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The problem lies not with the question itself but with the assumption behind it - that there is only one answer. If TV builds awareness, radio builds frequency, magazines build affinity and direct mail drives sales leads, what does online do? In this context, it demands a single role, a single objective. In marketing-speak, it has to live either above or below the line.

But what does online do day in, day out? What, for example, is the purpose of British Airways' advertising for its Club World business class beds, in which the proposition is brought to life by turning the host web page 90í on its side? Or of Diesel's sumptuous, large-space ads which depict a stylised 3D environment? Or of Tango's online advertising during Euro 2004, exhorting us to "make some noise for the boys"? Fundamentally, this is brand advertising. Its purpose is to communicate a simple message about the brand in the hope of making consumers aware of it and warm to it. It's online as above-the-line medium.

In the case of Tango, it's also a data-capture exercise - inviting consumers to order a Tango "Big Match Boomer" with which to make the aforementioned "noise" and capturing their email and phone number into the bargain. All of which hints at another role altogether for online - probably a relationship marketing programme. Possibly a direct sales push.

For the most part, direct sales generation is precisely the goal of search engine marketing, affiliate marketing, and, indeed, much online advertising.

We tend to associate relationship marketing with email communication, but web sites that encourage repeat visits are also relationship-building tools - whether they do this by providing a game with a high score table, or simply by allowing the user to find and buy what they want quickly and easily.

So does online sit above the line or below it? It is, in fact, the original through-the-line medium. That's not to say all online activity is through-the-line; just that there are online equivalents of all the offline marketing disciplines. It might, at times, be legitimate to allocate a specific role to the medium, but only in the knowledge that it can do so much more.