do marketers get the advertising they need or the ...

DO MARKETERS GET THE ADVERTISING THEY NEED OR THE ADVERTISING THEY DESERVE? Agency Views of How Clients Influence Creativity Scott Koslow, Sheila L. Sasser, and Edward A. Riordan ABSTRACT: This paper examines the influence of marketers on the creativity of their advertising agency. There are three main ways in which marketers affect the creativity of their agency: (1) setting direction, (2) resource allocation, and (3) evaluation. These ideas were empirically measured in 1,011 advertising campaigns via questionnaires given to agency personnel. Strategy has often been a focal point of advertising studies, but this research finds some sources of strategy are better than others. Merely having strategy in client briefs has little effect on creativity, but the client’s willingness to explore new strategic ideas with the agency does have a substantial impact. In general, better-resourced agencies do better, and a key resource is access to top managers. At times, top-management involvement may lead to counterproductive effects on creativity because of the fear this sometimes induces within agencies. Sophisticated, high-ranking clients appear to send a “chilling” effect throughout the agency, thus dampening creative potential. Although this study is based on advertising agency responses rather than advertising client responses, it provides insight into the complicated notion of agency accountability for campaign creativity. In many cases, marketers seeking accountability for their campaign creativity need look no farther than themselves.

For marketers seeking creative advertising, conventional wisdom holds that creativity is solely a function of advertising agency expertise (Elliott 2003; White 2003). Many marketers assume that if they do not get highly creative work, then it is clearly the agency’s fault (Cuneo 2003; MacArthur 2003; Sanders 2003). Thus, marketers frequently evaluate, monitor, reward, or review their agency’s creative output to inspire (or coerce) even greater creativity. Recent creativity research, however, has shifted emphasis away from those doing the creating to situational factors influencing creativity. For example, Amabile’s (1996) seminal work on creativity suggests that the social environment surrounding the creating can dampen—often dramatically—the quality of the creative outputs. When applied to advertising, marketers set an overall tone for the creative environment, which impacts creativity dramatically. Despite organizational mechanisms to buffer creatives from clients, recent studies indicate that client marketers still do have a dramatic impact on creatives, particularly across key Scott Koslow (Ph.D., University of Southern California) is an associate professor in the Department of Marketing and International Management, Waikato Management School, University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand. Sheila L. Sasser (Ph.D., Wayne State University) is an assistant professor, Department of Marketing, College of Business, Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti, Michigan. Edward A. Riordan (D.B.A., University of Kentucky) is a professor of marketing, Department of Marketing, School of Business Administration, Wayne State University.

areas that may affect the creative product (Sasser and Koslow 2005). This research proposes that marketers have control over three dimensions of an agency’s social environment that are vital to creativity First, marketers set direction for advertising campaigns through their initial brief to the agency or as they work through the agency’s planning process. Second, marketers also provide several forms of resources for the agency. The key resource is access to top management, because this provides strategic insights for the campaign and can therefore enhance creativity. Consumer research information also provides similar insights, and can therefore also increase creativity. Two lesser effects may be the time allocated to the project by contractual arrangements and the budgets provided for media, production, and development, which impact the content and nature of the types of tasks performed. Third, marketers can also generate counterproductive effects stemming from the currently popular management trend of holding agencies “accountable” for performance. Although marketers see that performance in terms of many factors, including sales, copytest scores, and creativity, agencies view their role as providing creativity that later leads to sales. Unfortunately, Amabile (1997) demonstrates that rewarding—or even merely evaluating—a creative performance decreases it. This occurs because the creatives learn to “play” to the established reward system in order to please the client rather than following pure creative directions. Formal copytesting of advertisements is still fraught with controversy. There appears to be an age-old advertising debate on whether copytesting reduces creativity, and Amabile’s work (1996) favors the argument that copytesting does decrease Journal of Advertising, vol. 35, no. 3 (Fall 2006), pp. 85–105. © 2006 American Academy of Advertising. All rights reserved. ISSN 0091-3367 / 2006 $9.50 + 0.00.

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creativity. Yet agencies frequently expect copytesting and are prepared to deal with it to preserve creative integrity. Marketers may have a more potent impact on creativity, however, when they have more power to enforce their evaluative judgments. Marketers who are sophisticated about advertising have more meaningful opinions that are more closely watched by the agency. Advertising sophistication also provides the knowledge base to intervene in the agency creative process. Likewise, clients who are higher in their corporate organizational hierarchy have more power to dismiss an agency. This has a chilling effect on creativity, due to the potential threat of losing the account. This study first reviews the advertising creativity literature with regard to the role of advertising clients and offers several hypotheses. Second, the methods used to test these hypotheses are discussed, and two different measures of creativity, which show the same general results, are used. For each of these measures, creativity is taken to be the interaction of both original and appropriate advertising. That is, to be defined as creative, campaigns need to be both original and appropriate. The data set includes 1,011 campaigns reported by 357 employees of major full-service advertising agencies in New York and Detroit. This sample is broadly representative of large accounts, large agencies, and best-practice advertising in the United States. Finally, how marketers can get the best creative work from their agencies is discussed. THEORY DEVELOPMENT Researchers on creativity have long struggled to understand whether the locus of creativity lies in the individual or the situation. During the 1950s and 1960s, Guilford and Torrance dominated creativity research with a primary focus on creative individuals. Guilford (1950, 1957, 1963, 1967a, 1967b), an educational psychologist, sought to identify creative individuals early and give them special education to provide them the base they need to develop later in life. The identification task fell largely to Torrance (1962) and his Torrance Test of Creative Thinking (TTCT). The test originates in Alfred Binet’s work developing intelligence tests a century ago (Barron and Harrington 1981; Becker 1995). Though the TTCT stimulated creativity research for nearly two decades, it was perceived to identify only those who could do well on the test. In other more problem-oriented areas, creativity was considered to be a far more complex construct (see Feldhusen and Goh 1995 for a review). On the discrediting of this method in the 1970s, creativity research waned (Feist and Runco 1993; Plucker and Renzulli 1999). Creativity research revived toward the end of the twentieth century, following the situational perspective. Beginning with Amabile’s (1979) work, experiments showed that, paradoxically, rewarding creativity decreases it. Amabile concluded that

people are creative because they are internally motivated, and anything that interferes with this motivation risks decreasing creativity. Amabile (1996) introduced the Componential Model of Creativity, which proposes four key factors that impact the creative process. One of these is called creativity relevant process, or the thinking methods used to generate novel ideas. Another is domain relevant expertise, or the knowledge of the area in which the creative product is supposed to function. The third factor is internal motivation, or the desire to create original solutions to a problem. These three factors have been commonly studied in creativity (or at least in examining decision making) for some time. The fourth factor, however, social environment, is a concept that is new to creativity theory. The Individual Creative Locus for Advertising Creativity Despite the shift in academic research from the creative person to the creative situation, many in advertising practice and research still focus on individual creativity. For example, Advertising Age tracks creative personnel movements, frequently commenting that the acquiring agency is gaining creative expertise and the other agency is losing it. Creativity awards usually are given to individuals or teams, not just the agencies themselves, although copies are prominently displayed in office showcases. Creativity training is also frequently provided to individuals who work for agencies (e.g., Goldenberg, Mazursky, and Solomon 1999). The celebration of individual creative skill is often extended to advertising agencies and their offices. When an individual wins an award, his or her agency considers it a win for them, too. Some agencies are more “known” for creative skills (Na, Marshall, and Son 1999), and invariably some offices in larger agency networks are likewise “known” as more or less creative. Gross’s (1972) model of creativity can be applied within a single agency by using multiple, independent creative teams, which is a common practice that is perceived to improve greatly the quality of creative work. Different agencies promote various creative philosophies (West and Ford 2001) or advocate alternative creative processes (e.g., Ensor, Cottom, and Band 2001; Ewing, Napoli, and West 2000), but in general, agencies frequently think of themselves as having more or less creative skill in terms of overall collective individual creative skills. Marketers also appear to focus solely on individuals and agencies as the source of creativity rather than taking into consideration the social environment in which the creativity takes place. Griffin et al. (1998) review past research and empirically replicate the finding that agency creative skill is the most important factor in evaluating an agency. Client support for a creative cultural environment is not even mentioned in these studies. Kulkarni, Vora, and Brown (2003) note how two bad

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financial quarters in a row frequently leads marketers to dismiss their advertising agency. Agencies would generally perceive this as “scapegoating” of the agency for marketing brand problems, which follows an underlying marketer assumption that the perceived failure of the agency’s creative product led to the declining sales and/or market share. Even Spake et al. (1999) show how the current focus on advertising agency accountability may extend to the pricing of advertising services. Just as marketers seek to extract the best creative product from their agency, they also seek to negotiate the lowest possible pricing structure, and these two areas may be at odds with each other. Pay-for-performance reward systems assume performance is within the control of the agency and fail to take into account the constraints placed on the agency by the client. The Case for the Situational Locus of Advertising Creativity Although client and advertising agency employees tend to focus on the individual skill locus of creativity, the argument can and should be made for a situational approach that is heavily impacted by clients. Clients are in control of three areas that determine the tone for a campaign: (1) setting direction, (2) resource allocation, and (3) evaluation. Setting Direction Most advertising textbooks stress that the starting point of advertising is the client’s brief (e.g., Duncan 2002; Wells, Burnett, and Moriarty 2003). Called different things by various authors, the brief identifies the target market and the persuasive outcome to be achieved. That is, the brief presents the problem to be solved by advertising, and ideally it should contain enough background or “clues” to find the solution. The brief’s relevance for advertising creativity is that it should constitute the strategic basis for a campaign and determine what is considered appropriate or inappropriate. Runco and Charles (1993) reference this appropriateness construct as a component of creativity, defining it as something that is both original and appropriate. Koslow, Sasser, and Riordan (2003) extend this to an advertising realm. Creative, account, research, and media executives report that on-strategy campaigns are more creative and form the basis for campaign success. It is tempting to conclude that clients who come to agencies with strategy in their brief are likely to do better than those who do not. If much of the strategy work is defined and shared with the agencies, focused briefs can set the proper tone and direction for the campaign. Insightful, strong strategic briefs from clients should facilitate the agency creative process. However, Helgesen (1992) details the low standard of briefs clients typically bring to agencies. Only a minority of marketing clients had operationally defined marketing objectives to

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which the advertising objectives could be tied. The majority of campaigns also had grossly inadequate information about market conditions. Target-market descriptions were too broad, overly vague, or nonexistent. Helgesen concludes that there is little of merit in these briefs. Ideally, client briefs should be able to provide direction for advertising, but many briefs may not be as high quality as needed. Given that the brief has evolved into a tactical project tool for many clients, it may have lost much of the original strategic intent. Nonetheless, the degree to which a brief contains strategy should enhance the level of creativity applied, but one should not be too surprised if it has no net impact on creativity. Therefore, it is proposed that: H1: The more strategy contained in the client’s brief, the more creative the advertising. If, as Helgesen (1992) notes, marketers do not have the required strategic depth in their briefs prior to approaching an agency, then the agency needs to walk clients through the advertising strategy process for mutual understanding. Different agencies have coined acronyms or names for these strategic development models, since they often cue client brand strategy, typically in a stepwise manner. Most processes are proprietary to the agencies, and they claim various points of difference among them. Most are variations on similar themes, however. One planning system used by Saatchi & Saatchi is based on CEO Kevin Roberts’s “Lovemarks” ideas (Roberts 2004) and Gilson et al.’s (2000) Peak Performing Organization (PPO) theory. The system features an ideas brief in place of a traditional creative brief, a challenge meeting attended by people representing key agency disciplines and frequently the client, too, and usually a research brief written by the account planner (Saatchi & Saatchi 2003). Historically, planning has played a vital role in most agencies ever since Young & Rubicam Advertising Agency hatched the “whole egg theory” of integration planning to help clients achieve total success in the marketplace using a full array of agency services (Clow and Baack 2002). Integration planning continues to be used strategically for diverse clients ranging from automotive to utilities to services throughout worldwide agencies today (Sasser 2002, 2006). A system developed and utilized by Interpublic agencies in New York, Detroit, and international markets was called “Link” (Sasser 1990). This system was designed to “link” brand-image advertising with integrated marketing communications (IMC). This process would then lead to or discover an optimal strategic mix of agency disciplines (independent of turf wars and billing issues) to be used for clients such as IBM and Unilever (Sasser 1991, 1996). Omnicom’s BBDO New York employed dramatic planning systems, often using creative symbolism along with research and other techniques to surface strategic considerations for clients

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(Sasser 1995). Integration and extension of such core creative concepts were then developed collaboratively with Omnicom’s DAS (Diversified Agency Services) (Sasser 1995). The strategic planning systems are intended to foster the development of more systematic, comprehensive, and formalized advertising strategy to keep the agency process organized and on target. Marketing research and media issues were dealt with, along with creative and brand-positioning issues. Depending on the agency approach, IMC topics were also covered. Although planning systems were sometimes followed in only a perfunctory way, when followed passionately, they could maximize the insight provided. Agencies could produce these strategic advertising plans without direct client involvement or oversight, but clients are typically required to provide critical inputs, facilitate feedback, and build consensus. Clients ultimately must sign off on final approvals for the campaign, time lines, and budgets. When client relationships are established, updated information may be all that is needed. New business clients may be far more involved at the early stages of transitioning the business, particularly from a strategic perspective, after the agency review process. There is a broad range of acceptable client interaction, ranging from information sharing and remote communication through to ongoing presence and active involvement. Before any creative production work may proceed, the critical element is that the client must agree with creative content and must typically approve or give the “go-ahead,” which is no small hurdle. The agency planning systems frequently produced strategies that were considerably different than initial client submissions. Thus, a more open-minded client may be more willing to work interactively with the agency. This ideal client situation may enable the exploration of new strategic territory as noted in the planning instruments. Most agency executives considered such an open client to be an asset that can enhance creativity. Thus, it may be proffered that: H2: The more open the client is to exploring new strategic ideas, the more creative the advertising. Resourcing Clients do more than work toward setting the direction of the campaign—they also help drive resources for agencies in terms of agency time allocations, consumer research, media budgets, production specifications, and access to top management. The proper alignment of these situational elements can provide more scope and facilitate support for creativity. Time Several authors have suggested that time allocated to a project can enhance its creativity. For example, Kanter (1988) suggests

