(FORTUNE Magazine) – Someday, invites to Procter & Gamble's Future of Advertising Stakeholders Summit (FAST) may become collectors' items, documents proving that P&G took a leading role in shaping the Internet, just as it helped evolve the medium of television in the 1950s. That's the best-case scenario, one that assumes the committees created at the Aug. 20-21 conference will actually do something to spur brand marketing on the Internet.

Can P&G make marketing history anew? Well, the company did get suits representing all parties involved in online marketing--advertisers, agencies, content brands, technologists--to trek to Cincinnati in August. The "stakeholders" did brainstorm about their online gripes and goals. They did form task forces with a goal of figuring out how online advertising can work better for mainstream companies.

Sound about as juicy as a slow day on C-Span? Fact is, the stakes are high. McKinsey consultants explained just how high in a speech early in the conference. According to McKinsey, advertisers could simply deem the Web a tactical, cheap, add-on medium worthy of 2% to 5% of U.S. ad spending over the next few years--they spent less than 2% ($1 billion) in 1997. Or they could embrace it as a real medium worthy of 15% to 20% of U.S. ad spending.

Right now the Web is great for selling products online, or offering consumers Websites full of product info. That's not what most FAST participants--including execs from P&G rivals like Warner Lambert, Unilever, and Kraft--need. Consumers won't buy a $2 package of toilet paper based on what they read on the Web. These companies would like to use the Web to promote their brands, but right now it's not a medium suited to engaging consumers. P&G suggested one solution by showcasing a dozen developers of "rich media"--i.e., content that incorporates video, music, and lots of action. The point? That Web ads should be a lot more like...well, like television ads.

So add P&G to the list of businesses waiting for the telcos and cable companies to deliver more Internet bandwidth. For now, perhaps the biggest contribution P&G made was just to have the event. "We baked a cake," said advertising vice president Denis Beausejour at the summit's conclusion. "The point was the event, not the results of the event," added panel moderator Chuck Martin, author of the forthcoming book Net Future.

Little guys who couldn't score a precious invitation to the Cincinnati conference tried their best to get in on the supposed action. Lurking outside P&G's Tower Auditorium, execs from an Internet service provider called the Tritium Network offered VIP passes and limos to a party at a club called DV8 ("deviate"--get it?), the closest thing to a Manhattan night club in this, the city known for meatless chili and packaged goods.