“Nothing is more efficient

than creative advertising.

Creative advertising is more
memorable, longer lasting,
works with less media
spending, and builds a fan
community…faster.”
Creativity in Advertising
 Bernstein’s model
Message
 Creativity is divergent thinking—
namely, the ability to find
unusual and non-obvious
solutions to a problem.
Five dimensions of advertising creativity

• Originality.
An original ad comprises elements that are
rare or surprising, or that move away from the
obvious and commonplace. The focus is on
the uniqueness of the ideas or features
contained in the ad. An ad can diverge from
norms or experiences by applying unique
visual or verbal solutions, for instance.
• Flexibility.
An ad scoring high on flexibility smoothly links
the product to a range of different uses or
ideas.

• Elaboration.
Many ads contain unexpected details or
extend simple ideas so that they become
more intricate and complicated.
• Synthesis.
This dimension of creativity is about blending or
connecting normally unrelated objects or ideas.
• Artistic value.
Ads with a high level of artistic creativity contain
aesthetically appealing verbal, visual, or sound
elements. Their production quality is high, their
dialogue is clever, their colour palette is original,
or their music is memorable. As a result,
consumers often view the ads as almost a piece
of art rather than a blatant sales pitch.
Although all of them had a positive impact,
elaboration had by far the most powerful one
(1.32 when indexed relative to the overall
average creativity of 1.0), followed by artistic
value (1.19). Trailing behind were originality
(1.06) and flexibility (1.03), with synthesis a
distant fifth (0.45). Yet studies show that ad
agencies use originality and artistic value more
than they use elaboration. Possibly, companies
think primarily of originality when trying to be
creative.
Levels of creativity vary significantly
across product categories, with the
overall scores ranging from 2.62 for
shampoo to 3.60 for cola. In categories
such as cola and coffee, advertisers and
customers tend to favour higher levels of
creativity, whereas in categories such as
shampoo, body care, and facial care,
campaigns focus on showing the actual
use of the product
 Reason
• When products are functional and oriented toward
clear consumer goals (cleaning garments with
detergents, protecting skin with body lotion),
unorthodox approaches are less preferred.
• When products are easily understood, similar, and
tied to personal preferences (quenching thirst with
a soda, for instance, or enjoying a cup of coffee),
an out-of-the-ordinary approach can be more
effective in stimulating sales.
 “Is More Creativity Better?”
• In traditionally low-creativity categories,
adding creativity can pay off; according to
study, a one-point increase in creativity scores
for shampoo and detergent ad campaigns
boosted sales impact by 4%.
• The body lotion and face care categories,
which also tend to feature low levels of
creativity, were harmed by additional
creativity: Sales impact fell by nearly 2%.
Studies see variation across categories
with high levels of creativity. Investing in
additional creativity has a nearly 8%
impact on sales in shavers and coffee but
boosts impact by less than 1% for colas
and yogurts.
It is important to study
category’s sensitivity to
creativity before spending on
high-priced category-
redefining campaign.
 Idea Generation Techniques
• Chance encounter
• Competitor’s moves
• Brainstorming
• Market Research
Creative Styles
 BBDO: “Create Acts, Not Ads”
• BBDO India has followed the philosophy, in
creating ads relevant to the complex and
diverse Indian consumer. They have created
long-term engaging programs in the shape of
Social movements for various brands like Ariel,
Gillette, Whisper, 7 Up, Johnson's Baby, GE,
Aviva Life Insurance, Quaker Oats and Visa.
 Leo Burnett: ”corniness"
"The secret of all effective advertising is not
the creation of new and tricky words and
pictures, but one of putting familiar words and
pictures into new relationships.“
"Good advertising is a happy wedding of words
and pictures, not a contest between them.
Make it simple. Make it memorable. Make it
inviting to look at. Make it fun to read."
Ogilvy: add a visual element of “story appeal”

• “The best ideas come as jokes. Make your

thinking as funny as possible.”
• “If you are both a killer and a poet, you get
rich.” (Art and functionality go hand in hand)
• “The consumer isn’t a moron; she is your
wife.”
Ogilvy’s style is to design the components of a brand,
create experiences around a brand, and communicate
about a brand.
 JWT: creativity in advertising execution

• Extensive use of market research

• Message built around a clear rationale
• Long-copy, reason-why advertisements
• Guiding consumers towards better taste and
social improvement
 Young & Rubicam
• Creativity - “passionate”
• Presentations - “fun”
• Young & Rubicam is still recognized for its
originality . It has retained its commitment to
Raymond Rubicam’s one and only rule: “Resist
the usual.”
DESIGN ISSUES
 Creative Brief
• Objectives
• Target Audience
• Message Theme & Appeals
• Layout
• Executional framework
Communication Objectives
• (1) creating awareness,
• (2) imparting knowledge,
• (3) projecting an image,
• (4) shaping attitudes,
• (5) stimulating a want or desire,
• (6) effecting a sale.
Brand awareness and Brand attitude

