EightSix Presents "The Sound of Decisions" at OMR 2026

Hamburg / Berlin, 6 May 2026 — EightSix, the Berlin-based sonic strategy company, today presented "The Sound of Decisions" at OMR 2026, Europe's largest digital marketing festival. The masterclass provided senior marketers and brand leaders with a data-driven framework for understanding and measuring the business impact of audio in brand strategy.

Addressing the audio gap in brand investment

Despite growing recognition of audio's importance, industry data reveals a significant imbalance: while 86% of brands maintain formal visual branding guidelines (WARC 2018), only 17% have equivalent audio guidelines, and just 8% actively deploy sound as a strategic brand asset (IPSOS 2020). The masterclass addressed this gap directly, presenting evidence that audio investment is not simply a creative choice but a measurable business driver.

New effectiveness data: the catalytic effect of audio

Drawing on Rob Brittain's 2025 analysis of the International Advertising Effectiveness Database — comprising 595 campaigns from 2018 to 2025 — the presentation demonstrated that campaigns combining Excess Share of Voice (ESOV) investment with audio deliver 24% more very large business effects than baseline, compared to just 8% for ESOV campaigns without audio. Among the highest-performing Effie Award entries in the dataset, 11% of campaign budget was consistently allocated to audio.

Additional findings from the IPA Effectiveness Databank (Les Binet, 150 UK ads, 7,500 consumers) showed that campaigns with engaging music achieve an average 32% uplift in ROI, consumers exposed to brand-fit music are up to 7x less price-sensitive, audio is 4x more effective at driving brand differentiation, and music-led campaigns double long-term brand effects.

Introducing mDNA™ to the OMR audience

The masterclass also introduced mDNA™, EightSix's proprietary methodology for translating brand strategy into measurable sonic decision-making. The framework enables brands to define, discover, test and deploy music across all touchpoints using data-informed criteria rather than subjective preference, addressing what the company identifies as a structural problem in how organisations currently select and manage music.

About EightSix

EightSix is a sonic strategy company based in Berlin. The company works with global brands including Siemens Home Appliances, Deichmann, Lidl, RIMOWA, Adidas, Nike and Zalando, combining creative expertise, proprietary technology and effectiveness research to help organisations make clearer, more defensible decisions around music and sound. For more information, visit eightsix.com or contact hi@eightsix.com.