• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, July 13, 2005

CHICAGO -- Chief marketing officers at Ad:Tech yesterday gave their companies high marks for their use of search engines, but indicated they still needed to improve on other forms of digital marketing.

"In search, I think we'd give ourselves an A-plus," said Catherine Muriel, chief marketing officer at E-Loan, when asked to grade her company's performance in online marketing. "Banner ads -- I think we've got a long way to go," she said, adding that it's "hard to show the pay-out" and justify the cost of online banners.

Steve Pinetti, senior vice president of marketing at Kimpton Hotels, added that his company has "been pretty focused on search right from the beginning," but continues to experiment with banner ads.

"The advent of search," Pinetti said, "allowed me to get out behind the big bully brands, and go out and communicate to the world on my own."

Mike Moore, director of the Purina interactive group at Nestle Purina Petcare Company, offered that he'd give the company a "B" or "B-plus," adding that Purina's still trying to optimize the sites for search engine crawlers.

When asked where his company's interactive efforts were headed, Moore said that Purina is especially interested in wireless advertising. "We see it as a way to really connect with consumers on an opt-in basis," he said, adding that Purina currently offers customers ringtones, wallpapers, and weekly pet-related tips that are sent via SMS to wireless devices.