This post is part of my bachelor paper ‘The Evolving Role of Creativity in Brand Management’. You can read the introduction, other posts and the table of contents here.

The dominating view of how advertising works is through the conscious processing of a more or less explicit message or information (Hall & Maclay 1991 qtd. in Heath & Feldwick 2008, p.31). Advertising effectiveness in this perspective is measured according to one of many hierarchy of effects models and creativity will therefore be judged within this framework.

In this research stream, Smith et. al. conceptualized and tested a construct for advertising creativity as seen by the consumer and then measured its mediating effects on advertising effectiveness (Smith & Yang 2004; Smith, MacKenzie, Yang, Buchholz, u. a. 2007; Smith, Chen & Yang 2008; Yang & Smith 2009). Creativity is seen as determined by divergence, relevance and the interaction between divergence and relevance (Smith, MacKenzie, Yang, Buchholz & Darley 2007, S. 819ff). This is in accordance with the view that a highly divergent ad might catch consumers’ attention, but still fail to resonate with him or her. Therefore, to be creative, an ad has to be both divergent and relevant (Smith, MacKenzie, Yang, Buchholz & Darley 2007, S. 820). Variables representing the effectiveness of an ad in this research are outcome and processing variables such as “amount of attention allocated to the ad, motivation to process the ad, and depth of ad processing; and three response variables: ad attitude, brand attitude, and purchase intentions” (Smith, MacKenzie, Yang, Buchholz & Darley 2007, S. 821).

Smith et. al. (2007, p.829) could for the first time empirically validate the interaction effect between divergence and relevance as well as the mediating effect of creativity on the attention to the ad, the motivation to process, depth of processing, ad attitude and brand attitude. Whereas the effect of divergence on attention was expected, the identification of a “multiplicative nature of ad divergence and ad relevance” (Smith, MacKenzie, Yang, Buchholz & Darley 2007, S. 829) and effects that go well beyond attention effects have strong implications for the way brand management should conduct ad and creativity testing (Smith, MacKenzie, Yang, Buchholz & Darley 2007, S. 830).

In a subsequent study Smith et. al. tested the effect of divergence and relevance on the hierarchy of effects. Conceptualizing advertising effects as a cognition → affect → conation chain, they measured the direct and mediated effects of creativity in five stages: Building Brand Awareness, Learning and Remembering Ad Claims, Accepting/Rejecting Ad Claims, Brand Liking, Brand Intentions (Smith, Chen & Yang 2008, S. 50ff). In the discussion of results, they come to three conclusions regarding the effect of creativity:

“(1) creative ads are significantly more effective than any other combination; (2) ads low in creativity are significantly less effective than any other combination; and (3) creative ads and divergent-only ads are equally effective, followed by relevant-only ads, and then ads with low creativity.” (Smith, Chen & Yang 2008, S. 59)

Showing mediating effects on all stages of the hierarchy of effects, they recommend managers to always chose divergent advertising as the first option while avoiding advertising that is both low in diversion and in relevance (Smith, Chen & Yang 2008, S. 60).

Next up: creativity in a low-attention setting.

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Hall, M. & Maclay, D., 1991. How advertisers think advertising works. Davies Riley Smith Maclay, London.

Smith, R.E., MacKenzie, S.B., Yang, X., Buchholz, L.M. & Darley, W.K., 2007. Modeling the determinants and effects of creativity in advertising. Marketing Science, 26(6), S. 819–833.

Smith, R.E., Chen, J. & Yang, X., 2008. The Impact of Advertising Creativity on the Hierarchy of Effects. Journal of Advertising, 37(4), S. 47–62.

Smith, R.E. & Yang, X., 2004. Toward a general theory of creativity in advertising: Examining the role of divergence. Marketing Theory, 4(1-2), S. 31.

Yang, X. & Smith, R.E., 2009. Beyond Attention Effects: Modeling the Persuasive and Emotional Effects of Advertising Creativity. Marketing Science, 28(5), S. 935–949.

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Related posts:

1. 3. Creativity In The Context Of Brand Management
2. 1. The Evolving Role of Creativity in Brand Management
3. 3.2 A Product View Of Creativity In Brand Management
4. “The Evolving Role of Creativity in Brand Management” aka my Bachelor Paper and Planning Barcamp topic

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