At first glance, the marketing machine behind the Billy Graham mission is as large as those billboards sprouting up along the area's interstates, and as sophisticated as the TV and radio spots on Tristate airwaves.

        But what makes the mission go is the same technique that also makes many secular companies successful — a smile and a handshake at the grass-roots level, coupled with a well-known brand name that people feel they can count on.

        And this timeworn strategy is behind the effort to fill Paul Brown Stadium four nights in a row next week, but also to raise enough local funds to cover the nearly $3 million needed to pay for the event.

        “It's all based on that friend-to-friend interaction,” says Rick Marshall, director of missions for the Minneapolis-based Billy Graham Evangelical Association, whose grandparents are from Cincinnati. “Without a doubt, our key word is friendship. We do a lot of things differently than we did 20-30 years ago, because our potential audience has changed. But that basic tenet has stayed the same.”

        Not that the process is simple. It includes separate corporations, a strong commitment to accurate and transparent bookkeeping and an advertising campaign that is routinely honored by the secular marketing media.

        But it is the work at the ground level, done with what experts have called an approach that is “aggressively low-key,” which will make the difference, organizers and even public relations experts say.

        “We call it viral marketing, meaning that it's so good, it gets below the grass roots,” says David Bukvic, a partner in the Cincinnati-based public relations firm Mann Bukvic Gatch Partners Inc. “It's a campaign of personal advocacy. If something comes from someone you know and trust, you're going to take it more seriously.”
       

The invitation

        When it comes to an all-out grass-roots effort, no one can rival a Billy Graham mission.

        As early as a year in advance, those interested in the mission sign up to volunteer for the event. They in turn are asked to think about 10 people whom they would invite, people not necessarily involved in any church activity.

        Then those people are invited — the mission has printed up 1 million such invitation cards for the effort. Event organizers say their goal is to have at least half the stadium filled with those who don't regularly go to church.

        And at least locally, mission organizers have had little trouble finding people to fill out their invitation list. More than 900 churches representing 67 denominations have signed up, with as many as 15,000 volunteers expected for the mission.

        “I'm not afraid to invite anybody — I give brochures to people at the dry cleaner, the video store, the drive-through,” says Stacie Wainscott, 39, of Fort Mitchell.

        Mrs. Wainscott, who has attended First Church of Christ in Burlington since converting from Judaism 4 1/2 years ago, says she doesn't try to convert people on the spot.

        “I don't do a hard sell for the Lord, you just can't do that,” says Mrs. Wainscott, who is serving as an area usher coordinator for the mission.

        The effort puts political campaigns to shame, says Richard A. Segal Jr., chief executive officer of Blue Ash-based HSR Business to Business Inc., a local advertising and public relations firm.

        “This is the most disciplined and finely tuned organizational model I have ever seen,” says Mr. Segal, who served as a senior adviser on Steve Forbes' 2000 presidential campaign, and who is chairman of the mission's public relations committee. “It gets down to the little things, like starting and ending meetings on time.”
       

Age of advertising

        But while the personal invitations have been a part of Billy Graham missions for decades, another part of the process has come a long way in the last 25 years.

        Mr. Marshall says that 20 to 30 years ago, advertising for a mission amounted to nothing more than a few billboards saying “Come hear Billy Graham” with a picture of the preacher and the dates of the event.

        Now, the campaign includes full-page print ads in the area's major newspapers; well-produced TV spots that look like mini-movies in a letter box style; self-deprecating radio spots; even ads on area movie theater screens before the main attraction.

        “We've got a hard sell here, I'll be the first to admit it,” says Mr. Marshall, the main advance man for Graham missions for about seven years. “Who wants to go out to an open-air stadium at the end of June, fight traffic, pay to park, just to hear an 83-year-old preacher?

        “That means you have to leave your backyard barbecue, your pool, the DVD player and the Internet in this day and age when most people are unchurched.”

