Bernard Domenichini – ARD MEDIA

ARD MEDIA is the advertising sales house for ARD, Germany’s largest public broadcaster, and is responsible for the national marketing of radio and television advertising. In this role, ARD MEDIA provides extensive research services to its advertising clients. In this interview, Bernard Domenichini, Head of Market Research, Effectiveness and Audience Measurement at ARD MEDIA, discusses successful advertising strategies in the modern advertising landscape, how advertising effectiveness is measured, and what marketers should consider when launching campaigns.

Advertising strategies in the digital advertising landscape

In today’s advertising landscape, marketers must navigate changing media consumption habits and an increasingly fragmented array of advertising platforms. “The market has become quite complex due to significant changes in media usage, fragmentation, and an increased level of complexity,” Bernard says. “For us, this means that we must adapt our offerings. We are exploring new technological opportunities throughout the entire media planning and buying process. We are also developing our portfolio, for example, by integrating independent podcast labels.” He also underscores the importance of a profound understanding of the mechanics of advertising effectiveness among marketers in order to make informed media decisions. ARD MEDIA offers a wide scope of consulting services to help clients navigate these complexities.

The evolving landscape brings long-standing strategic questions back into focus, such as whether to maintain a continuous advertising presence or concentrate on peak periods with burst campaigns. For most markets, particularly those with year-round consumer activity, an ‘always-on’ strategy proves more effective. “The idea is that, just like my product is available 365 days a year on a shelf somewhere – whether it’s a physical or digital shelf – the same principle should apply to the advertising strategy”, Bernard says. While burst campaigns can deliver strong initial results, they often lead to diminishing returns, as only a fragment of the market will be actively looking for the offering at that time, leading to suboptimal use of the advertising budget.

“The idea is that, just like my product is available 365 days a year on a shelf somewhere – whether it’s a physical or digital shelf – the same principle should apply to the advertising strategy.”

Even with smaller budgets, continuity remains key to maximising advertising impact. “There’s often a discussion that with small budgets, it might be better to concentrate them. But the fundamental issue remains the same: if I burn my resources at once, I have to go without them for the rest of the year, while my competitors keep communicating,” Bernard explains. He also notes that there can be other reasons for a brand to choose burst campaigns, such as retailer demands or internal company reasons, but he advises caution. “It is more effective to use even small budgets strategically to maintain the best possible continuous communication presence with the widest audience.”

Understanding and Measuring Advertising Effectiveness

Bernard also provides insights into how ARD MEDIA measures advertising effectiveness. From his experience, ad recall or recognition is a sensitive measure as it correlates with GRP levels, but this does not necessarily indicate a high impact on the brand. To gauge advertising effectiveness, marketers must combine traditional KPIs with more fundamental metrics like mental availability. Many brands are almost interchangeable, yet some are more successful than others. These are the brands that are physically and mentally available to more people on more occasions.

To measure mental availability, ARD MEDIA closely examines the work of the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute, including that of Professor Jenni Romaniuk. “We try to identify all relevant need situations for each market and category, and also include the competition, aiming for the broadest possible competitive landscape as it appears from a consumer perspective,” Bernard says. “Mental availability is more difficult to measure than ad recognition or awareness, but it is more meaningful since it relates to actual purchase behaviour.”

To fully capture the impact of advertising, it’s crucial to understand how effectively a brand’s memory structures are built and refreshed. Ads that follow a long-term, consistent branding strategy—both visually and auditorily—tend to be the most effective. “Even if I look away from the screen, I should still be able to recognise the brand through a distinctive jingle or voice,” Bernard emphasises. Additionally, creative elements should work to build a broad network of associations, anchoring the brand as a problem solver in the minds of consumers by linking it to various need situations.

“Mental availability is more difficult to measure than ad recognition or awareness, but it is more meaningful since it relates to actual purchase behaviour.”

The Role and Importance of Media in Advertising

Levers of advertising effectiveness like reach and continuity play a crucial role in driving the success of campaigns. Brands that are constantly bought also need to be constantly present – physically and mentally. Therefore, reach and continuous communication are crucial to maintain mental availability. “Even if you have a highly effective ad for a small target audience, it won’t usually outperform a reach-based campaign,” Bernard says. “A targeting campaign must amplify its impact by the same factor by which it loses reach in order to just break even with a reach-based campaign.”

Amid the multitude of advertising platforms, marketers should focus on selecting those that offer high reach and generate attention on their own. “On some digital platforms, ads can sometimes be displayed for too short a time or in non-visible areas”. Advertising platforms provide a so-called ‘corridor of impact’, where the role of creativity is to optimally exploit this corridor and create impact. To be successful, you need to have a strong, reach-oriented media strategy and great creative power.

Bernard stresses that advertisers should also strategically build distinctive brand assets to maintain consistent branding across various platforms, whether on television or social media. Even the most brilliant creative ads won’t work if they don’t contribute to the brand’s mental availability.

“Even if you have a highly effective ad for a small target audience, it won’t usually outperform a reach-based campaign.”