The AICPA kicked-off its fall schedule for this year's national advertising campaign with radio spots on Oct. 21 during major league baseball's World Series. As mentioned in last month's CPA Letter, the Institute is placing heavy emphasis on national radio network advertising to broaden the reach and increase the frequency of the CPA brand message among key audiences.

Four new radio spots were developed and will run through Nov. 19. More than 175 placements will be heard on ABC Radio Networks (Prime Radio Network's affiliates, MoneyTalk with Bob Brinker, the ESPN Radio Morning Show, NBA on ESPN Radio, BusinessWeek Business Report, and Major League Baseball and World Series); and Westwood One (the CBS Network, Dan Rather Reporting, NCAA Football, Notre Dame Football, NCAA Basketball and NFL Football). The spring schedule begins the week of Mar. 19 and ends the week of Apr. 9.

In addition to the radio ads, the image enhancement effort features a more targeted print campaign. Full-page ads will appear in BusinessWeek (weeks of Nov. 6, Nov. 20 and Dec. 4); Time Top Management (weeks of Nov. 6 and Nov. 27); and Fortune Small Business (month of Dec.). Print ads will run again in the spring, from the week of Feb. 26 through the week of Apr. 23.

Complementing the national image enhancement campaign, most of the state CPA societies will run local radio, print and existing television spots. As part of a pilot cooperative advertising program with the Institute (The CPA Letter, Oct.), 35 states are receiving a total of $733,694 in matching funds, boosting their planned advertising expenditures to an unprecedented level of nearly $3 million. What's more, an astounding 26 of those 35 states increased their advertising budgets over last year.

The combined effort of the AICPA's and state societies' advertising campaigns certainly will result in broader reach and more frequent messages among those who use or buy CPAs' services.

ldesina@aicpa.org