        But Mr. Marshall, who goes as far as to rewrite local ad copy to differentiate between radio stations listened to by white and black teen-agers, says the effort can't use an aggressive approach.

        “It's all about the mystery of the words and the images,” Mr. Marshall says. “We can say that "Jesus saves' and feel that it's true, but hitting someone over the head with it just won't work in this day and age.”

        That subtlety is on display in the ads, most of which have been used leading up to prior missions, but include one or two crafted specifically for the Cincinnati market.

        “If someone stays with it, it's done its job,” Mr. Marshall says. “A good ad doesn't sell it to you, it offers it to you, without manipulation.”

        Still, the ad campaign is there to support those million invitation cards, Mr. Marshall says.

        “There is not enough money in the entire budget of this mission to fill Paul Brown Stadium if all we did was electronic and print advertising,” Mr. Marshall says. “The ads are just to reaffirm what people have already been told or have heard about the mission.”
       

Setting the budget

        That sophistication and low-key approach also extends to the money side of things.

        Mr. Marshall says every mission is overseen by a local board, which is set up as a separate corporate entity with 501c(3) nonprofit status. Locally, the board has a budget of $2.785 million.

        He adds that aside from some money spent on video and audio production, and some help for staging and lighting and the money to pay full-time staff such as himself, no funds will come from the Minneapolis home offices.

        About $1.7 million has been raised as of Friday. The board's budget calls for about $1.3 million to be raised from direct mail solicitations from those in the Tristate already on the Graham organization's donor list and from other area individuals and businesses.

        Collections have begun at local churches, and Mr. Marshall says collections are taken at most of the organizational meetings held leading up to the mission.

        Only one collection is planned for each event of the mission, and each of those collections will last between 3 and 5 minutes.

        “We're not going to spend undue time on it, and we're going to stress that if someone is there as an invited guest, to let the basket pass on by,” Mr. Marshall says. “This is not about making money. We're trying to keep it in the family, as we do with the collections at our meetings.”

        He says no mission has ever finished in the red, but adds that the Minneapolis office would probably kick in some money if there were a deficit.

        The Rev. Damon Lynch Jr., who is co-chairman of the local mission's finance committee, says he hopes that organizers raise $2 million before the mission even begins. He adds that if there is a profit, no local funds will be going back to Minneapolis with the Rev. Mr. Graham, who is not charging any fees for speaking.

        “Not one dime leaves here unless the local executive board says that it's OK,” the Rev. Mr. Lynch says. “I sign all the checks for this thing, and I know where all the money is going.”

        Soon after the mission is over, the Rev. Mr. Lynch says that the local committee's finances will be audited, and the results will be published in area newspapers. Any money left over after expenses is going back to a “Love-in-action Mission,” the Rev. Mr. Lynch says.
       

The Graham brand

       In the end, however, the whole effort is designed to “sell” a product, in this case one of the most world's well-known public figures.

        One local expert on marketing says the Graham mission indeed has created a brand name worthy of McDonald's, Ford or even Tide — the laundry detergent made by Cincinnati-based Procter & Gamble.

        “It's got dependability and consistency and integrity,” says Bob Wehling, the retired global marketing officer for P&G. “They have their own standards and procedures, and people have come to know what to expect.

        “And they have someone in Billy Graham who is always going to deliver.”

        But all of that would be for naught if there was no ultimate payoff for the audience, experts say. It is the Rev. Mr. Graham's ability to connect to individuals in an audience of more than 60,000 that is the ultimate selling point for the mission, even if they have brought in other attractions such as a teen-oriented concert and other speakers.

        “The fact that he is like a brand name is something he almost needs to overcome, because it could descend into parody very easily,” says Mike Maul, president of the Cincinnati-based PR firm Wordsworth Communications. “But then you see him speak. He's like the ultimate closer. He can make you feel like he's just talking to you, even in a stadium filled with people.

        “Ultimately, it's that gift that is what it's all about.”

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