that setting aside time to a project signals that the organization is committed to an innovative endeavor. Csikszentmihalyi (1996) notes that having enough time to be idle is vital to creativity because it stimulates idea incubation. In an advertising creative context, having ample time is expected to be associated with more creativity: H3: The more time spent on advertising development, the more creative the campaign. Consumer Research Another resource clients provide is either giving the agency research they had performed or paying for the agency to undertake additional research. As Kanter (1988) writes concerning the importance of organizational signaling, the money and effort applied to advertising consumer research indicates the importance of the creative process. Lovemarks-PPO, Link, and other planning systems also require decisions about whom to target, what to tell them, what to do about competitive actions, what media to use, and so forth. Creatives also instinctually make many decisions regarding the final appearance of an advertisement as they identify advertising themes, tonality, and executional factors. Although some planning systems posit that research is optional, Deshpande (1982) writes that the single best indicator of marketing research use is whether someone makes a decision. Because decisions are made in the planning and creating processes, access to consumer research should be vital. H4: The more access to consumer research, the more creative the advertising. Budgets If one continues to apply Kanter’s (1988) signaling perspective, few management processes can signal more effectively than the application of budgets. Budgets are needed in advertising to set media and production priorities because they are expensive propositions with an identifiable cost dimension. The production value and/or quality of the commercial are primary justifications for a larger budget. A “healthy” budget allocation may also prompt a broader scope for the ultimate campaign design. If the campaign is to undergo formal testing, the allocation for finished production on the test advertisement is critical. As Stewart and Furse (1986) and Stewart and Koslow (1989) have noted, animatics test worse than finished advertisements, so poor production quality can sometimes compromise a highly creative idea. H5: The larger the budgets provided to the agency, the more creative the advertising.

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Access to Client’s Top Management Gronstedt and Thorson (1996) discussed how the agency strategy formation process is much more defused throughout the advertising agency than it is for the marketing client. As Corner, Kinicki, and Keats (1994) write, strategic decision making in most firms is limited to a small set of top managers. There may be many managers involved with executing strategy, but only a few at the top actually guide, explore, and define it (Corner, Kinicki, and Keats 1994). Given this concentration of activity, access to top management is important because it gives an undiluted expression of the client’s strategy. This access is more important if Helgesen’s (1992) findings about poor-quality briefs are possibly the product of poor articulation and communication by client contacts. Thus, it is proposed that: H6: The more the agency has access to the client’s top managers, the more creative the advertising. While top-management access alone may remedy the problem of poor strategy articulation, even more frightening is the case of clients who either don’t understand advertising strategy or simply don’t have one. Across several agency case studies, planning systems like Lovemarks-PPO and Link create new advertising strategy, given the right scenarios. Thus, rather than just formalizing or expressing an existing strategy, access to top management may be critical for new strategy development. Otherwise, agencies risk the problem of lowerlevel managers informing, developing, and agreeing to one strategy, only to be overruled by top managers steering the organization in another direction. When managers are actively exploring new strategic ideas—as they do when actively applying agency planning systems—then there is expected to be a synergy between client openness to such exploration and access to top managers: H7: The more open clients are to exploring new strategy development and the more they provide access to top managers, the more creative the advertising, and this effect is enhanced when clients provide access to top managers. Evaluating Advertising The most direct application of Amabile’s (1979) evaluation hypothesis should be the use of copytesting and other formal tests of advertisements because such tests are direct assessments of advertising creativity. Brown (1999) shows that when advertising executives are being held accountable, their decisions are based more on the ways in which they are being held accountable. For example, if account executives are held accountable to marketing research outcomes, their decisions change to reflect more weight on the attributes associated

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with that evaluation, and the overall quality of those decisions declines. Rather than encouraging creativity, evaluation brings on gaming behavior in those evaluated. Formal Testing Not all advertising researchers agree that formal testing of advertising has negative effects on creativity. Some see Amabile’s negative evaluation effects as inevitable (e.g., Wells 1983), but others disagree (e.g., Vaughn 1982/1983). Passions run deep on both sides of the issue, with market researchers usually favoring copytesting and creatives opposing it. Both positions could be argued because many of the techniques used to evaluate advertising and deal with agencies were intended to improve advertising quality, not to decrease it. Stewart and his colleagues (Stewart and Furse 1986; Stewart and Koslow 1989) never intended for copytesting to eliminate or curtail creativity, nor would they have wanted it to result in the regimentation of formulaic applications. High-scoring executional factors may often be manipulated in the creation of television advertising, simply to “work the numbers” for accountability and measurability, but this was not the goal of these researchers. Rather, these authors have written passionately in support of creativity elsewhere (e.g., Koslow, Sasser, and Riordan 2003; Stewart 1992). When appropriately used, copytesting could be expected to liberate creative thinking, not hinder it. The executional factor with the largest effect, brand-differentiating message, was provided as a focus, not as an absolute formula. For these researchers, copytesting concentrates on consumer needs in a competitive environment, yet still leaves great latitude for creative expression. When creatives and account executives absorb evaluations as constructive feedback, formal testing such as focus groups, consumer panels, and in-theater tests may suggest a diagnosis of how and why certain advertisements persuade consumers, thus supporting the creative process. It may be that those being evaluated cannot or will not respond to the evaluation to game it. When testing is used inappropriately, however, it can decrease creativity by prompting formulaic campaigns that lack freshness. If these two effects compensate for one another, copytesting and formal testing probably have little net effect, especially given that many creatives and account executives now routinely anticipate some type of testing: H8: Formal advertising testing has little or no net effect on creativity. More Diffuse Evaluation Effects If formal advertising testing does not appear to have an effect on creativity, could there be other situations where evaluation

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constrains creativity? Brown’s (1999) findings were driven more by accountability-focused management systems rather than the availability of market research information. Thus, the manner in which evaluation is conducted may be more important than merely the process of taking scores. Indeed, it is hard to avoid vocal opinions from just about everyone about advertising quality, so it is possible that evaluation alone may not be the critical issue. If a client doesn’t like a recommended campaign, two things can happen. First, the client might ask for more creative development. Given that many major clients have agency contracts written prior to the advent of television and that such contracts allow them to request up to three rounds of creative development, redoing creative work is not that uncommon. This may even provide creatives with more insight into the needs of the client. The other possible scenario is that the client fires the agency. Many variables impact the client’s willingness and ability to fire an agency, yet for the agency, the most obvious factor may be the relative rank of the main client contact. Routinely, many agencies work with lower-level client managers (e.g., brand managers, assistant brand managers), and the probability of the agency being dismissed is quite small. When the client’s senior managers (e.g., marketing vice presidents, CEOs) are involved, however, then any perceived blunders are amplified because higher-ranking executives are perceived to have greater authority over agency selection or termination. Most agency selection research finds that clients’ senior managers are the most involved in the final decisions (e.g., Cuneo 2003; MacArthur 2003), and similar patterns no doubt exist for agency dismissals. The organizational rank of the client contact appears to have an impact on client style. Na, Marshall, and Son (2003) note that clients in senior positions are more likely to have fixed opinions of what they want from an agency, and seek a match in goals with an agency. They are not open to agency views, nor do they value their recommendations or objections. Some client firms appoint junior-level employees to work with the agency, and these managers are more focused on compliance, oversight, and consultation. They do value the agency’s recommendations, and often listen to their objections. Another factor allowing clients to enforce their judgments is the level of expert power they have (French and Raven 1959). Because knowledgeable managers are powerful managers, sophisticated clients with high levels of experience, expertise, and understanding of advertising are expected to be much more effective in impressing their opinions on agencies. High rank or sophistication in clients may not independently suppress creativity, but when they happen together, there is both motivation and opportunity to enforce potentially threatening evaluations. It might take apparently benign forms like “browbeating,” but the overt exercise of

power need not occur. A plausible perception of threat may be enough. Thus, when senior managers with sophisticated advertising knowledge are involved, there may be a distinct “chilling” effect on the agency, thus reducing the creativity it produces: H9: If client contacts are both high ranking and sophisticated, creativity decreases. METHOD This research was part of a larger study, the Advertising Creativity and Integration Strategy Program (AdCrisp), which investigates a variety of factors affecting creativity. The first reporting of AdCrisp was Koslow, Sasser, and Riordan (2003), which provided a great deal on the development of the method, so for brevity, less detail is offered in this paper. Since the earlier reporting, more respondents were added to the AdCrisp database. Therefore, 357 respondents from 20 different advertising agency offices reported on up to 3 of their most recent campaigns. Views were solicited from creative, media, research, and account executives, predominately by questionnaire. Given that 1,011 campaigns were studied, one issue was possible duplication by respondents working on the same account. Thus, respondents were asked to identify the client or product category as an option. Duplication was determined if multiple respondents at the same agency noted identical brand names or categories at a contemporaneous time. Two-thirds reported brand and/or category, but only 36 were potentially duplicated. Considering that most of the potential duplicates were for large brands or categories that had many simultaneous campaigns (e.g., automotive) and were therefore unlikely to be actually duplicated, duplication was judged to be a minor problem. Due to questionnaire length (25 to 30 minutes), they were distributed in person to individuals and groups of agency employees during normal business hours. Depending on timing, food incentives were provided. New York and Detroit, two major advertising agency cities, were chosen for data collection. New York is ranked as the top advertising market, while Detroit is usually the third or fourth largest, based on total billings. The sampling frame targeted the 20 largest Agency of Record (AOR) offices in New York and the 10 largest in Detroit. These agencies comprised three-fourths (75%) of the total billings in their respective cities. Ten New York and 10 Detroit offices agreed to participate. Table 1 presents respondent demographics. The product categories distribution in Table 2 reflects overall U.S. advertising spending reported in 1998 (Advertising Age 1999). Average annual media billings for each client were approximately US$65 million.

Fall 2006 TABLE 1 Sample Demographics Demographic variable

Frequency

Percent

188 165

53.3 46.7

38 163 93 52 7 1

10.7 45.9 26.2 14.6 2.0 .3

5 16 7 4 258 54

1.5 4.7 2.0 1.2 75.0 15.7

317 35

90.1 9.9

4 13 5 33 40 57 81 80 24 20

1.1 3.6 1.4 9.2 11.2 16.0 22.7 22.4 6.7 5.6

132 144 41 40

37.0 40.3 11.5 11.2

164 190

46.3 53.7

181 158 61 143 77 113 52 95 106 38

50.7 44.3 17.1 40.1 21.7 31.7 14.6 26.6 29.7 10.6

Sex Male Female Age 18–24 25–34 35–44 45–54 55–64 65+ Highest level of education High school Some college Associate degree Creative design/art program Bachelor degree Graduate degree Have you ever worked on the client side? No Yes Rank CEO/COO Executive vice president Managing director Senior vice president Vice president Director Manager Executive Specialist Other Area of current position Account/strategy Creative Media/research Other City Detroit New York Number and percent reporting experience with three or more campaigns in . . . Consumer packaged goods Automotive/vehicles Consumer durables (excluding autos) Retail Restaurant/food service Financial services or banking Other services Business-to-business Telecommunications/technology Other Note: N = 357; frequency differences are attributable to missing-item data.

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The Journal of Advertising TABLE 2 Product Categories of Sample and Total U.S. Ad Spending in 1998 Percent of total U.S. ad spending

Category Automotive Retail Movies and media Financial Medicines and proprietary remedies Food and food products (not confections) Telecommunications Restaurants and fast food Travel, public transportation, hotels, and resorts Local services and amusements Direct response companies Insurance and real estate Computers and software Government and organizations Personal hygiene and health Beverages Apparel Cosmetics and beauty aids Confectionery and snacks Audio and video equipment and supplies Games, toys, and hobbycraft Hair products and accessories Beer and wine Household soaps, cleansers, and polishes Household supplies (paper, plastic, foil) Building materials, equipment, and utensils Schools, camps, seminars Household appliances, equipment, and utensils Sporting goods Manufacturing: equipment, freight Household furnishings and accessories Pets, pet foods, and supplies Office machines, furniture, and supplies Gasoline, lubricants, and fuels Jewelry and watches Liquor Toiletries for men Horticulture and farming Eye glasses, medical equipment, and supplies Pharmaceutical companies Fitness and diet programs and spas Aviation (not travel) Other, or could not be classified Total

17.7% 14.6 5.2 4.8 4.5 4.2 4.1 4.0 3.8 3.4 2.9 2.6 2.6 1.9 1.8 1.7 1.7 1.6 1.4 1.3 1.2 1.1 1.1 1.0 .7 .6 .6 .6 .6 .5 .5 .5 .4 .4 .4 .4 .3 .3 .3 .2 .2 .1 2.5 100%

Percent of sample 19.9% 10.1 2.7 6.3 3.8 6.7 4.1 2.0 1.6 1.5 0 .8 2.2 2.7 2.9 4.3 1.3 3.7 3.8 .7 .5 .8 1.5 2.1 1.3 .4 0 1.3 .7 .1 .7 .8 .4 .4 0 .8 .1 .1 .7 1.5 .1 .4 5.0 100%

Source: Advertising Age (September 27, 1999).

RESULTS Measures To test the hypotheses, eight independent constructs were measured, along with creativity. Based on the qualitative

interviews used in another phase of this research (Kowlow, Sasser, and Riordan 2003), a questionnaire was designed such that each construct had a minimum of three items. Questionnaire development was based on the words and phrases used by advertising agency employees in focus groups and interviews.

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Independent Variables To measure the eight independent constructs, 26 items were used. A seven-point Likert scale format extending from “strongly disagree” (−3) to “strongly agree” (+3) was utilized. The neutral midpoint was labeled “neither agree nor disagree” (0). The items are grouped by construct in Table 3, along with factor loadings. With 69.3% of the variance explained and high loadings, the model fits. All items load on the expected factors, with one exception: “The client’s brand/advertising/marketing manager was new to the job.” Although the item was intended to measure the hierarchical level of client contacts, it loaded on the client sophistication factor. Because the item conceptually relates more to client sophistication than to position in the client’s hierarchy, it became the fourth item in the client sophistication scale. To define the eight constructs, the items were summed. Table 4 lists their means and standard deviations, along with summaries for the dependent variables. Dependent Measures A campaign was judged creative when it was both original and appropriate. Because there are several ways a campaign can be appropriate, two different creativity indices were constructed. This measurement approach was taken because most scholars agree that creativity is multifaceted (Mumford and Gustafson 1988). One cannot use the traditional measurement logic where creativity can be defined as one dimension in a factor model. Measuring the creativity level of an output, such as an advertising campaign, relies on one of two alternative measurement approaches called consensus or derived. Amabile (1996) exemplifies the consensus approach because she asks judges assessing creative work to use their own subjective definition. If expert judges agree a work is creative, then it is deemed to be so. Thus, Amabile’s measure is a one-item scale averaged across several observers. Researchers who identify creative advertising using awards (e.g., Kover, Goldberg, and James 1995) or industry acclaim (e.g., Twitchell 2000) indirectly use this approach. Because response confidentiality was a major condition of agency cooperation, this approach could not be used. Instead, this research uses the derived approach, which identifies a derived measure using several reliable components called primary scales (Roberts 1979). A simple example of a derived measure is density, which is made up of the primary scales of mass and volume. A more complex derived measure, loudness, is made up of primary scales for decibels of pressure, pitch, and duration. Plucker and Renzulli (1999) elaborate on many primary scales used in creativity research, but note that the true challenge is to combine these into appropriate derived measures. Koslow, Sasser, and Riordan (2003) show the derived

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measurement to be challenging for advertising creativity due to the finding that those research participants from various agency backgrounds combine primary scales differently when defining creativity. Account executives subjectively define creativity as a complex interrelation of strategy, originality, and artistry. Creatives subjectively define creativity in terms of a different, but equally complex, interrelation of the three primary scales. More problematic is that academic observers frequently define advertising creativity in a normative sense, focusing on originality and strategy. Wells, Burnett, and Moriarty note: “To be creative, an idea must be both original (different, novel, unexpected) and strategic (right for the product and target)” (2003, p. 303). That is, originality or strategy alone is not enough, which suggests some synergy between them. Schultz, Tannenbaum, and Lauterborn (1993) argue that the demand on the creative person is to interpret the strategy with the number-one demand being originality. Once again, the synergy of strategy and originality is the basis of creativity, but they can be combined in different ways. The current research follows Koslow, Sasser, and Riordan’s (2003) derived measurement approach and produces two different derived measures of creativity, one that is subjective to the respondents themselves and another that is normative. The subjective-creativity derived measure is a function of originality, artistry, and strategy, depending on the agency position of the respondent. The normative-creativity derived measure draws on originality and strategy in equal proportions, plus their interaction, irrespective of the respondent’s department. Primary Scales Originality, strategy, and artistry were measured similarly to Koslow, Sasser, and Riordan (2003). Each scale used three items, and all items use the same verbal stem: “Compared to other advertisements/campaigns, this advertisement/campaign was . . .” Nine different phrases followed, which are listed in Table 5 along with the factor loadings. Although the factor model explained 78.3% of the variance, Cronbach’s αs were high (see Table 4), and the intended loadings fit, the pattern of loadings, and eigenvalues in Table 5 signaled correlated factors. The third unrotated eigenvalue was only .793, the artistry items loaded on originality at about .2 to .4, and the originality items loaded on artistry at around .3. A plot of the originality and artistry loadings suggests correlated factors, and the model was refit using a more general factor analysis routine. Although there are a number of widely known and well-understood models that allow factors to be correlated, including the direct oblimin rotation in factor analysis and AMOS, the structural equations model, this research chose to illustrate the correlated factors using AMOS. It is important to note

The brief the client gave the agency contained a clear strategy. There was no strategic direction given to the agency in the client’s brief. The brief showed that the client had a specific strategy in mind. The client worked with us to find creative advertising solutions. The client let us try out new creative ideas and/or innovative media. The client was willing to explore new creative ideas. The client was supportive of us seeking out the best work. We didn’t have enough time to do our best work. If we had more time, we could have developed better ads. Tight deadlines rushed the creative process on this account. There was good market research information on the business. The creatives had access to market and media research that painted a clear picture of the target market.

Items

.053 .089

−.069 −.013 −.089

.113 .619 .798 .820 .760 −.150 −.081 −.091 .166 .278

.134 −.009 −.087 .001 −.021 −.040 .035 .047 .196 .099

.199

.274

.083

.239

.090

−.231

.044

−.179

.079

Client sophistication

.209

Client willingness to explore new ideas

−.045

Use of formal testing

.043 −.129 −.052

−.002 −.092

.068

.200

.821

.837

.812

−.075

.009

−.113 −.102

−.057

−.085

.001

−.043

−.016 −.051

.249

.003

Budget tightness

.123

−.024

Time pressure

TABLE 3 Factor Loadings Matrix for Independent Variables

.020

.225

−.028

−.006

−.102

.224

.010

.023

.061

.797

−.708

.764

Brief contains strategy

.735

.659

.055

−.115

−.077

.039

.079

.165

.129

.110

−.023

.202

Use of consumer research

−.048

.001

−.046

.031

.001

−.081

−.088

−.134

−.049

−.090

.127

.043

Low-level client contacts

94 The Journal of Advertising

.072 −.247

.173 −.039 .218 .181 −.147 .104 .020

.152 −.066 .134 .050 .065 −.854 .879

.800

.048 .039

.034

.027 .051 −.013 .131 2.185

−.026 −.020

−.034

−.052 .794 .734 −.669 2.379

.002

−.026 .192 .421 −.332 2.945

.862 .062 −.021 .037 3.055

−.016

.006

.162

−.636

.045 .064 .123 −.153 1.976

−.088 −.076 .106 2.066

.066

.056

−.057

−.034

−.108

−.034

.044

−.062

.077

−.027 .041

−.110

−.123

.154

.039

.144

.016

.830

−.752

−.053 .184

.793

−.039

.062

−.049

−.092

.075

−.047

.067

−.010

−.001

.040

.006

Note: Principle-components factor analysis with VARIMAX rotation was used. Boldface indicates significant loadings.

Market research provided all we needed to know about the target market. To do everything needed on this account, we would have run over budget. There was ample money assigned to this account to do what was needed. The budget was too small for what was required. The client’s brand/advertising/marketing manager was new to the job. The main client contacts on this account were high-level personnel in their firm. The main client contacts involved were relatively low in the client’s hierarchy or structure. This account didn’t expect to use formal testing on the advertising produced. This account’s creative output was expected to be formally tested for recall, likeability, attitude change, or other measures. Focus groups, in-theatre tests, consumer panels, or other formal means were used to evaluate the advertisements(s) produced for this account. The creative output for this account was expected to be assessed by formal research methods. The client was experienced with advertising. The client was knowledgeable about advertising The client did not understand advertising. Eigenvalues .121 .126 −.057 1.796

.077

.076

.039

−.024

−.065

.152

−.124

−.035

.124

−.023

.766

−.109 −.081 .059 1.609

.058

−.019

.005

.032

.852

−.859

.144

.034

−.038

−.000

−.174

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The Journal of Advertising TABLE 4 Summaries of Independent Measures and Dependent Primary Scales

Construct

Mean

SD

Brief contains strategy Client willingness to explore new ideas Time pressure Use of consumer research Budget tightness Low-level client contacts Use of formal testing Client sophistication

1.95 1.98 −.13 1.71 −.19 −1.80 2.34 2.84

4.41 5.86 4.76 3.98 4.48 3.15 7.17 5.58

3.00 5.92 .90

4.50 2.96 4.84

Originality Strategy Artistry

Maximum

Cronbach’s α

−9 −12 −9 −9 −9 −6 −15 −12

9 16 9 9 9 6 16 16

.722 .807 .799 .694 .749 .631* .878 .763

−9 −9 −9

9 9 9

.893 .765 .881

Minimum

*Pearson product moment correlation.

