consumer reaction time

I was having a G-chat (Gmail) with a family member: Messages are flying back and forth. He's typing, I'm typing, a date & time are entered for reference, etc. etc.

This made me think about a "consumer reaction time" section for briefs. If you think about media and markets, there are different times allotted for messages to attract, sink in and motivate. Not only that, but we all live in different communities, each with its own communication intensity level. New York would be a 10 on this scale, Langlois, Oregon (where?) would be a 1.

Media Planners/Connections Planners/Engagement Planners, whathaveyou, are slowly etching their importance in regards to this communications environment. Time is of the utmost importance in this (American) culture. Time is probably really important to Yugoslavians too, but America exacerbates 24/7 to an exciting (and overwhelming) degree. To stay on the positive side of things, we all want to be happy and give our attention to the things that will give us the most pleasure. Our culture has groomed us to look for the things (all-encompassing term) that will give us gratification quickly, hence the term instant gratification.

G-chat is the perfect example of instant gratification; along with text-messaging, these two environments can quickly make us happy: just like Google or TiVo or redeemable in-store coupons (what's going on here these days?).

Thinking about a consumer-reaction time means we've taken their messaging environment into consideration. And it makes us a bit smarter. I don't know if this has any merit, just an idea I'm hashing out. Time is precious to all of us. Advertising competes for our attention. Attention takes time. I think it's about time (damn play on words) that we consider "reaction time" in our strategizing. Anybody with me?