Yes, creativity is great. But does it really work? Well, we found a couple of interesting studies that have concluded, that a creative message does get more attention and leads to a more positive attitude toward the product and ultimately sales! But, it’s not as simple as that, the effectiveness of a creative ad varies by product category.
(you can find the links to the studies and articles at the bottom end of the article).
How effective is creativity in ads?
Multiple studies have shown that creative messages in advertising are efficient at capturing consumers’ attention, but no firm evidence if this has a real impact on sales. So, Harvard Business Review carried out a study and found out that:
A euro invested in a highly creative ad campaign had nearly double the sales impact of a euro spent on a noncreative campaign.
Harvard Business Review
The study
The study considered 437 TV advertising campaigns from 90 consumer goods brands in Germany, and found out that creativity does matter. However, certain dimensions of creativity are more effective than others when it comes to incentivizing purchase behaviour. The dimensions considered in this study are the same ones suggested in the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking.
Originality
An original ad can be defined as one that uses elements that are unique, surprising, and that are not commonly used, often, this includes using unique visual or verbal elements. An ad that excelled in originality was the Coca-Cola commercial “Happiness Factory”.
Flexibility
An ad that scores high in this dimension is one that demonstrates how the product can be used in many different ways. A good example of this is a Jacobs Krönung (a Kraft Foods coffee brand) commercial that aired in Germany. In this commercial, there was a man who carried out various household chores like washing the dishes, sewing a button, and making the bed, while a group of female friends had coffee together.
Elaboration
This refers to how much the ads develop the idea or concept without making it too intricate or complicated to understand. A good example of what an elaborate, but well-accomplished ad looks like is the Wrigley’s 5 gum commercial, a man is floating on tiny metal balls, that bounce on his skin representing the tingle from the chewing gum.
Synthesis
This dimension measures how different unrelated elements are blended in together and whether the connection seems natural or not. An example of this is a Wrigley commercial where two unrelated objects (rabbits and chewing gum) are combined into one idea. Rabbits are fed fruit and this makes their teeth grow as Juicy Fruit chewing gum. Fun!
Artistic Value
A high artistic value ad is one which has multiple aesthetically pleasing elements. This could be an exceptional soundtrack, clever dialogue, or distinct color palette, making the advertising more like a piece of art instead of a sales attempt. An ad that had a high score in this dimension is a commercial for Danone’s Fantasia yogurt which shows a woman floating on a flower petal through a sea of Fantasia yogurt.
Results
Each dimension has a different effect on sales
According to the study by Harvard Business Review, the elaboration dimension has a higher impact on sales than the other dimensions (1.32 when indexed relative to overall average creativity of 1.0), followed by artistic value, then originality and flexibility. Synthesis was the least important dimension of all.
They also found that when an ad excels in two dimensions, the impact on sales increases significantly, where elaboration and originality had the biggest impact (1.96, indexed to the average of all possible pairs). When an ad exce
Use of creativity is different in each product category
Creativity seems to play a different rola and is given more importance in certain categories. For example, cola and coffee tend to have higher levels of creativity compared to shampoo, body care, and facial care where they focus more on the use of the product.
The impact of investing in being more creative also varies in each category. Generally, in traditionally low-creativity categories adding more creativity has a larger impact, according to the study a creative shampoo ad boosted sales by 4%. However in the body lotion and face care, also low-creativity categories, creative ads had a negative effect on sales. It’s important to understand the effect of creativity on your category.
References & useful links
- Creativity in Advertising: When It Works and When It Doesn’t, Harvard Business Review
The Creative 
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