Of these totals, television gives consumers 43% awareness impact, while other media contributes a collective 37%, according to a new study released today by Yankelovich and the Television Bureau of Advertising (20% of consumers say media had no influence).

When it comes to making purchases -- the end of the marketing funnel -- TV advertising contributes to consumers' decisions 26% of the time. It's 27% for other media, while 47% of consumers say media has no impact on their decisions.

The study says a positive trend for television is that its share of media impact on a percentage basis remains relatively flat through all marketing phases -- from "awareness," "interest," "consider purchase," "want to purchase," "visit store/Web site" and "making purchases."

For all business categories, total advertising impacts consumers at an 80% level when it comes to awareness and declines to 53% when it comes to making purchases.

After television, the Internet has the second-strongest impact over other media, contributing 14% to "awareness," 13% to "consideration," 13% to "preference" and 12% to actual "purchase" levels.

Television has above-average awareness levels for consumers when it comes to health care and entertainment advertising.

The Internet over-indexes in the automotive, schools/colleges and entertainment categories. E-mail advertising does best with auto/life insurance.

Newspapers do well with department/discount stores and schools/ colleges. Magazines are best with automotive and health care, while radio advertising has above-average awareness with restaurants, schools/colleges and furniture stores.

This news story is important. I recommend that everyone read it.