Professor says industry should scrap current model, shift to radical new measurement tool.

Don E. Schultz, who will be a keynote speaker at September's iMedia Brand Summit in Park City, Utah, is Professor Emeritus-in-Service of Integrated Marketing Communications at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. He's also president of the consulting firm Agora, Inc., and is on the faculties of Cranfield School of Management, Bedfordshire, UK; Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia; and Tsinghua University, Beijing, China. He speaks around the world, writes prolifically, and was founding editor of the Journal of Direct Marketing. He is author or co-author of thirteen books, including Strategic Advertising, Essentials of Advertising Strategy, Measuring Brand Communication ROI, Communicating Globally, Raising the Corporate Umbrella, IMC: Next Generation and Brand Babble: Sense and Nonsense about Brands and Branding.

Don Schultz is challenging the "common wisdom" on how media advertising works.

He says most of our media planning models are incorrect, and that current measurement systems fail to acknowledge changes in the marketplace. Having pulled together three new streams of research, he says he can prove that media planning concepts are out of date and need to be rethought, reorganized and redesigned.

First, Schultz argues that the basic "stimulus-response" model on which media advertising is delivered needs to be revised, in light of new cognitive psychology models that are emerging.

The second stream of research covers media multitasking. Today's embedded systems plan and measure marketing media independently, but consumers don't use media this way. He advises marketers to adjust their campaigns to take into account the schizophrenic behavior of consumers in a media-saturated age.

Lastly, Schultz proposes new analytical methodologies that would allow marketers to determine and define the synergy that exists among and between various media forms in the marketplace. Discovering how all of the media work together should play a major role in marketers' planning process.

Taken together, Schultz argues that our present media planning and measurement systems are simply inadequate for the 21st century marketplace. He suggests that the industry switch to a consumer media consumption model, not a marketer distribution model.

We asked him to give us a preview of the findings and recommendations he'll present at the Summit in September:

iMediaConnection: Describe how the new cognitive psychology models are emerging and how they are better measurement tools.

Schultz: Every media model assumes a hierarchy of effects, which doesn't make sense in the cognitive process. Cognitive networks don't replace what "stimulus-response" models did before; they assimilate it with what they know. To date, all media planning models have been based on one basic hypothesis developed in 1961 that has not been changed. Our world certainly has changed since then.

iMediaConnection: What's wrong with the industry's standard distribution model?

Schultz: Media has been based on distribution but there is no real evidence that proves distribution has much to do with whether or not it works, only whether consumers receive it. We have no tools to measure the receipt of messages, nor simultaneous media exposure, which implies that media forms are currently overpriced. It's not enough to view impact based upon old measures of reach and frequency because they don't account for simultaneity. Instead, we need a radically different media measurement device, one that is a media consumption/reception model not a distribution model. It will value how much time consumers spend with media versus how many messages are distributed. It will force marketers to think about and use cross-platform planning.

iMediaConnection: How long do you think it will take the media and advertising industry to fully adopt these new models?

Schultz: It will take two to three years for organizations to get rid of their embedded systems and be able to adopt and develop new approaches. Proctor & Gamble is saying that they are already in the transition process.

iMediaConnection: What will it take for the new model to be adopted and what can marketers do now?

Schultz: Marketers first need to change their mindset; they have to give up their reliance on the stimulus response model and learn to accept the new cognitive model. Second, marketers need to learn from consumers how to master multimedia usage. Traditional metrics have been holding them back.