The Ad Council retained Charlie Rutman, through his consulting firm End Zone Communications, to direct its media department, effective January 4. He is working to secure donated media support for the organization’s campaigns and will report to Ad Council president and CEO Peggy Conlon.
Rutman is managing media efforts in all channels for the nonprofit. The media used in Ad Council campaigns is donated. Last year, contributed time and space was valued at $1.8 billion.
He will also work with the Ad Council’s regional managing directors to increase the organization’s local presence in the top 50 media markets.
“The goal is to treat this with the same kind of rigor, experience and analytics that’s applied to paid media,” Rutman said.
Beginning in 2007, Rutman began a stint as chair of the Ad Council’s Television Steering Committee, which meets quarterly to review campaigns and offer strategic direction to increase industry support of Ad Council TV PSAs.
The Ad Council recently launched an extension, which targets young women, of its “Buzzed driving is drunk driving” campaign. The group’s long-running “Friends don’t let friends drive drunk” campaign largely targeted men.
