Just 40 years ago, TV was considered a "new medium" and 15 years ago, cable wore the same badge. During their respective early days, each of these "new media" had to prove their value to earn a spot on the media plan. Today the Internet finds itself in the same position. CEO's, brand managers, ad agency account managers, and media planners are asking the same question, "Does Internet advertising belong on your media plan?" (Mediaweek, 1997). The answer is undoubtedly yes, regardless of the brand or the category in which the brand competes. There are several facts that explain the reason that Internet advertising is and should be on everyone's media plan (Mediaweek, 1997).

First of all, TV audiences are migrating to the Internet. The first evidence of this audience migration appeared 1997 summer in a Forrester Research Report. The researchers asked PC users which activities they were giving up to spend more time on their computers. About three-quarters of the respondents replied that the activity sacrificed was watching television. Shortly after the Forrester findings were released, a study from the Georgia Institute of Technology's Graphic, Visualization, and Usability Center (GVU) reported a similar result. This study, conducted on the Internet, asked users about their television viewing habits and what impact the Internet might have on them. Their findings indicated a distinct shift in media habits with almost 37% of respondents claiming that they "use the Web instead of watching TV on a daily basis" (Mediaweek, 1997).

Secondly, the Internet is the fastest growing advertising medium in history. Internet advertising began in 1994 when the first banner ads were sold on HotWired in October 1994 and the first commercially available Web browser, Netscape Navigator 1.0 was released in November 1994.

In a recent study, Mary Meeker, Managing Director at Morgan Stanley, and her team of researchers closely examined the adoption rate of the Internet, contrasted to the three other major "new media" invented this century: radio, network television and cable TV. As a common metric, they examined the number of years it took or will take for each media to reach 50 million U.S. users. With television, cable and radio included for historical context, the growth of the Net is nothing short of remarkable. Meeker estimates the Internet will capture 50 million users in just five years. It took TV 13 years and radio 38 years to reach this milestone.

Thirdly, the Internet audience represents hard-to-reach, well-educated, high-income population that is most coveted by marketers. Various studies and surveys have reported that women represented 43% of the online population (CommerceNet/Nielsen survey of Internet Demographics, 1997); the average age of Internet users was 34.9 years (GVU survey, 1997); more than 65% of Internet users have household incomes of $50,000 or more (Media Futures Program of SRI Consulting, 1996); and 75% of Internet users have attended college (Media Futures Program of SRI Consulting, 1996).

Finally, Internet advertising has demonstrated that it builds brand awareness and can be better at generating awareness than television or print advertising. The value of Internet advertising, especially banner ads, has been and still is being debated. Critics feel that they are physically too small to offer much branding and some advertisers were convinced that click-through was the only metric by which to measure ad effectiveness. However, a study conducted by Millward Brown International in 1997 found that awareness was significantly greater among the banner-exposed group than the non-exposed group (Mediaweek, 1997). It also reported that single exposure to a Web banner generated greater awareness than a single exposure to a television or print ad.

Although some people are skeptic about the effectiveness of Internet advertising and consider increasing attention to Internet advertising as mere hype or trend, the above facts supported by the studies and surveys evidence that the Internet is establishing itself as an essential advertising medium.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of Internet advertising in the financial structure of advertising as well as the marketing industries. This paper consists of five discussion parts, each of which presents: