Communicus is an international advertising research firm that has contributed significantly to the field of advertising, and to the body of learning about advertising. Through its use of the longitudinal design for advertising research

Advertising research

Advertising research is a specialized form of marketing research conducted to improve the efficiency of advertising. According to MarketConscious.com, “It may focus on a specific ad or campaign, or may be directed at a more general understanding of how advertising works or how consumers use the...

, the company produces evidence that advertising does, in fact, work and that its impact can be measured.

Longitudinal design

While the longitudinal design has long been used in the scientific community as a way of overcoming the problems inherent in cross-sectional or matched sample studies, Communicus has pioneered its use in the field of advertising research. The design allows researchers to study a targeted population and identify the changes that advertising produces among those with proved awareness of the advertising as compared to the changes that occur among those who are not aware of the advertising.

For the analysis to be successful, the researcher must be able to accurately divide the longitudinal panel into those who have seen the advertising in-market versus those who have not. The methods used by Communicus to determine prior advertising awareness were originally developed based on experimental work done by the Advertising Research Foundation

Advertising Research Foundation

The Advertising Research Foundation is a nonprofit industry association for creating, aggregating, synthesizing and sharing knowledge in the fields of advertising and media. It was founded in 1936 by the Association of National Advertisers and the American Association of Advertising Agencies...

 in the PARM studies and were later expanded by a consortium of advertisers organized by Seymour Smith and Associates that included AT&T

AT&T

AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications corporation headquartered in Whitacre Tower, Dallas, Texas, United States. It is the largest provider of mobile telephony and fixed telephony in the United States, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services...

, DuPont

DuPont

E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company , commonly referred to as DuPont, is an American chemical company that was founded in July 1802 as a gunpowder mill by Eleuthère Irénée du Pont. DuPont was the world's third largest chemical company based on market capitalization and ninth based on revenue in 2009...

 and Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola is a carbonated soft drink sold in stores, restaurants, and vending machines in more than 200 countries. It is produced by The Coca-Cola Company of Atlanta, Georgia, and is often referred to simply as Coke...

. The measurement technique involves limited recognition cues that access one's long-term memory

Long-term memory

Long-term memory is memory in which associations among items are stored, as part of the theory of a dual-store memory model. According to the theory, long term memory differs structurally and functionally from working memory or short-term memory, which ostensibly stores items for only around 20–30...

. The cues are matched to the way memories for that particular medium are stored— for example, cues that trigger one’s episodic memory

Episodic memory

Episodic memory is the memory of autobiographical events that can be explicitly stated. Semantic and episodic memory together make up the category of declarative memory, which is one of the two major divisions in memory...

 are used to access memories of TV commercials, while visual cues are used to access memories of magazine ads.

The results of these studies can be used by the advertiser to estimate the Return on Investment

Return on investment

Return on investment is one way of considering profits in relation to capital invested. Return on assets , return on net assets , return on capital and return on invested capital are similar measures with variations on how “investment” is defined.Marketing not only influences net profits but also...

(ROI) generated by the advertising, and to make changes to the campaign that are designed to improve future effectiveness and ROI.

Communicus Case Studies

BMW Case Study


Fallon, Pat, and Senn, Fred. Juicing the Orange: How to Turn Creativity into a Powerful Business Advantage. Boston: Pat Fallon and Fred Senn, 2006: p. 139.


Chevron Case Studies


Winters, Lewis C. “Does it Pay to Advertise to Hostile Audiences with Corporate Advertising?” Journal of Advertising Research. June/July 1988.

Rydholm, Joseph. “Campaigning for the outdoors.” Quirk’s Market Research Review. March 2000.