CREATIVITY IN ADVERTISING: EXPECTATIONS, DEFINITIONS AND EVALUATIONS OF THE CONSUMERS

Abstract

INTRODUCTION:John Wanamaker (1838-1922), a capitalism icon, made the now historical remark, Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is, I don't know which half' regarding the importance of accountability in advertising. The primary objective of advertising is to channel consumers in line with the wishes of the advertiser. Today, brands not only expect momentary purchasing behavior from consumer but looking for a long-term relationship. For this desired relationship between brand and the consumer, several marketing tools exist. Meanwhile, especially when the youth target audience is at stake, a different kind of relationship between the brand and the consumer emerges. Development of technologies used in personal computers and social media tools enable youth to reproduce and share ads-as a part of popular culture-. Therefore, the creativity of an ad may shape the nature and the duration of the relationship established with the brand. Furthermore, this relationship has a much bigger echo effect than the traditional word of mouth. Understanding the significance of advertising creativity for youth target audience would reshape the future of marketing communications.LITERATURE REVIEW:Advertising Creativity:Advertising creativity, which may be considered to be an important part of the popular culture is rather uncharted territories in the scholar world, even though it is a topic, most people would enjoy talking about. The emergence of advertising creativity literature dates back to the 1970s.White (1972: 28-32), who carried out one of the first studies on 'advertising creativity' in the 1970s, defined creativity as the 'X Factor' of the advertising theory and made remarks on the relationship between developing creative advertising ideas and the steps of creative thinking. While the 1970's were a period that advertising creativity studies approached the subject with different variables and in a disorganized perspective, the different views of scientists are still remarkable. Gross (1972: 83-109), with the mathematical model he proposed, claimed that the investment made by advertisers to 'advertising creativity' would impact on the advertisement effectiveness positively, while Daniels (1974: 31-32) emphasized that the main objective of advertising was not displaying creativity, but to promote the product efficiently. One of the most impressive articles written in that period was produced by Keil (1975: 29-31), eight rules that a creative director should not have neglected were suggested on judging advertising creativity. These rules are; the creative idea's adherence to the strategy, advertising being directed to the right audience, the advertisement being single -minded, making sure what the creative people have in mind, the advertising technique not overpowering the message, separating personal prejudices from judgment decisions, the creative idea not damaging the product's image, and having faith in advertisement creators' work.The issue of how advertising creativity is defined and perceived by the different parts of the industry was featured in the literature for the first time in the 1980s. Michell (1984: 9-25) studied the creativity perception by the advertiser and the advertising agency. In this study, the ad agencies defined creativity as a more free process, while advertisers tended to see it as more structured. Hirschman (1989: 42-53) revealed the different approaches on the process by professionals with different titles during the production of a television ad. In a similar study; Vanden Bergh, Smith and Vicks (1986: 55-60) drew attention to the conflicts between the creative and the consumer relations departments in an advertising agency.The studies conducted in 1990's such as Stewart's (1992: 1-18), which underlined the subjects to be researched in order to better understand advertising and its functions, and Zinkhan's (1993: 1-3) similar work that suggested more research should have been done on advertising creativity. …