• Advertising Age, Monday, May 12, 2008 11:45 AM

More information isn't necessarily leading to a clearer picture for marketers and agencies, which have "never been more confused." The growing importance of ROI via Web-based marketing has led to an explosion of market research by competing services using different methodologies that produce different results. Even more frustrating for marketers, is the fact that some new media forms, like social networks, live behind walled gardens that make it impossible for third party researchers to gain access to their data. More data is more confusing, but it's necessary in a ROI-focused world.

Reliable data is also in increasingly high demand in emerging markets like China, India and parts of Latin America, but marketers are finding it's even harder to get a hold of in these countries. These markets are growing three to five times faster than developed countries, but reliable third party data is not readily available, creating something of a chicken and egg problem for marketers.

It all adds up to a volatile outlook for media stocks, said Bernstein consumer-products analyst Ali Dibadj. "It also allows the companies to be a little less transparent with what they do to make their numbers. What you're seeing now is all these companies saying they're gaining share [at the same time]," Dibadj said.

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