• Ad Age, Thursday, December 15, 2005 12:15 PM

Yet another major national marketer is discovering the benefits of online advertising. Michelin North America says it will follow the lead of other marketers in shifting ad dollars away from traditional marketing tactics and into online advertising, increasing its spending for car and truck tires up to 10 percent next year. The company's overall 2006 marketing budget will remain flat to compensate for the online hike. Michelin communications manager Scott Dishman said the marketer will cut back on event sponsorships and will no longer support the title sponsorship of the PGA Championship event in Las Vegas that it has held for the past two years.

Michelin spent $17 million in measured media in the first half of 2005, compared with $19 million for the same period of 2004, according to TNS Media Intelligence. The brand spent $857,000 in online ads during the period, a 62 percent jump from 2004's first half, according to TNS. Dishman disputed that TNS data, calling it too low, but declined to reveal the actual online spending. Next year, Michelin wants to be more targeted in its online approach to reach the 5 percent of Americans who are shopping for tires any given week. "We need to be on auto enthusiast sites and draw them onto our site," Dishman said. In 2005 and prior years, Michelin had bought ads on broad-reach portals such as Yahoo.

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