by Joel Rubin

RCG Founder and CEO

We may never see a political phenomenon like Donald Trump again. That’s because no one has ever pursued the presidency who was able to combine a self-professed business acumen with lofty reality TV show ratings and the ability to out-talk, if not out-think, everyone else in the room.

The result is the lead in the GOP nomination campaign that he brought to Regent University in Virginia Beach Wednesday afternoon as part of the school’s ongoing candidates’ forum. And he’s done it with precious little money spent on paid advertising. It’s all free coverage or “earned media.”

Take last weekend’s South Carolina primary. Jeb Bush’s Super PAC invested nearly $14 million, and he finished fourth, leaving the contest the day after. Marco Rubio is still alive after dumping $4.7 million from his campaign account with his Super PAC spending another $7.3 million. Between his campaign and PAC, Ted Cruz left about $7 million in the Palmetto State. Trump?

Less than $2 million from his own pocket (he has no Super PAC), and he won handily.

“I know how to work the media in a way that they will never take the lights off of me,” said Trump, more than a year before the campaign began. As much as the legions of Trump opponents cannot stand the fact that the real estate magnate dominates the airwaves, he is absolutely right. Trump makes the news because of his audacious comments and the following those have generated among potential voters who are so sick of the system, they are willing to overlook, in not applaud, his hysterical rhetoric and boorish behavior. Go figure.

At some point, Donald Trump may need to define his image through his own commercials, the way other candidates have traditionally sold themselves to the public. And whether his opponent is whomever is left in the Republican field or his Democrat adversary in the fall, he’ll have plenty in the bank to pay for them.

In the meantime he is proving what a 2013 Nielsen study reported, that “earned media is the most trusted source of information…and is the channel most likely to stimulate the consumer to action.”