The results of this groundbreaking new research are the culmination of a yearlong investigation of the relative effectiveness of and synergies between online and traditional media advertising,

"We've seen lots of proof that online advertising works, but this is the first time we have measured how online really stacks up to television and magazines," said Jim Spaeth, president of ARF. "The results are a giant leap forward for the advertising industry, addressing a question it has long been pondering."

Although recent studies have proven that online advertising is an effective branding medium, recently released research marks one of the first times online advertising was studied in tandem within an overall advertising campaign and therefore provides more realistic results.

Until now, media planners and buyers often were challenged to quantify the benefits of increasing online advertising's share of the media mix.

"IAB considers the results of this research to be extremely valuable to our members and the industry at large, because they demonstrate that the Internet can dramatically improve a brand's ROI on overall marketing when it is a significant part of the overall media mix," said Greg Stuart, president and CEO of IAB. "We believe this landmark research is so important that we have already gotten agreement from the entire IAB board and other members to conduct a Phase II study with more than 15 publishers and six major marketers."

The recent study is one of the first of its kind to measure the effectiveness of recent advertising campaigns by working with Unilever Home & Personal Care's Dove Nutrium Bar in the real world and real time. Award-winning researcher Rex Briggs of Marketing Evolution conducted the independent, third-party study with Dynamic Logic Inc., a leading independent research firm focused on advertising effectiveness. Unilever, Web Marketing LLC and mindshare were engaged in the analysis and assisted to ensure that all Dove's online and offline advertising was properly accounted for and carefully tracked. These are the research conclusions:

• The research suggests that CPG brands that increase their online advertising may result in increased key metrics, such as brand awareness, brand attributes and purchase intent.
• Higher online frequency boosts branding effectiveness. Specifically, increasing the number of online impressions from six impressions to 12 impressions over six weeks can increase Dove Nutrium Bar's overall branding effectiveness by 42 percent.
• TV, print and online advertising are each effective at branding, yet online is generally more cost-efficient in terms of branding increases from the precampaign level.