| Creativity in advertising has been the subject of much discussion in the marketing literature. It is thought to be one of the most important, yet least understood, components of advertising effectiveness with much research centering on the creative process and the presentation of creative ads. However, not surprisingly creativity has several definitions, with much debate remaining over creativity and its effects in advertising.;Much of the discussion on advertising creativity has fallen into two camps. The first perspective sees creativity as divergent, containing elements of novelty, aesthetic representation, and differences. The second builds upon this divergence, claiming that creativity must also be meaningful to the consumer. This perspective argues that if an advertisement is not meaningful then the purpose, and thus creativity, is lost. We examine the extent to which meaningfulness is a central part of the creativity within the ad itself.;Following upon this definitional concern, we investigate the influence of creativity upon metrics of advertising effectiveness. In particular, we ask what influence does creativity have on ad processing? While several studies investigating the role of ad repetition on processing and brand familiarity and repetition, there has been little investigation on creativity and its influence upon repetition and ad influence. This study explicitly tests this relationship. Advertising exposure also influences consumer response and recall. The role of creativity and exposure to the ads are also explicitly tested.;Further, for global brands and international ads, there is scant literature on the role of creativity across cultures and environments. Most theorizing and hypothesis testing has occurred within the laboratory and within a single sample. We propose to test definitional issues within a cross-cultural sample. We propose that the relationship between meaningfulness, divergence and creativity is independent of country and culture. We utilize a cross-cultural sample viewing a selection of creative and control advertisements, and then rating its creativity and meaning to test this. Follow up local experiments will be conducted to measure the effectiveness of creativity on advertisements including ad repetition, processing effort and recall. |
