Edward A. Riordan

What Is Creative to Whom and Why? Perceptions in Advertising Agencies

The authors apply recent advances in creativity theory to discover perceptual differences in the factors of strategy, originality, and artistry among creatives and noncreatives. It was found that current advertising position influences subjective perceptions of what constitutes creative advertising. Creatives tend to perceive advertisements as more appropriate if they are artistic, but account executives tend to perceive advertisements as more appropriate if they are strategic. The study also indicates that creatives have a distinctive preference for a strong originality component to strategy. To be original within the confines of a tight strategy is perceived as the most creative by advertising creatives. Account executives are so focused on strategy, they will often accept artistic advertisements as a substitute for truly original work. The authors consider future research implications of the study and its limitations.

What is Creative to Whom and Why

ABSTRACT The authors apply recent advances in creativity theory to discover perceptual differences in the factors of strategy, originality, and artistry among creatives and noncreatives. It was found that current advertising position influences subjective perceptions of what constitutes creative advertising. Creatives tend to perceive advertisements as more appropriate if they are artistic, but account executives tend to perceive advertisements as more appropriate if they are strategic. The study also indicates that creatives have a distinctive preference for a strong originality component to strategy. To be original within the confines of a tight strategy is perceived as the most creative by advertising creatives. Account executives are so focused on strategy, they will often accept artistic advertisements as a substitute for truly original work. The authors consider future research implications of the study and its limitations.

Creative and interactive media use by agencies : engaging an IMC media palette for implementing advertising campaigns

ABSTRACT This study examines IMC media use by advertising agencies from a perspective of how creative and media implementation effects impact the scope of media selected for campaigns. The study was based upon a quantitative analysis of 872 advertising campaigns from 309 respondents from the largest advertising agencies in New York and Detroit. Overall, campaigns contain more integrated media when there is solid consumer research, formal advertising testing, diverse media experience, agency industry specialization, and high agency motivation. Creativity is positively correlated with wider IMC media use, showing that integrated interactive media campaigns using a broader media palette can be highly creative. However, neither the presence of strategy in the clients brief nor the perception of the campaign being “on strategy” has any effect on the scope or number of media used.

Applicability of marketing concepts and management activities in the Third World: An empirical investigation

Abstract Despite the increased literature attention on marketing in the Third World, debate persists as to the applicability of marketing know-how in Third World countries. To help shed light on the debate, this article investigates the perceived usefulness of marketing concepts, and the incidence and regularity of performance of marketing management activities in Third-World corporate contexts. The results indicate that not only are marketing concepts perceived as useful but also the incidence and regularity of performance of marketing-management activities is high—thus implying the “applicability” of marketing know-how. The results, however, suggest that corporate and country factors influence the applicability ofmarketing know-how.

The erosion of the unusual susceptibility defense: The case of the disadvantaged consumer

Marketing practitioners and academics have exhibited an increased concern for the problems of disadvantaged consumers in recent years. During the same time period, the product liability field has become increasingly volatile. In this article the overlap between these two seemingly independent trends is presented via hypothetical case examples. A decision process to guide marketers who potentially deal with disadvantaged market segments is outlined and discussed. The implications of these developments are also described in detail.

A taxonomic evaluation of advertising budgeting models

Abstract The advertising budget allocation decision has been recognized as a critical decision that should receive logical, scientific determination. However, actual decision-making practice indicates that marketers typically use qualitative, non-scientific methods when setting advertising budgets. This article discusses the reasons for this practice by focusing on the properties of qualitative models which make them attractive to practitioners and the properties of quantitative models which make them unattractive. To assist in this analysis, a taxonomy for the classification of various qualitative and quantitative budget models is constructed, the emphasis of which is on the perceived usefulness of a budget model to practitioners.