Why would I be for the Supreme Court ruling but against gay marriage

I join millions of Americans in celebrating what I believe is a just ruling that finally affirms that gay marriage is just as legitimate as straight marriage in our country.  For far too long they have been treated as second class citizens in that straights have been afforded dozens of benefits that gay couples were denied.
As a Christian my personal belief is that homosexuality is a sin. But the federal government government is passing judgment on my or anyone else's personal beliefs.  They can't.  It is actually protected. It would also be impossible to define marriage based on a religious belief as there are dozens of religions who have lots of different opinions on what makes a marriage.
I have thoughtfor years that CS Lewis was correct when he stated in his radio address to Britain during WWII that the word marriage is a government institution.  Christians who want to hold themselves to the Biblical standard should first make sure they know what that standard is and then have a 2nd word for it. Marriage from a Biblical point of view has little in common with what most Americans call marriage.
Like all standards set in the Bible it is humanly impossible to meet. They are only possible with the Holy Spirit living inside you. And that is impossible without Jesus. As Christ said when asked about the possibility of the rich man entering heaven.  "It would be easier to thread the eye of a needle with a camel. But with God all things are possible".  May God richly bless you in this life and the next.

Careful you don't get too creative on your ad campaign

An ad agency (not in Columbia) was recently boasting on their site about creating a campaign for a minor league sports team (not baseball...stop guessing). The goal of any campaign should be to make the client money. This agency had some very creative ideas to help get their sports team noticed in the community. It included motion activated messages placed inside seashells and then have those shells all over the beach and a treasure hunt to win free tickets to games where the clues are posted on their Facebook page. I asked the simple question of how does this make people want to see a game? Crickets. Ticket sales for the team had actually gone down year over year. 

Advertising, marketing, promotion whatever you want to call it can only be deemed successful if it makes the company money! And the only way to make money is build desire. If your idea doesn't make people want to experience your event, taste your food, use your service, wear your outfits, drive your cars then you can't sell them. Audi sales dropped after their 2011 Superbowl commercial won awards for creativity. They would have been better served to save the money and not advertise at all then to run this award winning campaign. 

I think it's stupid... but acknowledge it's brilliant!

As a child of the 70's and 80's I was a WWF fan. The Macho Man, Hulk Hogan and the assorted group of bedazzled freaks were some of my heroes.

So when the World Wrestling Federation was sued by the World Wildlife Fund for the rights to WWF I was ticked the goofballs won.

I celebrated people mocking the new WWF.

So I'm not a fan of this organization and believe they are a generally ridiculous group of folks wasting time and money on an activity of limited impact. As New Scientist pointed out the WWF is almost single handedly responsible for the wiping out of millions of Saiga Antelope. About 97%in less then a decade. They have been caught fabricating facts that have hurt countries like Vietnam and Norway. Kroger and other chains have been the victims of WWF's misunderstanding of facts. Big hearts, little brains is what this group consists of. 

So when I read their newest plan to save endangered species by having people tweet Emojis of their favorite endangered specie I immediately referenced back to the simpletons with the big hearts. But this plan was launched by a top notch ad agency Wieden & Kennedy! The W in W&K is Dan Wieden who came up with "Just Do It" for Nike. Interesting side note Dan got that line from convicted murderer Gary Gilmore when asked if he had any final words before being executed. 

Here's how the campaign works. Working with the international emoji creator Unicode and Twitter under the creative commons license, WWF will today (May 12) launch the campaign in the U.K., France and Holland, tweeting an image showing all 17 "Endangered Emoji," and encouraging its followers to retweet. For each emoji people tweet, WWF will add the local currency equivalent of 0.10 euros (10 cents) to a voluntary monthly donation. At the end of each month, people will receive a summary of their use and choose how much to donate. Anyone interested can sign up at endangeredemoji.com. 

Of course it's ridiculous. WWF isn't raising money any real money. Maybe a few million. And they are matching a fraction of that with their own money (which was given to them in large part by taxpayers of the US). But here's why it's brilliant. The type of person they are marketing to is also a simpleton with a big heart. They like to believe they can change the world by tweeting. It's called Hashtag Activism. W&K understands that's their target audience and knows how to tug on their heart strings. "Would you retweet this message to save a penguin"? Their little brain and big hearts screams 'yes'! Suddenly their friends, many of whom are similar in heart and brain stature, notice their twitter feed filling up with retweets about saving endangered species "and you can too by retweeting". They join the goofball parade. A percentage of them will actually follow the instructions and sign up on the website to donate some money. I think it's particularly brilliant that WWF is donating a dime for whatever you donate. You donate a dollar or a thousand, and WWF matches it with a dime. The real cost will be the ad campaign which will cost far more than it raises. But if they can get hundreds of thousands of people on their mailing list...that could be worth tens of millions of dollars. Either in actual donations over the years or more likely in sales of said list to other marketers. 

The lesson has nothing to do with the destroyers of my heroes, but rather in W&K simple approach. Know your audience and their hot buttons to get them to engage. That's all it takes to win.    