TABLE 5 Factor Model of Originality, Artistry, and Strategy Originality Compared to other advertisements, this advertisement/campaign was . . . original unexpected different “on strategy” a good fit with the client’s strategy built on good strategy able to stand on its own as art could be appreciated as a work of art artistically sophisticated Eigenvalues before rotation Eigenvalues after rotation

Artistry

Strategy

.772 .859 .859 .082 .116 .234 .260 .288 .449

.332 .300 .320 .085 .083 .116 .873 .884 .719

.240 .135 .164 .870 .867 .719 .135 .070 .143

4.592 2.500

1.668 2.383

.793 2.172

Note: Principle-components factor analysis with VARIMAX rotation was used. Boldface indicates significant loadings.

that nowhere else are structural equations models used, and AMOS is only used to illustrate the correlated factors. Similar results are found if one uses direct oblimin. With the factor model reestimated in AMOS, the results are presented in Table 6. Although Discrepancy, AMOS’s version of LISREL’s χ2, was 197.798 and significant, such is not uncommon in large data sets. Other fit indices were good, and most were above .95 (normed fit index [NFI] = .981, relative fit index [RFI] = .965, incremental fit index [IFI] = .984, Tucker-Lewis index = .969, and comparative fit index [CFI] = .984). RMSEA (root mean square error of approximation) was slightly over the .08 benchmark at .085. Overall, the model has acceptable fit. AMOS estimated that originality and artistry factors were correlated at .735, originality and strategy at .416, and artistry and strategy at .322. These between-factor correlations are large, but the within-factor correlations are still larger. To demonstrate this, the 90% bootstrap confidence intervals for the factor-factor correlations and the factor-item correlations were constructed. The 90% confidence interval for the

correlation between originality and artistry was .695 to .774. The lowest loading item on the artistry factor was “artistically sophisticated,” which had a factor-item correlation ranging from .774 to .830. The lowest loading on the originality factor was “original,” which had a factor-item correlation ranging from .771 to .831. Given the minimal overlap among these 90% confidence intervals, factor-item correlations are larger than between-factor correlations at just above the p = .01 level. All other corresponding factor-item and between-factor correlations are more separated than these. Thus, divergent and convergent validity is established for originality, strategy, and artistry. Although a structural equation model was used to demonstrate this validity, the actual scales used to fit later models were developed using the derived measurement approach described next. Subjective Creativity Regression identified the equation transforming primary scales of originality, artistry, and strategy (using summed raw items) into the derived measure for subjective creativity. The model

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TABLE 6 AMOS Standard Regression Weights (Factor Loadings) λOriginality

Item original unexpected different “on strategy” a good fit with the client’s strategy built on good strategy able to stand on its own as art could be appreciated as a work of art artistically sophisticated

λArtistry

λStrategy

.803 .870 .896 .793 .819 .621 .855 .880 .802

Note: AMOS was used.

in Koslow, Sasser, and Riordan (2003) is replicated using originality, artistry, and strategy to predict a single subjective creativity item. Following Amabile (1996), the item “Using your own subjective definition of advertising creativity, how creative was this ad/campaign?” was used. The item’s reference point was relative to advertising in similar media. A five-point response scale was provided, ranging from 1 (“far less than average)” to 5 (“far above average”). The midpoint, 3, was labeled “average creativity.” Respondents were segmented by agency background into four groups: account, creative, media, and other. For each group, a regression model predicting the subjective creativity item was estimated employing several primary scales variations: originality, strategy, artistry, their squared terms, plus their three, two-way interactions, and the three-way interaction. To identify the best model for each group, Mallow’s Cp statistic was used and the models with lowest Cp statistics, relative to parameters used, were selected. This analysis largely replicates Koslow, Sasser, and Riordan (2003). The subjective creativity index is defined as the predicted values of the subjective creativity model in each of these four groups.

Subjective Creativity = Indexi

if respondent is from account management,  2  2.849 + .06092 × strategyi + .05129 × artistryi + .00346 × artistry i  + .06029 × originalityi + .0047 × originalityi2 -.00598 × artistry i × originalityi  if respondent is from creative,  2  2.92089 + .09600 × strategy i -.01147 × strategyi + .04701 × artistry i  + .06046 × originalityi + .00235 × originalityi2 + .00776 × strategyi × originalityi  if respondent is from media,   2.8617 + .07645 × strategyi + .10681 × originalityi  if respondent is from another area,  2.6826 + .0818 × strategyi + .12096 × originalityi

Normative Creativity Identifying the functional-form equation linking primary scales with a derived measure is harder for normative creativity than it was for subjective creativity because the choice must be based on theoretical and philosophical considerations rather than empirical ones (Roberts 1979). Two common and useful forms are the simple addition of primary scales, strategy,

and originality, or their multiplicative interaction, but the latter tends to be favored when primary scales have synergies (Roberts 1979). In most situations, von Winterfelt and Edwards (1986) recommend the extended multiplicative model, a general functional form used in subjective expected utility theory, which incorporates both additive and multiplicative terms in equal weights. This approach is applied here. Because Roberts (1979) notes that ratio scales are more meaningful than other scales, the primary scales for originality and strategy are centered and scaled first. Therefore, the normative creativity index is defined as: Normative Strategy - x_ Strategy Originality - x_ Originality i i + Creativity = = sdStrategy sdOriginality Indexi _

_   Strategyi - x Strategy Originalityi - x Originality  + × sdStrategy sdOriginality    

To better understand the two creativity indices, Table 7 lists their correlations with other measures. At r = .726, the two indices are highly correlated. The normative creativity index is moderately correlated with originality, strategy, and artistry. The subjective creativity index is also moderately correlated with strategy and artistry, but highly correlated with originality at .934. Thus, the subjective creativity index mimics the originality measure, but the normative creativity index reflects more balance between originality and strategy. Findings Regression models were developed for both creativity indices. The eight independent variables and the two creativity indices were centered and scaled prior to analysis. Models were selected using Mallow’s Cp statistic. The variables available for selection were the eight independent constructs from Table 4, a categorical indicator of the respondent’s area within the agency, and demographic variables for the respondent’s age, years in the advertising business, level of education,

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The Journal of Advertising TABLE 7 Pearson Product Moment Correlations for Primary Scales and Derived Creativity Measures

Originality Originality Strategy Artistry Normative creativity index Subjective creativity index

1.000 .392 .677 .675 .934

Strategy 1.000 .300 .553 .544

Artistry

1.000 .491 .766

Normative creativity index

1.000 .726

Subjective creativity index

1.000

TABLE 8 Generalized Linear Model (GLM) Results for Normative Creativity Index and Subjective Creativity Index (Standardized Coefficients) Normative creativity index Parameters Intercept Client’s brief contains strategy Client willingness to explore new ideas Time pressure Use of consumer research Budget tightness Low-level client contacts Use of formal testing Client sophistication Area within agency: account Area within agency: creative Area within agency: media Area within agency: other Client willingness to explore × low-level client contacts Client sophistication × low-level client contacts Client willingness to explore × use of consumer research Client willingness to explore ideas × time pressure Client sophistication × client’s brief contains strategy Client sophistication × budget tightness Client willingness to explore ideas × area: account Client willingness to explore ideas × area: creative Client willingness to explore ideas × area: media Client willingness to explore ideas × area: other Use of formal testing × area: account Use of formal testing × area: creative Use of formal testing × area: media Use of formal testing × area: other Client sophistication × area: account Client sophistication × area: creative Client sophistication × area: media Client sophistication × area: other City: Detroit City: New York City: other* Rank of respondent Age Years in the advertising business R2 p value

.1220 .0185 .4581 −.0613 .1765 .0485 −.0009 −.0944 .0996 .1841 −.0645 0 −.1000 .0430 .1045 −.0594 −.0447

−.1304 .0912 0 −.0415 .340 .0001

p value

Subjective creativity index Parameters

p value

−.0327 .5373 .0001 .0325 .0001 .0880 .9742 .0033 .0362 .0001 .0942 .0001 .0258 .0696

.0006

.6620 −.0696 .1074 .0705 .0254 .0678 −.0538 .1928 .2357 .0239 0 −.1054 .0516

.0001 .0119 .0003 .0108 .3658 .1018 .2039

−.0831 -.1994 .0073 −.0969 0 −.0515 −.1185 .1679 0 .0181 −.1397 .1316 0 −.0673 .0760 0

.0004

−.1294 .0147 .395 .0001

.0044 .0046

.0380 .0001 .0407

.0067

.0537

.0122

.0381

.0037

* Several respondents provided details on campaigns they did during prior employment. Usually these were in the same city as their current employment, but for six campaigns it was not. These other cities were London and Toronto.

