• by Masha Geller , April 24, 2003

I have good news to report today, but before I do, I need your help. MediaPost is looking for stars. In the June issue of our Media Magazine, we're going to honor Rising Media Stars and we're asking our readers for nominations. Let us know about that one worthy candidate at your agency who's head and shoulders above the rest in terms of thinking and approaching the media planning and buying business.

Please send their name, title, department, email address and a paragraph detailing their "star" qualities to adam@mediapost.com.

That said, the good news: According to the latest Bellwether Report, Internet advertising is one of only two disciplines in the marketing services industry to report an increase in budgets over the first quarter of the year. The other discipline was direct marketing.

Bellwether says that Internet marketing budgets were revised upwards for the fifth quarter in a row, with more companies raising their budget since the second quarter of 2000. One in four companies increased spending on Internet marketing, while only 5% cut spend.

The survey found the companies were shifting budget towards the Internet because of the cost efficiency and accountability of marketing through the Internet, which they had established from past campaigns.