Marketing Converting an expense to an asset Advertising is a business must and its bloody expensive too. For North America's automotive sector alone, their collective marketing budget constitutes 21% of the $135 billion online advertising pie. That's an annual slice of $28 billion! A huge expense for just one industry. And the lions' share of that goes into the coffers of just two big tech companies - guess who. But does it have to be so? After all, isn't the online activity of the people in your town and their demand for goods and services a local and renewable resource by definition? Shouldn…