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Hypothesized Effects Hypothesis 1 suggested that if the client came to the agency with a strategically oriented brief, creativity would increase, but there is little support for this. In the subjective creativity index model, the degree to which the brief contains strategy does not even appear, excluded from the model as not significant by Mallow’s selection method. The normative creativity index model also included this variable, but it is not significant. The model also included the variable because it appears in a two-way interaction with client sophistication. Strategy in the client’s brief has minimal impact on average, but this is further qualified by the interaction, which will be discussed later. Hypothesis 2 proposed that those clients willing to explore new ideas while working with the agency would receive more creative advertising. Not only do the parameters in Table 8 appear to supports this, but by the relative parameter sizes, it is the largest effect in the data set. However, this relationship is further qualified by an interaction because client willingness to explore new ideas was also associated with several interactions that will be discussed below. Hypotheses 3, 4, and 5 suggested that access to time, consumer research, and budgets, respectively, increases creativity. For the first two hypotheses, there are significant one-way effects. Time pressure decreases creativity. The availability of consumer research increases creativity. Tighter budgets lead to more—not less—creativity. Yet again, there are interactions associated with these variables that further qualified these interpretations. These will be discussed later. Hypotheses 6 and 7 proposed mean level and interaction effects between client willingness to explore strategy and access to top management, but only the latter hypothesis appears supported. These are graphed in Figures 1 and 2. To construct the figures, high client willingness to explore new ideas was defined as one standard deviation above the mean, and low client willingness to explore new ideas was one standard deviation below the mean. Likewise, high-level client contact was one standard deviation above the mean, while low-level

FIGURE 1 Impact of Client Willingness to Explore New Ideas and Level of Client in Their Hierarchy on Normative Creativity Index 0.6 0.4 Normative Creativity Index

organizational rank, and city. Also, all two-way interactions were available for selection. When a two-way interaction was used in a model, both lower-order variables were also included. The models with the lowest Cp statistic, relative to parameters used, were selected. Because this criteria focuses on overall model fit, it occasionally results in including parameters with p > .05. With the models identified using Mallow’s Cp statistic, they are reported in Table 8 using traditional Generalized Linear Model (GLM) analysis for ease of interpretation. The models fit well, explaining 39.5% of the variance for the subjective creativity index and 34.0% for the normative creativity index.

99

0.2 High-level client contacts Low-level client contacts

0 -0.2 -0.4 -0.6 Client not willing to explore new ideas

Client willing to explore new ideas

client contact was one standard deviation below. The levels in the graph presented are the predicted values for each index for one standard deviation above or below the means for each independent variable. For both creativity indices, high-level client contact amplifies the effect of client willingness to explore new ideas. That is, access to top management alone does not increase creativity. The value of top-management access is contingent on these managers’ willingness to explore new ideas. When top-management access is provided and these managers are willing to explore ideas, even more creativity can result, supporting H7. Yet, when the same access is provided, but these managers are closed to exploring new ideas, creativity is even lower. Hypothesis 8 cautiously proposes little or no net effect of formal advertising testing on creativity. The normative creativity index model finds no effect of testing campaigns, but the subjective creativity index model finds a marginally significant positive effect. In the subjective creativity index model, there is an interaction between one’s agency area and formal testing, which is shown in Figure 3. Media and researcher employees find that formal testing increases creativity. However, creatives find that formal testing decreases creativity modestly. Again, this is consistent with the mixed views of creativity underlying the hypothesis. To assess H9, consider the interaction between clients’ rank and sophistication. In both models, the interactions are significant and are plotted in Figures 4 and 5. In each instance, the more sophisticated the client, the less creativity. Also in each instance, the higher ranking the client contact, the larger the effect of sophistication. Thus, H9 is supported.

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The Journal of Advertising

FIGURE 2 Impact of Client Willingness to Explore New Ideas and Level of Client in their Hierarchy on Subjective Creativity Index

FIGURE 4 Impact of Client Sophistication and Hierarchical Level of Client Contacts on the Normative Creativity Index 0.15 0.1

Subjective Creativity Index

0.6 0.4 High-level client contacts

0.2 0 -0.2

Low-level client contacts

-0.4

Normative Creativity Index

0.8

-0.6

0.05 0 -0.05

High-level client contacts

-0.1

Low-level client contacts

-0.15

-0.8

-0.2

-1

Unsophisticated client

Client not willing to explore Client willing to explore ideas ideas

FIGURE 3 Impact of Use of Formal Testing on Subjective Creativity Index by Agency Area

Sophisticated Client

FIGURE 5 Impact of Client Sophistication and Hierarchical Level of Client Contacts on the Subjective Creativity Index

0

0.05 0

-0.2

Account Creative Media Other

-0.3 -0.4

Subjective Creativity Index

Subjective Creativity Index

-0.1

-0.05 High-level client contacts

-0.1 -0.15

Low-level client contacts

-0.2

-0.5 -0.25

-0.6 No use of formal ad testing

Use of formal ad testing

-0.3 Unsophisticated client

Sophisiticated client

Demographic Effects

Other Normative Creativity Model Effects

In both models, creatives rate their campaigns the highest. Media and other employees rate their work the lowest, and account executives are in between. New York respondents judge their work higher than their Detroit counterparts. In the normative creativity index model, the higher the respondent’s rank, the more creative they judge their work (note that rank was reverse coded, with 1 = CEO and 9 = specialist). Age and years in the advertising business inversely affect the subjective creativity index. Perceptions of creativity decrease with age, but increase with years in the advertising business. For most, these two effects offset one another, but those who enter the industry later in their careers rate creativity lower.

There are three other noteworthy interactions in the normative creativity model. Figure 6 shows that when clients are open to exploring new ideas, the availability and use of consumer research enhances creativity. The understanding gleaned from consumer research has its greatest impact when one is open to it. Figure 7 shows a similar pattern as Figure 6. When clients are open to exploring new ideas, sufficient time leads to greater levels of creativity. Finally, Figure 8 shows that when client briefs contain a clear strategy, it strengthens the negative impact of client sophistication on creativity. The incidence of strategy in the brief increases creativity only for less sophisticated clients.

