At long last, leading consumer product marketers have discovered the benefits of Internet advertising. Initially, in the early days of the Web, companies like General Mills and Kraft experimented
cautiously with running ads for their many brands on Web sites. But those days are gone, as each of those powerhouse marketers, along with others of comparable weight an influence, are cranking up
Internet ad spending, sometimes doubling the amount they allocated just last year. The shift underlines the Internet's threat to traditional media such as television and print magazines, and the
packaged-goods marketers say their customers are spending more time online and using the Web in new ways, such as watching TV shows and other video. "Our job is to invest in where consumers are
engaging with media," says John Galloway, vice president of sports, media and interactive marketing at the Pepsi-Cola North America unit. At his division, online spending is expected to rise to
between 5 percent and 10 percent of the overall ad budget in 2006, from 1 percent five years ago.
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