The new way to advertise may not be the most effective way.

 When it comes to the advertising business...business is good and looking to get gooder!

For years TV has won big and is expected to continue to win for a few more years, but the tide is turning to digital.

You see by 2018 Digital is expected to be the #1 form of advertising in America. I received an e-mail today about a press release from BIA/Kelsey who states; Online spending is growing on ads viewed through desktops, but general online ad unit pricing faces headwinds as the attention of audiences and advertisers alike drifts more towards mobile,” said Mark Fratrik, SVP and chief economist, BIA/Kelsey. “Online will gain just a few points of local advertising market share, as mobile nearly triples its share.”

It's all about the phone! 

The general thinking is someone is online and they search for new cars or mattresses or whatever then it's safe to believe they are about to make a purchase in searched category. At that point their inbox and sides of their social media pages are filled with ads for those products. It's obviously very appealing to a business owner to put their ad in front of someone who is looking for their product at the moment they are searching for it. BUT....

Be warned. You are suddenly in a battle that may have no winners. Recently I was searching for a watch to buy. I noticed the ads suddenly on every site I went to. Admittedly the first day or so some caught my attention. However by day 2 I had blocked them all out. I actually had bought a watch by then and for weeks everything being shot at me was attempting to influence a decision that had already passed. On top of that due to the avalanche I subconsciously blocked all ads out. It wasn't until some ads popped up for new swimming pools that I noticed ads again. I had searched for pool prices to show a friend how it would be more cost efficient to go visit a 5 star hotel the 8 times a year his family actually wanted to use a pool than to buy 1. So I wasn't in the market for a pool. But money was spent to influence that non decision. 

Clearly Digital advertising will get better with time. But don't write off Radio and Outdoor. They are under used and quite honestly under valued mediums. The power to influence people towards a product happens there. In reading or listening it's a solitary activity. There may be other people with you but if you're involved in a conversation you're not paying attention to the billboards or radio. If you're paying attention I can influence you on products you currently have no interest in.

 You are a pool dealer well put up billboards showing that instant access to family-fun is priceless. Run radio ads where I hear grown people reminiscing about the impact their family pool had on them as kids and how much they love their parents for sacrificing to get one. Once you have me thinking about this incredible product that will have my kids gushing about me for decades to come, you slide in your info. If the idea of advertising is to influence buying decisions that's one of the most powerful ways to do it.    

What is your definition of family?

I remember how excited I was in the Spring of 1987, I had just been hired to be part of the morning show at WPHR Power 108 in Cleveland. I was receiving my staff shirt and the Program Director said "welcome to the family". Somewhere there is a photo of me smiling ear to ear in that shirt with Curt Monday who was the Morning host who really was instrumental in giving me my break and a news person who I can only recall as Dawn. I can't find that photo so here's one from 18 months earlier with my genetic family on the night I graduated High School.

So 18 months after this photo of children suffering bad haircuts was snapped I was welcomed into a new family. It's a family so I knew things wouldn't be perfect. Fights, misunderstandings, jealousies would all pop up, but I expected to live out the rest of my days in Cleveland with my new family at Power 108. But on Christmas Eve, I along with Curt, Dawn, Ray Mariner, Mars Frehley, Jeff Kelly, Tony Rizzo, and some other names I'm forgetting were kicked out of the family. AKA Fired. We weren't even in the family long enough to make the WPHR Wikipedia page once the internet was invented by Al Gore years later. As a matter of fact I never even saw any of my former siblings ever again except for Ray and that was just by accident. The guy who gave me my break's name wasn't even Curt Monday. Turns out his real name was Curt Boykin. I found that out a few years ago in a radio trade magazine announcing his death. What a crappy brother I was to not only not know his real name but that he was dead! 

The point I'm making is that I have been welcomed into dozens of families and escorted from their dwellings through the years. WBLI, WKCI, Universal Records, WQGN, WRUT and so on and so on. Places of employment are not your family. And for those of you arguing that your co workers treat you a lot better then your genetic family I would agree that just because we have the same ancestors it doesn't mean we are family. You can absolutely have people in your life that have no link to you other than you chose them, and they chose you and you are now family. After all that's what a spouse is. Family needs a new definition. I suggest something like "a group of individuals who have made a commitment to support one another even if that requires sacrifice". 

Don't let the emotion of "welcome to the family" allow you to be taken advantage of. We can't just be family 9-5. We are family all the time. Intruding on each other at all times of the day and night. Calling for favors etc. Start calling your new family members about helping you clean the pool or whatever and see what kind of sibling you have there. Of course it usually starts with you making the first sacrifice so show some people you want to be kin with them by loving them sacrificially. But if that love is denied then just move on. They can be pals or coworkers or associates but they're not family.   

I always love to hear your feedback! kellynash_99@yahoo.com

What is the real purpose of a celebrity spokesperson?