Fall 2006

FIGURE 8 Impact of Client Sophistication and Whether the Client’s Brief Contains Strategy on the Normative Creativity Index

FIGURE 6 Impact of Client Willingness to Explore and Access to Consumer Research on the Normative Creativity Index

0.8

0.15

0.4 0.2

Consumer research not available

0 -0.2

Consumer research available

-0.4 -0.6

Normative Creativity Index

0.6 Normative Creativity Index

101

0.1 0.05 Client's brief does not contain a strategy

0 -0.05

Client's brief contains a strategy

-0.1 -0.15 -0.2 Unsophisticated client

-0.8

Sophisticated client

Client not willing to explore Client willing to explore new new ideas ideas

FIGURE 9 Impact of Client Sophistication and Budget Tightness on the Subjective Creativity Index

0.6

0.2

0.4

0.15

0.2

0.1

No time pressure

0 -0.2

Time pressure -0.4 -0.6 Client not willing to explore Client willing to explore new new ideas ideas

Subjective Creativity Index

Normative Creativity Index

FIGURE 7 Impact of Client Willingness to Explore and Time Pressure on the Normative Creativity Index

Loose budgets

0.05 Tight budgets

0 -0.05 -0.1 -0.15 -0.2 Unsophisticated client

Other Subjective Creativity Model Effects The subjective creativity index model also has several additional significant interactions. Figure 9 shows that when budgets are tight and clients are unsophisticated, the subjective creativity index is higher. For sophisticated clients, or unsophisticated clients with large budgets, the level of creativity is lower. Because the subjective creativity index is the product of a different equation for each area within the agency, it is unsurprising that there are significant interactions with area. In Figure 10, there are significant differences among respondents from different agency areas regarding the impact of one of the key variables—client willingness to explore new ideas. Creatives find that this variable has the largest impact (e.g., largest change between conditions), whereas account executives

Sophisticated client

find it has the least impact (e.g., least change between conditions). Figure 11 shows different perceptions of importance of client sophistication. Media respondents find that client sophistication is net positive, but creative respondents find that it had a negative effect. The other two areas find little difference between the two extremes of clients. DISCUSSION Before concluding, there are several possible limitations. A focus on large agencies may have neglected highly-creative boutique shop effects. The two geographic locations may not have been ideal. The methodological format, which was retrospective and involved in-person contact and used questionnaires, may have influenced results. The workplace

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The Journal of Advertising

FIGURE 11 Impact of Client Sophistication on Subjective Creativity Index by Agency Area

FIGURE 10 Impact of Client Willingness to Explore on Subjective Creativity Index by Agency Area

0.8

0.1

0.4

0

0.2 0

Account

-0.2

Creative

-0.4

Media

-0.6 Other

-0.8 -1

Subjective Creativity Index

Subjective Creativity Index

0.6

-0.1 Account Creative

-0.2

Media Other

-0.3

-0.4

-1.2 Client not willing to explore ideas

Client willing to explore ideas -0.5 Unsophisticated client

data collection may have compromised the perception of confidentiality and anonymity for some respondents. Finally, the reliance on Mallow’s Cp statistic and the large number of significant effects, some of which do not meet the traditional .05 cutoff, should position this research as more exploratory in style, which introduces both problems and benefits. Given these caveats, from an advertising agency perspective, marketing clients still strongly impact the creative quality of advertising that their agencies produce. Even with the use of two different creativity measures, a similar story emerges. One would think that agencies would be able to find organizational solutions to protect the creative process from clients’ overbearing senior managers, but this does not appear to be the case. Though this research focuses on understanding agency creativity perspectives, it would also be valuable to understand client perspectives on creativity. Therefore, research on client interactions and client perceptions of what makes advertising creative may provide additionally needed insights. Other client-focused issues, such as the relationship between creativity and effectiveness, also need to be explored. This is especially so because client direction strongly influences creativity. The most creative work goes to those clients open to exploring new ideas. Some observers may consider this to be a truism—how could it have turned out otherwise? This adds credibility to the research in that it proves something we have long suspected. But the findings did not support another possible truism: the value of a strategic brief. The strategies contained in client briefs have such minimal impact that the value of the client’s brief is called into question. Could it be that strategically oriented briefs increase effectiveness at the expense of creativity? Possibly, but because being on-strategy is a component of creativity, this relation would

Sophisticated client

need to be complex. More likely is that this study’s findings parallel Helgesen’s (1992) critique of client approaches to advertising strategy. Agencies are just not getting the kind of information needed (Sutherland, Duke, and Abernethy 2004). Thus, if client briefs have become formulaic applications of tactical thinking, full of “MBA-speak,” it is no wonder that agencies find little value in them when trying to produce highly creative work. Support is given for the advertising agency complaint that the lack of access to top management has been harming creativity. It is not enough if top managers are only involved in the final approval process. Top managers who are open to exploring new ideas need to step up to the plate with their agencies early on. When access and openness converge, greater levels of creativity emerge. If top managers become highly involved but they are not open, this creates the worst-case scenario. For example, if such top organizational power is used merely to force agencies to execute tactical “profiling” campaigns with the sort of vague communications objectives that Helgesen (1992) warns about, then their advertising would be better served if they passed this responsibility on to lower-ranking employees and stayed out of the way. Since access to top managers is positive when clients are open, high levels of client sophistication would be expected to further enhance creativity, yet the opposite is found. When clients are both sophisticated and high ranking, the evaluation becomes crucial. Since Amabile’s (1979) research, such counterintuitive effects are common in studying creativity. If one truly seeks creativity, one must appreciate and accommodate its serendipitous nature. Sophisticated, high-ranking clients are good at evaluating advertising, and their high status gives them power to enforce their judgments. Evaluation is problematic, however; rather than getting great creative, evalu-

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ators often receive what they are perceived to want, which is an example of a self-fulfilling prophecy. This differs from the impact of formal testing, because testing can be used wisely. Marketers need to understand that agencies are frequently in precarious and vulnerable positions in suggesting innovative and breakthrough ideas. Even subtle unintentional intimidation of an agency can harm creativity. Access to consumer research appears to provide agencies with insights needed to produce highly creative work. Contrary to popular stereotypes, highly creative campaigns do not appear out of thin air. Planning and insightful research are important for agencies to develop new ideas. Thus, the availability of consumer research can interact with openness to new ideas to make even greater creative strides. Providing agencies sufficient time to develop campaigns also produces more creative work. Marketers may believe their briefs provide sufficient direction, but they may be shocked by their limited value in the agency planning process. If prior media purchases enforce a tight deadline, little time may be left for idea incubation. Two other areas provide mixed effects. Surprisingly, budgets do not have a great impact on creativity. It is possible that money buys higher production values and improved artistry rather than more originality. Formal advertising testing is positive for some respondents, negative for others, but mostly it has little net effect. Thus, formal testing does not appear to interfere greatly with internal agency creative dynamics and can be used routinely. Marketers seeking accountability for advertising quality must appreciate the complex dynamics they unintentionally impose on their agencies. The current management fashion holds agencies accountable for “their” work, even though clients influence the final product. If the factor model’s explained variance is assumed to be the maximum R2 in the regression models, then at least half the variability in creativity is attributable to the marketer and not the agency. There is still much variance that can be attributed to agencies and other factors, but if marketers want to hold someone accountable, one place to start may be to look at themselves. Marketers often come to agencies with difficult problems seeking creative solutions. If marketers seek a genuine partnership with a mutual willingness to explore new ideas, great creativity is possible. Marketers can be their own worst enemies, however, especially if they approach the relationship with the current management wisdom that advertising agencies function like other vendors. This type of cost-based, commoditized relationship limits creative potential, and thus is not conducive to the advertising creativity needed. Marketers only receive advertising creativity commensurate with their own willingness and ability to partner with their agency. As unpalatable as it may be, this study has demonstrated that marketers routinely receive the advertising they deserve.

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