"Your Online IQ - Anheuser-Busch"

Anheuser-Busch, the brewing giant long associated with glitzy network-TV ads, plans to shift some ad dollars away from network prime time toward cable TV and the Internet to "recognize changes in viewership." The Wall Street Journal explained why.

Questions:  When is the last time you had time to read a newspaper from start to finish...or sat through your favorite TV shows' ads?  Did you know that ad space on some of the larger web sites is sold out?

Strategy: Develop an Online Communications Plan that achieves your business objectives and bonds your brand, products and services with potential customers in measurable ways.  This is more than a marketing buy.  This is about targeted relationships and purchasing patterns.   

Tactic:  Direct your Public Affairs, Media Relations or Communications Department to contact Google, Yahoo, AOL and MSN directly (and any specialty web sites if you are in an extremely segmented, niche line of business), and have them pitch you on an Online Media Buy.  Skip your media buyer for now (and save the 15 percent fee).  The research, alone, will raise your firm's Online IQ.  Ask those involved to brief marketing, sales and senior management on their findings.  You will immediately change your advertising footprint -- or decide that less-costly Public and Stakeholder Relationships are more important than an outdoor billboard at $4.8K a month.