + Media.
 
Department store chains such Macy's and Kohl's are expected to begin spending more heavily in the coming months, pushing Black Friday deals and other holiday sales.
 
Another category on the rise in San Francisco is grocery stores. Spending has been up as national retailers such as Walmart attempt to steal market share away from local and regional supermarkets.
 
"With the push by bigger grocers, the smaller, more local retailers are increasing their spending to try and maintain their voice amongst the bigger, more national players," Redmann says.
 
Like other liberal-leaning California markets, San Francisco hasn't seen much political spending from the presidential candidates, who have narrowed their spending to swing states
 
But San Francisco has seen some political issue spending for propositions that will be on the Nov. 6 ballot, mainly targeting news and highly rated primetime dayparts.
 
"Historically, San Francisco does not see much political spending because California has a closed primary system and a large majority of the voters in San Francisco are registered Democrats," says another buyer who works the market.
 
Among the issues on the ballot in California this year are a proposed tax increase and questions pertaining to car insurance rates, the death penalty and a repeal of the "Three Strikes" law.
 
Meanwhile, top radio stations are reporting 80 to 90 percent sellout levels for the remainder of October and November, meaning pricing may be somewhat inflated for remaining inventory.
 
Overall spending and pricing this year have been similar to TV, flat to up slightly, depending on the station.
 
News-talk stations are, of course, most affected by the political issue spending that has hit the market, most notably KQED-FM and KCBS-AM. KQED was the No. 2 overall station in the market in September with a 5.2 portable-people-meter rating, according to Arbitron, while KCBS was No. 3 overall with a 5.0 rating.
 
One last thing lifting both TV and radio ad sales is the postseason run by the San Francisco Giants, who are playing the St. Louis Cardinals in the National League Championship Series.
 
Cumulus Media's KNBR-AM, which broadcasts the team's games on the radio, finished No. 1 in the market in September with a 5.7 PPM rating, up from a 5.2 in August and a 4.6 in July.
 
TV coverage of Giants division series games on TBS and TNT during the week ended Oct. 7 (the latest week available) finished among the top three programs for the week on broadcast and cable combined.

Tags: broadcast, holiday, KGO, KNTV, KPIX, KTVU, local ad spending, local advertising, market profile, media economy, political, radio, retail, san francisco, san francisco advertising, san francisco giants, tnt, tv