The weekly newsletter for everyone interested in barter--the world's most versatile business tool!

October 22, 2002

Written by Bob Meyer, Editor of BarterNews

Broadcast Marketing Announces Barter Contract With SkyArc International Media

Broadcast Marketing Corp., a long standing New York corporate barter company in business since 1973, has recently concluded a deal to handle all SkyArc International Media's international sales of the award-winning news and entertainment program, Meet China.

The show reaches over 84% of China's total population, in addition to airing in 166 countries. It is produced live-to-tape via satellite uplink, and includes sub-titles and simultaneous translation to bridge the language gap.

Meet China invites high profile foreign entrepreneurs, business and community leaders, celebrities, and cultural icons in the arts and sciences as featured guests to the program...pairing them with their Chinese counterparts. Show topics are wide-ranging and can be serious as well as light and entertaining.

"There is an enormous base of U.S. companies interested in reaching China's market with no idea how to go about it," says Jeff Wolfman, Broadcast Marketing's president. "To open up the show to the widest range of advertisers we have structured various forms of sponsorship on a barter basis...accepting payment in the form of products and services."

Featured guests have included Win Smith, former president of Merrill Lynch, Tom Ryder, CEO of Reader's Digest magazine, and Maurice Kanbar, chairman of Skyy Vodka.

For more information contact Jeff Wolfman by phone 201-307-9550 or e-mail jfwolfman@earthlink.net.

In-Store "Point-of-Purchase" Advertising Sees Impressive Growth

The Point-Of-Purchase Advertising International (POPAI) reports that in-store advertising is growing substantially. Some 45% of all audited brands are supported by in-store advertising. The study was conducted in conjunction with the National Association of Convenience Stores. (The last study, derived from supermarkets, showed a 27% figure.)

In-store advertising consists of displays, signage and other media that communicate a brand's availability and key attributes to consumers at retail, the point at which 70% of all brand purchase decisions are made.

POPAI claims that in-store advertising in convenience stores boosts sales from 5% to 13%. The most impressive statistic was the mention of "savings" or "cents off" which generated a lift of 36%.

Ibart Offers Product Placement In Chevy Chase Film

If your company is looking for a product placement in a new comedy starring Chevy Chase, contact the exclusive barter firm offering placement using trade dollars. A $5,000 expenditure will get your product or service placed in the film as well as credits at the end of the movie, according to Ibart.

Filming begins October 27th...for further details send your request for placement to: contact@ibart.com.

NOW AVAILABLE...

Barter companies in Australia and Canada are now listed on our web site. Check it out! For 541 barter companies in the USA, click here.

Manufacturers' Changed Thinking Will See Big Payoff

The Manufacturers Alliance, a research group in Arlington (VA), reports that industrial production is down 20% to 29% in communications equipment, metalworking machinery, and general industrial machinery.

Why? One word--overcapacity. The statistics are startling...in September, 41.7% of U.S. manufacturing companies were operating at less than 75% capacity.

Amid such a capacity glut we can look for a change in Corporate America's capital spending endeavors. In short, their spending will be anemic compared to former years.

Major manufacturers are altering their thinking here in the U.S. by shifting to smaller plants (smaller buildings cost less to heat and cool, clean, and maintain). This is a big mindset change. But it will pay off, as a drive to wring more out of what they have will bring greater efficiency and ultimately profits--and a boon to our nation's overall productivity.

Study Shows Drop In Tourism...Mayors Look To Washington

The economic research firm DRI-WEFA did a study on tourism for the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the Travel Business Roundtable, and the International Association of Convention and Visitors Bureaus.

It showed the top 100 metropolitan areas in the country lost 536,000 jobs and $22.6 billion since the end of 2000. About half of it was attributed to the fallout from the terrorist attacks and public fear about terrorism.

The study noted that tourism was a $263 billion industry in the leading 100 metropolitan areas in 2000, providing 3.9 million jobs. Various mayors believe the federal government should promote tourism and travel to help cities recover from the downturn in the economy.

The mayors also want President Bush to create a presidential advisory council on travel and tourism, and look to Congress to enact tax credits helping unskilled and disadvantaged workers receive job training for the travel and tourism industries.

