Last week I attended the Internet Strategy Forum's (ISF) Summit West. ISF is a nonprofit global professional organization dedicated to development, research and thought leadership among senior Internet decision-makers. Like all the Internet Marketing conferences I attend I go in with moderate expectations and leave totally blown away. The reason for this can be summed up best by quoting Robert Liodice, CEO Association of National Advertisers, "The amount of change in marketing over the last 3-5 years probably equals the amount of change over the past 30 years."

You remember the "Intel inside" commercials on TV, right? Have you seen one lately? No, because Intel has shifted its' advertising spend so that 70% of the dollars are now invested on-line. And they aren't the only one. According to every research firm, online advertising spending in the US surpassed radio in 2007 and is projected to pass consumer magazines in 2008. In fact, it is the only segment of advertising spending that is growing!

Why are they investing in on-line marketing and advertising? The number one reason is that on-line marketing is the most cost-effective approach and provides traceable, measurable positive and negative responses from consumers. No other medium does that. And, with the economic challenges we are faced with in 2008, understanding the return on our marketing dollars is essential.

Further fueling the requirement to invest in on-line marketing is the fact that consumers have modified their service expectations and altered their buying decision-making process based on their on-line experiences. In October 2007 a Nielsen survey asked consumers to rate their level of "trust" with different media formats - Brand Websites ranked more trustworthy than radio, television and magazines. And don't you love checking out on-line user reviews before you buy something? On a scale from 1 (low trust) to 10 (high trust) consumers rated "strangers with experience" an 8 in a 2007 University of Massachusetts study up from a 4 rating 10 years ago.

Bottom line, we can't ignore the on-line consumer and we have to figure out what role the Internet plays in our marketing strategy.