"(T)he depth of the relationship you can have with them is unbelievable."

So says the chief of global advertising and marketing firm Euro RSCG, David Jones, about the role of the internet in consumer marketing.

The same applies for policy-focused groups in how they reach and engage policy audiences, the media, and other decisionmakers: use online services - integrated with other media vehicles - to build long-term relationships and you will have a stronger impact.

Euro RSCG is a mid-sized marketing firm that focuses on, Jones says, "brilliant ideas that are going to help them deliver growth." They provide integrated marketing campaigns for clients like Volvo and Nokia. Jones is profiled in the Wall Street Journal on 8/17. Key quotes:

WSJ: If traditional TV and print advertising is becoming less desirable, what forms do you think advertising will take in the near future?

Mr. Jones: What is clearly playing an enormous role is the Internet. Why? You have the ability to have a relationship and a dialogue and a level of interactivity on the Internet with the consumer that you are not going to basically get anywhere else, short of having a conversation. ... What it shows you if the idea is strong enough, you will get consumer attention and a much deeper level of consumer interaction. ... The business used to be you got a fairly short mass message to a vast number of people. What has happened? The number of people you can actually reach is smaller, but ... the depth of the relationship you can have with them is unbelievable. What we are seeing much more of now is rather than laying out a traditional and classic media plan, is thinking about how these things interact. What am I going to be doing on the cellphone? How does that work with what I'm doing on the Internet and how do the TV ads or the print ads actually drive that work?

Full interview online (subscription required).