There are more than 2,000,000 vehicles registered in the Tampa Bay area. Many need new windshield wipers, shocks, struts, brakes, air filters, ignition coils, and the hundreds of other items that fill the shelves of local auto part dealers.

Despite the pandemic induced slowdown, business at auto parts stores has grown nearly 13% since February, according to the US Census Bureau.

This explosive growth in auto parts sales directly relates to the  average age of cars on Tampa Bay's roads.

"Per the latest study from IHS Markit, the current combined average age of vehicles has hit a record of 11.9 years," Rimmi Singhi wrote this week on NASDAQ.com. "The aging vehicles are a boon to auto parts, replacement, and repair companies. In a bid to ensure long-term functioning of the aging vehicle population, customers are making investments to replace faulty vehicle parts and components."

Also contributing to the rapid aging of cars on the road is the current demand for used versus new vehicles. According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) for used cars is 25% higher in August than it was during the same month last year.

Advertising on Tampa television and cable is becoming less attractive to local business owners as viewers rapidly defect to alternative video entertainment sources including, Netflix, YouTube, Hulu, Amazon and Disney+.

Collectively these streaming services are referred to as Over-The-Top Television (OTT) and Connected-TV (CTV). Viewers can only access this OTT and CTV content via smartphone, tablets, computers, smart-TVs, Amazon Fire Sticks, and Roku Sticks, Nielsen reports that 93.4% of Tampa Bay adults own at least one these devices. Furthermore, they are using them.

According to Nielsen, OTT and CTV networks now reach 42.8% of all Tampa Bay consumers every week.

New data from the US Census Bureau has optimistic news for Tampa Bay companies that sell business-to-business.

There are approximately 61,635 businesses in the Tampa Bay area, according to the Census Bureau. Indeed, many of these businesses have suffered since the onset of the Coronavirus, especially in April.

Census information is now showing positive indicators that the fortunes of area companies are improving. This includes those with 500 or fewer employees. These small businesses account for 95% of all Tampa area firms.

During the week of April 26, 34% of Tampa Bay small businesses reported temporary closures.  By July 1, the number dropped to 17%

Also, during that same week, 73% of local small business owners were reporting decreases in revenue versus the prior week.  By the end of last week, that number fell by half.

In both June and July of this year, national data shows all retail and food services spending significantly outperformed the prior year by between two and three percent.

As the business climate improves in Tampa Bay, the fortunes of B2B companies will accelerate as well. These include those businesses that sell office supplies, restaurant supplies, cleaning services, legal services, accounting services, transportation services, banking services, technology, and commercial real estate.

Despite all of the media options available for small business owners to market their goods and services, advertising on Tampa radio is still the best way to reach local consumers.

Adult consumers are spending 741 minutes per day consuming electronic media, according to a new study by Nielsen.  This is 7.8% more time than they spent last year and 11.2% more than in 2018.

The typical daily media diet consists of radio, live TV, time-shifted TV, DVD/Blue-ray devices, game consoles, internet-connected devices, as well as internet via computers, smartphone apps, and tablet apps.

According to Nielsen, despite all of these media options, local radio reaches the most consumers every week.

There is good news for Tampa Bay retailers and restaurants.

As a result of the pandemic, one-third of consumers indicate they will pay a premium for local brands and products, according to a recent study by Ernst & Young

However, before consumers will buy from a local business in Lakeland, Clearwater, Spring Hill, or any town in-between, they must know they can do so without risking their health.

Advertising is the only practical way to let Tampa Bay shoppers and diners know about the precautions and practices your small business has taken to reduce potential health threats.

During July, 2.1 million adult radio-listeners spent two hours per day listening to their favorite Tampa Bay stations, according to Nielsen. Although local consumers had spent fewer minutes listening at the onset of the pandemic, the current time tuned-in remains little changed  compared to a year ago.

Some advertising experts had predicted that as consumers spent more time at home because of COVID-19 concerns, the hours devoted to radio listening would decrease. That, however, was not the case.

In July of 2019, according to Nielsen, 26.7% of radio listening occurred at home. During July of this year, in-home listening jumped to 32.8%. Despite the reduction in out-of-home activities, though, consumers still spent the exact amount of time listening to Tampa radio.

More than one-third of Tampa Bay households are 'cord-cutters' or 'cord-nevers'. This means, they have fired their cable or satellite television providers or never subscribed at all. Instead, these consumers are choosing to find their video entertainment elsewhere.

The number of local homes that subscribe to pay-TV services began plummeting in 2013. New technologies has allowed viewers to bypass cable and satellite for more compelling content at lower prices. These cord-cutters now depend on services like Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, and Amazon Prime to fill their multiple screens.

For many years, Tampa Bay business owners have been investing a significant portion of their advertising budgets into cable-TV.  The medium had proven to be a low-cost, high-reach alternative to buying commercial on over-the-air television stations. 

Now, because of cord-cutting, there are 892,000 adult consumers with unconnected TVs. This profoundly diminishes the value proposition of advertising with local cable systems.

There is a powerful and affordable solution, however, for small business owners to reach both the diminishing cable audience and the expanding number of cord-cutters.

Advertising is critical to the success of every Tampa Bay small business owner.  One of the most powerful elements of any advertising campaign is how many people it reaches.

Nielsen, the world's largest consumer insights company, found that advertising reach has a more significant effect on sales than branding, recency, and context.

There are many ways a local business owner can advertise. This includes traditional media like Tampa radio, local TV, and newspaper. It also includes online advertising options such as Facebook, Instagram, and Pandora.

They type of customer an individual business needs to reach depends on the goods and services the company sells. For instance, a daycare operator might want to reach households with young children. On the other hand, a real estate agent could be looking for consumers in the market to purchase a new home.

The charts below reveal how the different advertising options available to Tampa Bay business compare in terms of the ability to reach customers with specific characteristics. This includes age, income, education, employment status, political affiliation, number of children, ethnicity, and purchase intent.

Next year, according to Nielsen, 138,765 people in Tampa Bay will be getting married.  Assuming that those folks are hitching-up with each other, that means there will be 69,382 weddings. 

CostOfWedding.com reports that the average cost for these pending nuptials will be $34,268 including (but not limited to) rings, dresses, tuxedos, flowers, venues, photographers, invitations, limos, and rice (or birdseed for the ecologically inclined).

This means small business owners in Tampa Bay who cater to the bridal market will be competing for a share of $2.3 billion.

This year, Tampa Bay consumers will spend $4.3 billion in local restaurants and drinking establishments. There are thousands of local restaurants from Bradenton to Spring Hill  hungry for a bite of that cash.

Unfortunately, many of the restaurants that are here today will be gone tomorrow. According to FSR, an industry trade magazine, 60% of restaurants fail within their first year. Eighty percent never make it to their fifth anniversary.

CBI Insights studies why small business owners, such as local restaurants, fail.  Reason number eight is poor marketing and advertising.  Good food and friendly service are not enough to make a cash register ring.