The Internet is fast becoming an essential component of any major ad campaign.

As measured by Nielsen//NetRatings in its 2003 Spotlight on Advertising Report, top cross media advertisers such as Ford Motor Company, Johnson & Johnson and Verizon Communications strengthened their online ad presences by at least 30% from 2001 to 2002. Media mammoths AOL Time Warner and Walt Disney Company each increased ad spends by 28% during that period, while DaimlerChrysler increased online ad spending by over 400% as part of a major Dodge campaign.

Here's what's driving this new advertising reality:

Consumers Are Online
It's a simple truth: advertisers must go where consumers are in order to reach them. And more and more, consumers are online.

• By the end of 2002,Nielsen/NetRatings tallied the worldwide Internet population at over half a billion people, and eMarketer projects that number will go up to over 709 million in 2004.

Media Consumption Is Shifting
Your target markets - male, female, young and old -- are now spending time online that they once devoted to traditional media like magazines, TV and radio.

• When the Online Publishers Association studied the overall media usage of at-work Web users throughout a typical 24-hour day, the organization revealed in its 2002 report that "this affluent, highly educated group now spends more time on the Internet on a typical Monday-Friday than they spend watching television."

Online Works When TV Doesn't
How's this for a shocker? Some sought-after markets barely respond to TV anymore.