Walker further stated that the since the media was getting more and more complex, there was a problem in catching the consumer's attention as their attention was getting fragmented due to clutter and interactivity via the digital revolution. "By 2007, 50 per cent of all media consumed by us will be digital media and that may rise as high as 80 per cent by 2020. This is a radical change from where we are today," said Walker. "Digital media is not just about the Internet, it is also about digital TV, digital radio. And that is going to be a radical change," he added.

The three ways of delivering the new media to the consumers were stated as creative, technology and accountability. Walker stressed that reaching the consumers at the right time and at the right place was the key thing that marketers had to keep in mind. "The impact of technology is such that today, the Internet is back and its big and getting bigger. And interestingly the Internet commands more viewership that television. Also short message service (SMS) has established itself as a powerful personal medium," said Walker.

Narayanamoorthy said that Carat was working towards breaking new grounds in addressing media complexities and through a global survey conducted in 2003, tried to find out the big issues that worried marketers? Some of the crucial questions that came up were when this issue was addressed were:

* How to best establish a powerful and different positioning of their brands?
* How consumer segmentation was most critical to a company's success?
* How to maximise sales while positioning the brand?
* How to satisfy consumers?
* How to forecast the effectivity of the marketing activity before it is implemented?
* How to judge that advertising was a better tool than PR, trade support or promotions?

Narayanamoorthy said that there were no correct answers to these questions, as they would vary from brand to brand and market to market. He further went on to say that Carat had lined up a new paradigm in planning communication in the form of supply tools that would essentially help to decipher the complex environment to deliver superior strategies. The tools that Carat already has in place to this effect are: Tracer, Scheduler, Allocator and Fortuna. While Tracer is a visualisation tool, Scheduler is an annual planner, which helps Carat planners allocate investment over time and by vehicle, and acts as a decision support tool. Allocator on the other hand is a budget allocator across brands, target groups, geographies and vehicles and works at the manual, user and factor planning levels. The tool Fortuna works with QRPs (quality rating points) rather than GRPs (gross rating points).

Elaborating further on QRPs Narayanamoorthy said that the current method of measuring the efficacy of the television programmes leaves a lot to be desired and that's where Fortuna comes in.

Coming to the web based tools that Carat had developed that would generate ROI for clients were Carisma, Scheduler Exponential Database, Break Analysis and Budget Setter. Also an array of new tools are currently under development such as 'Carat Report', which will be a post-buy tool based on central data warehousing. 'Combat' was a neural tool under development, which would help in assessing the competitive battlefield, and 'Assessor' was another tool that would study the efficacy of each channels and vehicles used by the client as part of the communication plan.