• International Monetary Systems, (OTCBB: INLM). was favorably covered in Larry Oakley's Mid-Week Comment, see www.WallStreetCorner.com.
  
  
• The barter industry has an impressive amount of lodging and lift tickets across North America. Contact your local barter company for ski specials available on trade.
  
  
• A new magazine for young urban professionals, Radar, is shopping for needed potential financial backers to cover the roughly $15 million in launch costs. Providing a definite push upward is the barter deal Radar is close to inking with American Media, wherein American Media will provide back-office services, including its formidable newsstand distribution in exchange for an equity stake. (American Media is the publisher of the Enquirer, the Star and other supermarket tabloids.)
  
  

• The Financial Times says Wall Street's investment banks are responsible for the "dot-com bubble scam." An October 6th editorial claimed that companies were brought to market prematurely to generate investment banking fees. The dot-com bubble allowed insiders to enrich themselves through fat stock-option plans and preferential treatment by the investment banks.
  

• One of the lesser-celebrated success stories in the small business arena in recent years is the growth and popularity of belonging to purchasing co-ops. The National Cooperative Business Association reports that some 50,000 U.S. businesses belong to co-ops.

  Co-ops pool their members' buying power and often negotiate agreements with manufacturers to purchase goods nearly as cheaply as the biggest corporations do. (For years the two trade associations in the barter industry, IRTA and NATE, have talked about such cooperative buying efforts.)

• EBay reported third quarter profits more than tripled on a 49% increase in revenue. Reportedly, $3.77 billion in goods were sold through the site in the quarter, up from $2.36 billion a year earlier.

  The continued strength, says eBay, comes from the site's appeal to individuals who want to go into business for themselves.

• The Federal Communications Commission has approved a new technology for the digital radio service developed by IBiquity Digital Corp...a privately held firm backed by many of the biggest radio broadcasters. (Backers include Clear Channel Communications, Infinity Broadcasting, and ABC Radio.)

  Consumers will have to buy new radios (which are not yet available), and stations will have to upgrade their transmitting equipment at an average cost of about $75,000. Digital radio signals provide a more efficient use of the spectrum, by using the same language as computers--a series of on-and-off electronic pulses.

• In San Francisco, holders of World Series tickets who are willing to trade can get anything from a week at a ski condo to a five-course dinner prepared by a gourmet chef to a round-trip ticket to Sydney, Australia...it's all happening online at Craigslist.org.

• In 1982 only 11% of U.S. households owned mutual funds. Today, despite the downturn in the stock market, 49.6% of households are owners of mutual funds, according to the Investment Company Institute. (Down from 52% last year.)

• Webmergers.com reports that the dot-com sector is in the last stages of a normal boom/bust cycle. The death rate for failed dot-com companies they contend is between 7% and 10% (approximately 900 failures and/or filings for bankruptcy-court protection) based on the roughly 7,000 to 10,000 funded dot-com concerns around the globe.

• Have you signed up to receive a summary via e-mail of the Tuesday Report every week? If not, go to the top of this issue (right hand corner) to sign up!

• The bear market has hammered equity values of stocks, and Nasdaq's Chairman Hardwick Simmons, speaking at the Security Traders Association annual conference in Boca Raton (FL), said 500 of Nasdaq's 3,800 stocks are now priced under $1.

  Nasdaq has extended the grace period for such stocks to 180 days before facing delisting. Previously, a company whose stock fell below $1 for 30 days had 90 days to bring the shares back above the $1 level before facing delisting.

• It was estimated that around 400,000 people dabbled in "day trading" two years ago, when they were seduced by the seemingly easy money to be made from stocks. Most did so from home or work using a Charles Schwab or E*Trade Group account.

  Today, according to the Electronic Traders Association, the 20,000 hard-core traders (who did it full time two years ago) have dropped down to 7,500 full-timers.

• Foreign companies continue to stream into China, opening new factories whose output is largely exported. Direct investment in China is expected to hit a record $55 billion this year.

  These Chinese imports are helping nearby neighbors, too...the first eight months of this year South Korea's exports to China climbed 42%, Malaysia's went up 38%, and Singapore's increased 31%. Taiwan, where restrictions on investing in China have been eased, has seen a 171% jump (year-on-year) in September alone.