All advertising campaigns are

aimed at maintaining brand
awareness (if not to increase it)
and at maintaining brand attitude
(if not to change it).
 The other three
• Category Need. Category Need is an optional
communication objective for a particular
campaign. Category need can be ignored as an
objective if this communication effect is at full
strength in the prospective buyer's mind. For
example, Coca-Cola probably does not have to
address the cola category need in advertising
Coke; whereas in advertising for Diet Coke, the
category need for diet cola may require reminding.
• Brand Purchase Intention.
• Brand purchase intention is usually a purchase
intention targeted by the advertising. Industrial
advertising, for instance, often targets sales
inquiries as the intended action rather than
purchase directly. Brand purchase intention is an
optional communication objective.
• The option refers to the difference between
"hard sell" (intention-induced) advertising and
"soft-sell" (intention-deduced) advertising.
In hard-sell advertising, the target audience should
form a conscious, immediate intention to act at the
next purchase opportunity. In the tactical extreme,
promotion offers and exhortations to "act now" are
included in hard-sell advertising.
In soft-sell advertising, the target audience does not
form an immediate conscious intention to purchase
or take action with regard to the brand. An intention
to act is only experienced consciously, later, when it is
triggered. At this time, the prospective buyer
"deduces," from brand awareness and brand attitude,
a monetary but effective intention to act.
Purchase Facilitation
It applies when the advertising must overcome a
barrier to purchase resulting from the remainder of
the marketing mix.
Barriers may take the form of a perceived product
problem, a perceived high price problem,
addressed in purchase facilitation by the inclusion
of easy payment terms or a high quality appeal to
offset the price via perceived value; or an actual
distribution problem, overcome by exclusivity
appeals such as "not available everywhere" or by
offering home delivery.
MESSAGE THEME AND APPEALS
Advertising appeal is the central theme or
idea behind an advertising message.
• Every ad is a variation of one of a limited number of
basic appeals.
• An emotional appeal is related to an individual’s
psychological and social needs for purchasing certain
products and services. Many consumers are
emotionally motivated or driven to make certain
purchases.
• Rational appeals aims to focus on the individual’s
functional, utilitarian or practical needs for particular
products and services. Such appeals emphasize the
characteristics and features of the product and the
service and how it would be beneficial to own or use
the particular brand.
 Types of Advertising Appeals
• Unique selling proposition (USP): an advertising
appeal that focuses on one clear reason why a
particular product is superior to any others.
• Comparative advertising between competing
products.
• Demonstration showing the product being used.
• Testimonial using a credible source to tell of its
benefits.
( Rational Appeal)
• Slice-of-life showing how the products fits
everyday life.
• Lifestyle showing the expressive or
symbolic qualities of the product.
• Fear appeals to scare the viewer into
changing their attitude.
• Humorous appeals to break through the
clutter and get noticed.
• Sex appeals to attract attention and
promote a product.
(Emotional Appeal)
 Study Results
• Humor Appeal Used in 30% of all
advertisements. Excellent at capturing
attention. Score high in recall tests. Should be
related directly to customer benefit. Used
often with other types of appeals
• Music Appeals Has intrusive value. Gains
attention and increases the retention of visual
information. Can increase persuasiveness of an
advertisement.
 Are Sex Appeals Effective?
• Sex and nudity do increase attention.
• Rated as being more interesting.
• Often leads to strong feelings about the
advertisement.
• Brand recall is lower.
• Often interferes with message
comprehension
 Informational Vs Transformational
• Informational Ads: • Transformational ads:
companies try to give as companies try to transform
much information as possible the consumer’s brand
in the ad so as customer gets attitude, giving more
emphasis on creativity.
a choice to evaluate various
They look for repeat
parameters as compared to
purchase, which makes the
that of competitors. High
brand successful. Ads
involvement ads change the
create affect and this leads
consumers’ brand attitude
to attitude building for the
through information. Ads first
ad and subsequently for
create cognition, then
the brand, in the case of
develop attitude towards the
low involvement products.
ad and subsequently towards
the brand.
Rossiter Percy Grid
 Examples
• Vodafone uses transformational ads to target
directly to the mind of the people with its
creative ads, though being a high-involvement
product.
• Advertisements for detergents (categorywise,
low involvement) use informational approach
to solve a particular problem