(Photo: From left to right: Laura Klauberg, Mike Jackson, Jim Stengel, Karen Jennings, Tony Ponturo. Enlarge this photo.)

Laura Klauberg
Unilever
Age: 52 
Title: Vice president for media, the Americas
2006 Network Budget: $301 million
2007 Strategy: The portion of Unilever’s budget dedicated to TV commercials has been shrinking since 2004. Klauberg has blurred the line between ads and TV programming with
some novel formats—among them, “webisodes” that mimic the Kiefer Sutherland drama 24 while advertising a men’s deodorant.

View a Unilever ad here.

Mike Jackson
General Motors
Age: 50 
Title: Vice president for marketing and advertising, North America
2006 Network Budget: $887 million
2007 Strategy: Thanks to the Olympics, General Motors’ network spending rose by $26 million last year, even as its overall ad budget shrank 18 percent, to $2.4 billion. For 2007, Jackson is planning to boost total media spending by about 10 percent, diverting much of that to the internet.

View a GM ad here.

Jim Stengel
Procter & Gamble
Age: 51 
Title: Global marketing officer
2006 Network Budget: $987 million
2007 Strategy: As the marketing industry’s alpha spender, Stengel last year oversaw a $3.5 billion ad budget that promoted brands such as Tide, Crest, and Charmin. The lion’s share, $2.5 billion, was earmarked for television, but that’s the skimpiest slice Stengel has set aside for the small screen since 2002.  

View a Procter & Gamble ad here.

Karen Jennings
AT&T
Age: 56 
Title: Senior executive vice president for advertising and corporate communications
2006 Network Budget: $646 million
2007 Strategy: With SBC’s 2005 purchase of AT&T, Jennings’ overall budget grew by nearly 50 percent, to $2.1 billion. Her mission was to rebrand the new corporate entity, and it included $1.3 billion in television commercials. Now her focus is shifting to ­Cingular and BellSouth, two other recent acquisitions.

View an AT&T commercial here.

Tony Ponturo
Anheuser-Busch
Age: 54 
Title: Vice president for global media and sports marketing
2006 Network Budget: $290 million
2007 Strategy: In chasing the 21- to 34-year-old beer drinker, Ponturo has been redirecting some of his overall television budget away from non-sports-related programming and toward new media. One focus for this year is Bud.tv, where viewers can watch online videos such as What Girls Want, in which three women make over bachelors they pick up in bars.

View an Anheuser-Busch ad here.