Railton Hill

Understanding creative service: a qualitative study of the advertising problem delineation, communication and response (APDCR) process

The nature of advertising creativity is explored as a professional, applied creative service product, within a business-to-business context. Findings are reported from a series of extensive in-depth interviews with advertising managers in major client organisations. Analysis of these interviews generated a detailed conceptualisation of the advertising problem delineation, communication and response (APDCR) process, expressed in a flowchart. The data also suggest two variations in the pattern of agency-client relationships within which the APDCR process operates, and factors that may be responsible for these variations. A better understanding of the nature and dynamic operation of creative service may enable both agency and advertiser stakeholders to achieve greater satisfaction.

Advertiser Expectations of Agency Creative Product

ABSTRACT The study reports the development and empirical testing of measures of advertiser expectations of agency produced creative product. This “applied creative,” professional, business-to-business service incorporates extensive process elements. Hence, two measurement models are developed: a traditional “unitary” model, and a dualistic model incorporating elements of process and outcome. The study demonstrates firstly that client expectations of this highly intangible, “applied creative” professional service can be empirically modelled, and secondly, that such measurement does exhibit dimensions of both outcome and process. This paves the way for subsequent modelling of consumer satisfaction or quality evaluation processes within this little explored service category.

Advertiser satisfaction with advertising agency creative product

Purpose – The purpose of the paper is to explore the satisfaction response in the context of an applied creative, business‐to‐business, professional service – that of advertiser satisfaction with agency creative services.Design/methodology/approach – The study is a based on a longitudinal questionnaire survey of advertising managers.Findings – The paper finds that the disconfirmation of expectations model, previously utilised largely in goods categories and in consumer services, can be successfully applied within advertising creative services.Research limitations/implications – Use of the key respondent method; the ability of managers to comply with the very specific conditions set out for choice of campaign; memory: the assumption that respondents could remember which campaign they had referred to in their initial questionnaire responses when completing the second questionnaire.Practical implications – Advertisers commit very large resources on the basis of their satisfaction with agency generated creati...

Advertising creativity: The view across the meeting room and across cultures

Purpose – The study aims to extend knowledge of practitioner beliefs amongst advertising agency creatives across three countries – Australia, New Zealand and Malaysia – regarding factors that impact advertising creative excellence in the advertising agency. The study also seeks to address views across Australian creatives and their clients. Design/methodology/approach – The design combined preliminary qualitative work using depth interviews with a subsequent questionnaire‐based survey of the various stakeholder groups. Opinions of Australian creatives are compared, using the same survey instrument, with those of a sample of Australian advertiser clients. The views of the various national groups of creatives are then compared using the same instrument. Findings – The results indicated that a group of factors encourage creatives, and to an extent their clients, to have high expectations of the achievement of optimal creative work. There was more agreement among the creatives across the three countries than agreement between the Australian advertisers and any of the groups of creatives. There were also differences evident between the views of Malaysian creatives, on the one hand, and their Australian and New Zealand counterparts, on the other. A finding that Malaysian creatives were in slightly more agreement with the Australian advertisers than were Australian and New Zealand creatives was unanticipated. Research limitations/implications – Identified limitations include failure to collect data from advertiser stakeholders (clients) in the non‐Australian countries. This meant that direct comparisons of client‐agency beliefs could not be made within these countries. The challenge now is to explore the reasons why the differences and similarities found exist. Practical implications – Changes to practice to be made as a result of this research relate to management of the structured transfer of information between agency and client stakeholders, and management of authority issues in this relationship, particularly across cultures. Originality/value – Provides cross‐cultural as well as inter‐organizational perspectives on advertising agency–client relationships.

‘Controllable Antecedents of Creative Excellence in Advertising Services : A Cross Cultural Study of the Beliefs of Senior Creatives’

A study undertaken in Malaysia replicates research carried out on the beliefs of senior Australian advertising creatives concerning the antecedents of creative excellence. A questionnaire originally developed and used in the Australian state of Victoria was completed by a representative sample of Malaysian senior creatives. The study found both groups to be in substantial agreement on their ratings of Likert scales expressing beliefs on various organisational and operational factors salient to their expectation of the achievement of optimal creative results. Some minor differences also emerged.