Anyone who is paying attention to the media in America knows that how we get information is changing dramatically.

It is happening in every form of media. Take television for example: in 1992, the average US household had access to 28 TV channels. In 2012, US households have access to over 165 channels and over 10,000 programs per month. They also watch an increasing amount of shows using DVRs or on-line media streaming services.

In 1970, the average reach of a nationally broadcast 30-second spot was 20 percent.  Now it’s less than 5 percent. Marketers are desperate to make up for this drastic decline in reach. You see it everywhere you go. For example, One market research firm, estimates that a person living in a city 30 years ago saw up to 2,000 ad messages a day, compared with up to 5,000 today.

So how does a political campaign, with limited time and money, over come this saturation effect of traditional marketing and the limited reach of television?

           Jim recently spoke to the University Club of San Fransico about the state's new top two primary system.           

I wanted to share with you the television spot we recently produced in San Francisco.

Late last year, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors changed the law regarding Health Reimbursement Accounts, closing a significant loophole that caused worker's benefits to expire, now workers have protected accounts.

A coalition of businesses in San Francisco commissioned us to produce this spot starring four members of San Francisco’s Board Supervisors and a website with additional information at www.getyourbenefitsf.com

Since 2004, we’ve been working with Small Business California on their annual survey of California’s small businesses. To date thousands of small businesses have responded to the survey, giving a clear picture to the challenges small businesses in California face. 

If you own a small business, please take the survey. If you are interested in seeing the results from previous surveys please visit thier website.  

Yesterday, we shot a new TV spot, look for the finished product soon. It was a long day but we had a great time working with Mark Rinehart and the team at Houseblend Media.

Yesterday, Mitt Romney released his taxes. Which will likely help him in the primary but hurt him in the general. Our friend Jason Stanford makes the point:

Romney allies will see his millions in investment income as evidence of his financial acumen and personal success. Critics will see that he paid half the tax rate that the Obamas did, that he hid some cash in a Swiss bank account, and that he made $20 million a year and can't even hit a curve ball. 

The reason Mitt Romney would not release his taxes, was not because he was concerned about how it would play in the Republican Primary but how it would play in the general election. Until Newt Gingrich won in South Carolina, Mitt Romney was running a general election campaign, now he is running a campaign to win the Republican nomination.

The fundamental shift in the campaign is this now a race between Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich for the Republican nomination. Not Mitt Romney setting up a general election contest with President Obama. 

You may have noticed that we are making some changes to our website. This is an on-going process at this point the most significant change is our name. We’ve dropped the “Political” from our name and we are now Jim Ross Consulting.

Pew’s Research Center is out with a poll show that Republican voters are not swayed by big name endorsements. If endorsements don’t move voters, it begs the questions, why do politicians work so hard for them?

We believe the value of endorsement is to help define a candidate and bring resources to a campaign.