The Internet's Impact on Advertising (continued)

There are also advantages for advertisers in the interactive nature of the Internet. Capabilities such as search advertising, keyword advertising and e-mail allow advertisers to better understand their potential customers.

"These tools allow advertisers to develop strategies that reach consumers at different points in the buying cycle," Gignac explains.

"For instance, an advertiser might use rich media banners to build awareness of a new product. Then they could use pay-for-performance search keyword advertising in the research and decision-making phases. Then they drive consumer loyalty and repeat purchases via e-mail advertising."
 

Internet Versus TV Advertising
While early predictions indicated that a lot of funds used for television advertising would be switched over to Internet ads, this hasn't entirely been the case. People in the industry aren't leaving television advertising for dead. They're predicting that TV and the Internet will merge together.

"I don't believe web-based ads will kill TV ads. As these mediums progress they will become part of the same medium," says Mike Johnson. Johnson is the CEO of Internet Advertising Services.

"TV will not be the one-way medium we know of today. The web will be far more video- and audio-intensive. How this will look and feel is hard to say, but we are beginning to see the merging of technologies."

Still, Johnson does not deny that web-based ads have taken revenue away from television ads.

"There is no doubt web advertising has hurt TV advertising, as well as other mediums such as newsprint," he says. "The reasons are simple: no other medium allows you to target with precision accuracy. Plus, it provides the tools to efficiently calculate return on investment."

Targeted Marketing Strategies
Shar VanBoskirk is the consulting analyst for Forrester Research. She says that Forrester is seeing the rise of what they call left-brain marketing. It's a more analytical and data-driven approach to advertising. It reflects a shift away from television's more simplistic forms of attention-grabbing.

"This approach relies on customer data and measured response to marketing messages. This creates more targeted marketing strategies, rather than maintaining a traditional creative-driven, mass marketing effort," she explains. "This is causing a change in the way marketers think about which media they should use."

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