National advertisers made it the biggest week of the year for AM/FM commercial airplay as two radio-friendly giants duked it out for the top spot. After weeks of trading places in the Media Monitors rankings, Lowe’s beat out The Home Depot for the July 4th crown.
Between July 1 and 7, Lowe’s led the pack with a massive 94,611 plays across monitored markets. While it would have taken the top spot most weeks with its number of ads, The Home Depot secured the second spot with 69,127 plays. Progressive Insurance claimed the third spot in a much closer race, airing its spots 63,921 times.
In the fourth position, language-learning app Babbel made its mark with 40,954 plays. Macy’s aired its advertisements 39,015 times, placing it in fifth after finishing outside the top 100 the previous week.
Other notable rises included money-saving app Upside jumping into the top ten after remaining off the leaderboard for a while and AutoZone taking advantage of radio to get ahead of its competitors in the long holiday weekend.
The question now: will spot play remain robust in the back half of the summer? Last year, radio saw sizeable revenue drag from Independence Day until Labor Day. Will a more stable market keep advertisers hooked on AM/FM?
