SYRACUSE - The Internet may be a new frontier for communications, but some ad men say the old rules of creating a campaign still apply.

The process of designing a Web page begins long before the first lines of code are written, says Michael J. Ancillotti, director of client services for Latorra, Paul & McCann (LP&M) Advertising. The first step, he explains, is outlining the client's objectives and the way in which an Internet presence can further its goals.

LP&M is creating a Web site for TourNY, a five-county marketing partnership to promote bus tours in Central New York. The Web site is only one part of LP&M'$ strategy; the agency will also use direct-mail and CDROM materials to promote motorcoach tourism in the region.

Though the TourNY.org site will be the most visible part of the campaign, says Ancillotti, the agency's task won't be far removed from methods of pre-Internet days.

"Marketing hasn't changed," he asserts. "The way we market has changed."

The embrace of the Internet as a mass medium has elevated it to the status of radio, television, and newspapers in many clients' eyes. Most ad agencies have added the Internet to their standard methods of getting a message out.

The information-delivery power of the Internet makes it a perfect medium for promoting tourism, says Aaron D. Hugo, account manager at LP&M. The TourNY member agencies not only can post information about their popular stops but can update the listings and link to other sites across the Web. Tour operators will be able to plan their own journeys in the five-county region by accessing the site, he adds.

The site will incorporate a database of attractions throughout Cayuga, Oswego, Madison, Cortland, and Onondaga counties. Jan Quitzau, executive director of the Syracuse Convention & Visitors Bureau, says he and the other TourNY agencies are compiling information on attractions and expect the site to be operating during the first quarter of 2001.

Many meetings between TourNY officials and LP&M will take place before the initial site is created, says Ancillotti. The meetings will determine how the agency will take TourNY's vision and translate it into TourNY.org.

One of the first documents LP&M will devise is a proposed site flowchart. The plan will outline the site's features and how users will navigate from one section to another. Every aspect of the site will be planned out on paper before a line of HTML code is written to bring the intended features to life.

LP&M doesn't concentrate on the technical aspects of the Internet, says Hugo. The agency leaves that up to the designer who will ultimately create the site. LP&M uses a number of independent Web designers who work closely with the agency's staff.

Hugo gives designers not only the information they need to build the site, but also an admonition to avoid others' mistakes. He provides them with lists of things that annoy Web users, such as long load times and excessive graphics. Hugo also passes along a list of "Top 10 Worst Web Sites."

"I tell them I don't want to see any of this," he says.

Bridging the client's vision and the finished product is the LP&M creative staff. The agency's artists and copywriters will create the site's text and graphics in the same way they would for a print campaign, says Hugo. Their work is then presented to the client for approval and then given to the designer to assemble as a Web site.

Once the site is up and running, the agency's work is not ended. LP&M will use statistics from the Internet server's "log file" to determine how well their creation is functioning. The files can help site administrators identify problems and give important feedback on visitor reactions. As visitors use the site, information about what pages they visit, how long they stay, and, when they leave the site is transferred into a computer file.

The information, says Hugo, can help the designers spot potential trouble points. If a significant number of users exit the site on a particular page, the designers can try to find out what is prompting visitors to flee. Site design, he adds, is an ongoing process, rather than something that can be done and then forgotten.

Eventually, says Hugo, the TourNY members will be in complete control of their site without any help from LP&M. The agency plans to incorporate a user-input interface that will allow tourism officials to update the online information themselves.