Google-like technologies could revolutionize TV, other media

After years of failed promises for ads that can pinpoint targeted consumers, traditional media are finally taking interactive advertising seriously, on the Web and beyond. Companies that have advertised for years on platforms ranging from television to billboards are rethinking their marketing strategies, as Internet advertisers work through the technology glitches and privacy issues that have challenged the first wave of the technology.

"The creative community is still fixated with 30-second commercials, and the clock is ticking," said Chuck Fruit, senior vice president of integrated marketing at Coca-Cola, adding that brands like Coke spend roughly three-fourths of their ad budgets on television. "That percentage will go down steadily for the next decade to well under half."

Industry research tends to support that prediction. An estimated 75 percent of national advertisers plan to cut spending on TV commercials by at least 20 percent in the next five years, when advertisers believe that ad-skipping devices like TiVo will be widespread, according to Forrester Research.

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