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I was struck by the news last week that Barack Obama’s campaign plans to spend $5 million for advertising on the Olympics.

A dramatic ploy to be sure, and it garnered widespread media attention, so the value of the buy was magnified by the free media coverage. But are the Olympics the right venue for a presidential candidate?

Are a few ads sandwiched between swimming and diving going to sway undecided voters?

In the late 1990s, PRWeek ran a contest asking what sort of public relations program could be put together for a company using what it cost the same company to buy one Super Bowl ad (around $1.2 million at the time, last year it was $2.6 million). I’d like to ask readers of this blog a similar question tied to the Obama ad buy.

If you were giving marketing advice to the Obama campaign, or the McCain campaign for that matter, what would you advise doing with $5 million rather than advertising on the Olympics? How would you use that money more effectively to sway more voters? Or if you think the Olympic buy is a smart one, why?

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For the nonprofit marketers out there, today's show will help take your fundraising efforts to a whole new level. But everything covered today can be applied to partnership development, co-branding efforts, and strategic alliances. My guest today was Marc Pitman, a multi-million dollar fundraiser, a sought-after fundraising coach and an expert on how to build up your development program. Today's program was an excellent follow up to the AMA's Nonprofit Marketing Conference held earlier this month in D.C. With more than $306 billion raised this past year in charitable giving -- a number that continues to creep upward each year -- some may think the job of fundraising and partnership development is getting easier. However, as Marc noted, the actual number of donors is dropping. To combat this decline, and to help improve development efforts, he wrote a book called Ask Without Fear. In his book he talks about a R.E.A.L. methodology for connecting donors to what matters most to them. Today's show hit on many key points any non profit marketer and donor development officer will benefit from. For our for profit marketers, if you have any role in partnership development and strategic alliances, you'll most definately benefit from Marc's CPI formula and PYITS perspective. -- David Kinard, PCM Host, Marketing News Radio

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I was intrigued to read that film critic Roger Ebert will no longer be associated with the “At the Movies” TV show that he and former colleague Gene Siskel started back in 1975.

In my mind, Siskel and Ebert and their copyrighted Two Thumbs Up were the brand icons that made “At the Movies” successful. I think the show lost some of its cache when Siskel, former film critic at the Chicago Tribune, died in 1999 and was replaced by Richard Roeper from the rival Chicago Sun-Times where Ebert also works.

I find it difficult to image the show surviving without either Ebert or Siskel. New hosts have been named by Disney-ABC Domestic Television, which owns the show, but the announcement left me asking “who are those guys?”

A discussion of whether a brand can survive without its iconic founder occurred when Martha Stewart went to prison in 2004 and 2005 and marketers wondered what the impact on the Martha Stewart brand would be. It survived and she’s been back for some time now. But is the brand what it once was? Did her absence impact it, or is its diminished status more a brand life-cycle issue? Have other domestic divas such as Rachael Ray simply supplanted Stewart?

Wendy’s lost its marketing way after founder Dave Thomas, the center piece of its image while he was alive, died in 2002. Its sold out to another company earlier this year rather than continue on its own.

Is there anyone reading this old enough to know who Roy Rogers was? I always thought Roy Rogers Restaurants had a lot more going for them when cowboy-star Rogers (a childhood idol of mine) was still alive, yet they still exist and attract customers more than a decade after his death and longer than that since his movie and television heydays.

What does it take for a brand identified with one person to go on after that person is gone?

I’d love to read your comments on that question, so feel free to post them here.
This is my first blog posting at Marketing News. I’ve joined the staff recently as editorial director, so you’ll be hearing from me often and I hope to hear from you as well. The easiest way to reach me is via e-mail at jfrank@ama.org or post a comment here, we’re always glad to hear from our readers.

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We here at Marketing News have been busy compiling our weighty summer magazine issues, so please excuse the interruption of regular blog posts of late. We'll be back on a more normal schedule very soon.

In the meantime, though, we wanted to draw your attention to the work of Forrester VP and social media expert Josh Bernoff (who also happens to be a Marketing News columnist). Along with his Forrester colleague Charlene Li, Bernoff wrote Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies, a guide intended to get companies up to speed on social media strategies. Check out this review on AdAge.com.

Bernoff contributes monthly columns in Marketing News, discussing the application of social media in the corporate setting and sharing tactics on how best to use social media tools-- and to get your entire organization on board. Look for his next piece in our July 15th issue, set to hit your mailbox next week.

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One thing I really like about the AMA is that I am kept updated on the latest trends and information about marketing. Not only does the newly updated AMA Website provide me with access to tons of great resources, but the AMA also publishes great books like the one we talked about on this week’s Marketing News Radio program.

The AMA just released a book which is actually a collection of papers written by leading academics and practitioners on the current state of marketing mix resource allocation and planning. The book, Marketing Mix Decisions: New Perspectives and Practices, identifies the tools and methods that are available to allocate and measure the effectiveness of marketing spend, and the impact of new media on the marketing mix.

With me on the program to talk about the book was co-editor Rob O’Regan. He’s a principal at 822 Media which is an editorial consultancy that helps marketers with the practice of “corporate journalism” to create content that connects companies with their customers and prospects.

Two things Rob said struck home to me. The first is that marketers appear to have awareness of the number of processes and tools available but either a lack of understanding on how to use them, or even a willingness to do so. Given the fact that ROI and accountability have been forefront to every conversation in marketing during the past 18 months, it is a frightening commentary on the state of marketers if this is true.

With regard to the new media environment, Rob said that we as marketers have gotten really good at measuring components, but the challenge is connecting the dots (the Marketing Mix Decisions book has great examples that address this!). Again, something that plagues us all.

The book Marketing Mix Decisions is available for free to AMA members.

--David Kinard, host of Marketing News Radio

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