That appears to be the case, according to leading management consultants Cap Gemini Ernst & Young - who have found that only 17% of the 700 U.S. consumers it surveyed in the past six months said TV advertising influenced their car-buying decisions.

As a sector, automobile manufacturers buy the most TV ads out of all advertisers and in the US last year, car manufacturers and their dealers spent $18.4 billion across the media. One line of thought is that they could be wasting up to $15.3 billion a year - but what is generating the best results?

Cap Gemini's survey found that advertising on search engines are influencing 26% of consumers and approximately half said a direct-mail offer from a car dealer would also influence their vehicle purchases. But the most persuasive media was good, old-fashioned, word-of-mouth - cited by 71% of the survey - which included email.

"We think manufacturers and their dealers are wasting money on broad-based TV advertising instead of a direct-marketing approach," said Cap Gemini.

According to a Jupiter survey earlier this year, 82% of likely new car buyers are using the Net for research, and 47% said the Internet would strongly influence their decision.

Common sense and 40 years of advertising history dictate that TV advertising will be hard to replace for the all-important brand-focused mass-market approach but, clearly, the power of internet marketing is continuing to grow.

And with the average online ad campaign being put together inside 3 months compared to 36 weeks for a TV campaign, internet marketing provides a faster to market solution - with realtime feedback - that might help car manufacturers add more gloss to where they really need it: on the bottom-line.

For more information about integrating effective, direct online marketing into your business development plans call Colin Hiom direct on 07958 695444 or email colin@quantos.co.uk.