CHANGE WITH THE TIMES: ARF exec discusses future of ad research

In an interview, New York-based Advertising Research Foundation chief research officer Joe Plummer discussed the trends in the industry and took a peek into the future of ad research in the US. When asked why analyzing the industry's ability to measure consumers' emotional responses to advertising is one of the biggest changes facing the ad research industry today, he said they are linear-driven models that are all about the cognitive thinking process and not a lot about feeling and emotion, about subconscious thinking. Regarding some other trends driving changes in the industry, he also said, there is a management issue, which is that management is not only looking at research to lower the risk, but they are looking at research to identify high-yield opportunities.