by Kate Maddox

The internet Advertising Bureau is planning to take its pitch straight to reluctant Web advertisers by the end of this year with a traveling "road show."

The road show, being spearheaded by IAB's Agency & Marketer Relations Committee, is intended to reach major marketers that have allocated no money in their advertising budgets for the Web, said Greg Stuart, chairman of the committee and principal of New York-based consultancy @webrite.

"The idea is to get to the top of the food chain and help [advertisers] understand why this is important to them," said Mr. Stuart.

The committee is now creating a multimedia presentation, at an estimated cost of between $30,000 and $40,000, which it will use to convince marketers of the value of Web advertising.

SURVEY WILL TARGET ADVERTISERS

Time Warner has agreed to help fund the project, said Mr. Stuart, and the committee will unveil its presentation at the next IAB board meeting in December.

It's now in the final stages of surveying 300 top advertisers to find out if they're spending money on the Web and, if not, why, said Jeff Yacker, manager of communications at Web auditing firm BPA Interactive, who is overseeing the survey.

The survey asks marketers whether they have ever advertised on the Web, if they have a separate budget line for Web advertising and, if so, how much that is.

Based on the results of the survey, the IAB will identify reluctant advertisers and fine-tune its presentation to address their concerns. Then, it will take its show on the road, meeting with targeted advertisers at their offices.

For the presentations, IAB plans to bring in top brass, such as its chairman Rich LeFurgy, senior VP-advertising at ESPN/ABCNews Internet Ventures, New York, to help drive the Web marketing message home.

Copyright October 1997, Crain Communications Inc.