I sit in meetings with advertising executives, business owners, promotions people and assorted others on a regular basis. The reason they have me in these meetings is to discuss my possible contribution to their bottom line. Yes it really is about the bottom line in everything, including charities. Some like to fool themselves into believing it's about "building a brand", "crafting an image", or "generating good will", but the reason they're interested in any of those things is to improve their bottom line. They've heard stats like the one Harvard put out a few years ago that endorsements from celebrities can increase sales 20%. Or the Forbes Report that showed companies turning themselves around by hiring a celebrity endorser. Activia, Jenny Craig, Burger King, and many other saw sales going down and suddenly turn around when a strong ad campaign with a celebrity was launched. But does it always work? Of course not! If it did then all ads would be done by celebs. So the question of what made certain ones work becomes key.
There are 2 things that must align for your campaign to work. First the product and the celebrity need to match. In 2007 the Florida Dept of Citrus spent $90,000 to hire Tom Selleck to do  a 15 second and a 30 second commercial. They also promised him another $90,000 to do 4 more commercials in 2008. He has since earned several million as the voice of the OJ commercials. He never says this is Tom Selleck to tell you about OJ. You never see him on the TV version of the commercials. That would sound and or look like an ad and people would tune it out. Instead they hear the voice of someone they grew up with (target demo is females 25-49) and he's describing the simple health benefits of orange juice. It's like their dad reminded them to get some OJ to keep them and his grandkids healthy. That celebrity matches the product. An example of a celebrity not matching the product can be seen in the disaster that was the Beyonce/Pepsi deal. December 2012 the ad world was stunned to hear of a $50,000,000 deal between the two! Pepsi had put all their eggs in the Beyonce basket. She would be on their cans and bottles, special vending machines featuring her image would be created, radio, print, billboard, internet and TV ads would all feature her. The campaign would be launched around a massive Super Bowl halftime show and 3 ads to air during the game as well! She was the biggest pop star in the world and pop music fans are the number one demo for soda. Pepsi figured they had hit a home run.

There was one thing they hadn't factored in. Beyonce was close with the first lady Michelle Obama. So what? Well Michelle was pushing to get soda out of schools, and out of kids hands all together. And helping her in that effort was Beyonce. But certainly a few appearances, a few years earlier would be forgotten by the general public once they were inundated with a never ending Pepyonce Blitz. (Yes I created a new word there). No they were not forgotten. And Pepsi went on to have it's worst first quarter in decades, shrinking 4-7 percent because their celebrity didn't match the product. 

The second thing that has to be there is the truth. In 1912 the McCann advertising agency registered the worlds first advertising trademark.

McCann recognized that you need to tell the truth about your product. But you need to do it in a creative way. Here in Columbia most everyone knows Joe Pinner. For those of you outside of our area Joe is like the local version of Willard Scott. Joe has been on the NBC affiliate for over 50 years! He hosted a kids show called Mr Knozit (Knows it) from 1963 into the 1990's! Plus he was the weather guy on the nightly news. 

He's been semi retired for about 15 years, but still is on TV and it seems like any big event in town Joe is there. So Joe's voice is instantly recognized by people from Columbia and he is awesome as the spokesperson for several different companies including Agape Senior Health Care Center and Wade Culler Roofing. They are marketing to people 40 and up and Joe is a trusted voice to the people who grew up here. He also can creatively cut through all the crap an advertiser wants to get on the air and get to the actual point that will make people want to choose their product over the competition. That is the purpose of a celebrity spokesperson. And one day I hope to be half as good as Papa Joe!

So when you want to discuss a spokesperson for your product discuss those 2 things first. Will they work with the demo and our product. And what is the truth that makes our product or service better than our competition. Once you have those answers you're well on your way to a success. Good luck!

I always love to hear your feedback. kellynash_99@yahoo.com

Chasing your dreams

I had a 10 minute discussion with a young lady today who "works near her dream". That was her phrase for explaining why she is selling radio commercials when she really wants to be a press person in the hip hop genre. That actually would seem like torture to me. To be near the field you want to be in, with no real hope of getting there. I explained that if she was serious about wanting to be in PR she should focus all of her efforts on getting into a position to learn and network with people who are doing what she wants. It may require a pay cut, but you'll feel more alive than ever knowing you are on the path to do what God designed you to do. And you can't put a price on that.

Of course you also need to take some inventory before you begin the dream chase. Some good questions;
Is what I'm about to chase physically possible? That explains why my modeling dream died.
Is this a dream that helps others? If your sole goal is to help yourself not many folks want to help.
Does my dream line up with God? Your dream of being a drug king pin will have the blessings of satan and addicts. Your dream of being a pharmacist gets the support of our Creator and Lord.

I'm a firm believer that God created all of us with dreams He wanted us to chase to help each other. Artists, Doctors, Athletes, Soldiers, Politicians etc. Everyone adds to the tapestry of human life and when we work together in harmony we begin to form an image of what heaven will be like. So stop denying yourself... and us the gift of your dream. Get after it! Let me know how you're doing. kellynash_99@yahoo.com