Kasey Windels

Will Changing Media Change the World? An Exploratory Investigation of the Impact of Digital Advertising on Opportunities for Creative Women

ABSTRACT Digital media has profoundly affected the advertising industry as new channels supplant traditional media and Internet advertising moves beyond rudimentary display ads to the likes of viral video and social networking. Despite research into new creative products, few studies have investigated potential changes in creative work processes as new players nudge out traditional agencies and traditional agencies struggle to reinvent themselves. This study explores how digital media might affect the creative careers of women, who were constrained by the organizational structure dominant in the twentieth century. The findings, from interviews with 27 advertising and marketing communication practitioners, suggest that digital agencies develop their work differently than traditional advertising agencies and that the nature of digital work requires more diverse and specialized project teams. This shift has increased collaboration among creative personnel and led to a more positive workplace experience for women.

The Fire Starter and the Brand Steward: An Examination of Successful Leadership Traits for The Advertising-Agency Creative Director

ABSTRACT This article seeks to uncover the complexities of the creative directors leadership role in advertising agencies. The authors based their work on data received from six agencies and 43 interviews conducted at those participating agencies. Findings suggest successful creative directors combine expertise in creativity, strategy, and interpersonal communication to motivate and mentor co-workers, oversee brand identities, serve as liaisons between creative people and other agency departments and clients, and shape the creative vision of the agency.

Measuring the organisational impact on creativity

A creative code of perceived qualities about acceptable creativity within advertising agencies has been shown to affect creative practitioners’ boundaries of creative expression. This multi stage, qualitative and quantitative study developed a tool to measure the intensity of this creative code. After development of a model based on qualitative research, expert evaluations and exploratory factor analysis, three dimensions - predictability, agency creative identity and social influence - were supported through confirmatory factor analysis. The ability to measure the intensity of the creative code offers researchers a way to study its effects on other variables in the creative process within advertising agencies.

What's in a Number? Minority Status and Implications for Creative Professionals

Although women represent a large percentage of Bachelors degrees earned, they are underrepresented in many fields of applied creative services. Utilizing the theories of proportional representation, regulatory focus, and regulatory fit, an experiment explored the relationship between demographic underrepresentation and creativity. Findings suggest that creativity is affected by proportional representation and regulatory fit. In a categorization task, a feeling of regulatory fit led to more inclusive, creative categorization than those experiencing regulatory mismatch. Further, in a creative brick uses task, majority status individuals generated more creative responses than minority status individuals. The findings suggest proportional representation and regulatory fit are two environmental factors that can have an impact on creative output for individuals working in fields of applied creative services.

Soft Skills: The Difference between Leading and Leaving the Advertising Industry?

Soft skills, such as communication skills and professionalism, have been shown to be important for entry-level positions in advertising. The skills measured in previous research have varied and lacked definition, thus no consensus has formed over the particular soft skills that are most vital in the industry. This quasi-ethnography is based on data from six advertising agencies and examined the specific soft skills needed. Findings suggest the most vital soft skills in advertising are those in critical thinking, persuasion, interpersonal communication and presentation. Implications for educators and practitioners are discussed.

How being female impacts learning and career growth in advertising creative departments

Purpose – In the male-dominant creative industries, do men and women have access to the same resources for career learning and development? The purpose of this paper is to examine women’s perspectives of their career trajectories in advertising creative departments. Design/methodology/approach – Situated learning theory views learning as produced through interaction with and increasing participation in a community of practice. Interviews were conducted with 19 female creatives to examine two research questions: first, how do women develop identities as creative practitioners within the male dominated advertising creative department? and second, how are women’s learning trajectories influenced by their gender? Findings – Gendered expectations affected the type of work women were supposed to produce, their ability to sell work, and the types of assignments they received. Women lacked legitimacy and experienced difficulties developing an identity as a master practitioner. They instead emphasized parts of the...

The influence of self-construal and materialism on social media intensity: a study of China and the United States

This study investigated the potential influence of self-construal and materialism on intensity of usage for three social media platforms: social networking sites (SNSs), microblogging sites (MBSs), and video sharing sites (VSSs). Data were collected from China and the United States – two countries with the highest advertising expenditures and Internet populations. Drawing from the social comparison theory (SCT) and the framework of independent and interdependent self-construal, results of the hierarchical multiple regressions indicated that both independent and interdependent self-construal were positively related to SNS intensity among Chinese and American users. However, interdependent self-construal had a significant, negative relationship with the intensity of MBS use among users in the two countries. Materialism was found to positively relate to SNS intensity, MBS intensity, and VSS intensity among Chinese and American users. These results provide evidence that self-construal and materialism contribute to social media use independent of nationality. Theoretical and managerial implications for international advertising strategies are discussed.

Confined Creativity: The Influence of Creative Code Intensity on Risk Taking in Advertising Agencies

Risk is inherent in the creative process of advertising. The research reported in this article examined how employee risk taking was influenced by creative code intensity, which consists of strongly shared values about what represents great creative work. Interviews with creative practitioners provided insight into the role of risk in advertising. A survey of U.S. agency creatives revealed that agencies with an intense creative code, or strongly shared values, also were likely to have strong risk-taking tendencies. Results suggest agency managers wishing to foster a risk-taking environment can benefit from an articulated creative identity and clear communication about the type of creative work the agency strives to produce.

The Creative Code: A moderator of divergent thinking in the development of marketing communications

Divergent thinking (DT) is the driver of the creative process. This study examined how DT was affected by the intensity level of the Creative Code, which consists of shared values held by people in creative departments of marketing communication agencies, about what represents excellence in advertising. A preliminary set of interviews with art directors, copywriters, and creative directors established a context and understanding of the importance of divergence, its role in the creative process, and methods that promote it. A national cross-sectional survey found a significant relationship between the Creative Code and divergence, which implied that divergent ideas could be fostered by more open communication among peers and with creative directors.

Altered states: The effects of media and technology on the creative process in advertising agencies

Abstract The media environment has changed dramatically due to the explosion of new channels and technological innovations, which has had important ramifications not only for advertising, but also for advertising agencies and their creative processes. Using a series of interviews with agency creative directors and digital strategists, this study investigated how agencies have addressed these challenges and taken advantage of the opportunities. Its two key contributions are an updated model of the creative process and the identification of four alternative structures agencies use to create the core concept. The study also found a paradigm shift from framing technology in terms of its production value, to framing technology in terms of its strategic and creative value, as technology specialists have become involved in the strategic and creative stages of campaign development.