Does creativity really matter?
An experimental study on the effects of creative media choice and the role of brand familiarity in improving brand attitude and brand image
Abstract
As marketers are being faced with the challenge to break through the advertising clutter, interest in using unconventional media to deliver a message, so-called creative media choice, has been increasing. Previous studies have shown that creative media choice can have positive effects for a brand. However, mixed findings have caused for uncertainty in determining its true value. This experimental study adds to previous research about creative media choice, by comparing its effectiveness to traditional media advertising, thereby taking brand familiarity and ad understanding into account as possible contributing factors. The main purpose of the study was to asses if creative media choice leads to a more favorable brand attitude and brand image compared to traditional media choice. Moreover, this positive effect was expected to be influenced by brand familiarity and ad understanding. However, the results of the study contradicted these expectations. Creative media choice actually lead to a less favorable brand attitude compared to traditional media choice, and no main effect of media choice on brand image was found. Brand familiarity was found to have no moderating effect. However, the results demonstrated that a traditional media choice, compared to a creative media choice, leads to a more favorable brand image for an unfamiliar brand. This effect was not found for familiar brands. Ad understanding was not found to have any mediating effect on the
relationship between media choice and brand attitude or brand image. The results suggest that marketers should consider creative media choice as a very complex tool, as it might not be as effective as traditional media choices, especially not for unfamiliar brands.
Introduction
Our everyday world has turned into an ongoing Times Square visit as consumers are being exposed to advertising everywhere they go. The mass extent of new media has caused a great increase in advertising exposure amongst consumers. Being out on the streets or within the comfort of our own homes we are all constantly exposed to new products, brands and companies, attempting to persuade and sell. This so-called advertising clutter is making it difficult for brands and companies to attract the attention of consumers. The Limited Capacity Model (Lang, 2006) proposes that humans have a limited capacity for cognitive processing of information, thus making it difficult for people to see through this clutter. Moreover,
consumers have developed cognitive schema’s to cope with advertising attempts and
generally tend to avoid the messages they present. These issues have made it more important than ever for companies to stand-out from the competition. According to Dahlén (2005), creative media choice could be an effective tool to achieve this. A creative media choice can be an everyday-object which, when exposed with a brand logo and slogan, becomes a medium that implicitly communicates the brand associations (Dahlén, 2005). From this perspective, any unconventional object such as an elevator, a straw or a lamppost can function as a creative medium as long as its features have an associative overlap with the communicated message (Dahlén, Friberg, & Nilsson, 2009). For example, a park bench made entirely out of KitKat’s, thereby implicitly referring to the brand’s slogan: “Have a break, have a KitKat”. Due to the unconventional setting utilized by creative media choice, consumers are less inclined to regard the advertisement as a persuasive attempt, thus causing them to evaluate the brand more favorably (Till & Baack, 2005; Dahlén & Edenius, 2007).
However, for these positive effects to occur, it is likely that an understanding of the associative overlap between the brand and the creative medium is essential for consumers to comprehend the message. Dahlén (2005) refers to this associative overlap as a so-called fit,
which is necessary in helping consumers enhance their processing of the message. However, Phillips (2000) states that because consumers like a challenge, this fit between the brand and the creative medium should not be too evident. Eelen and Seiler (2015) suggest that
consumers tend to appreciate the brand to a greater extent, once they have solved the puzzle in regard to why a certain brand message is portrayed on a specific creative medium. On the contrary, if the consumer does not understand the associative overlap between the medium and the message and is therefore unable to solve the puzzle, the brand is evaluated less favorable (Eelen & Seiler, 2015). This could suggest that when a consumer is unfamiliar with the brand KitKat and its slogan, the park bench would possibly be nothing more than a weird looking bench, causing consumers to evaluate KitKat more negatively. From this perspective, brand familiarity could be an important contributing factor in determining the effects of creative media choice. Applying the previous insights to the concept of brand familiarity could suggest that it would be more difficult for consumers to comprehend the associative overlap underlying a creative media choice for unfamiliar brands as opposed to familiar brands, as they lack the specific brand knowledge necessary to understand the connection between the medium and the message.
This insight could be of particular interest for contemporary marketing practices. As new innovative technologies and crowdfunding websites such as Kickstarter have reduced the boundaries for aspiring entrepreneurs to start their own company, it is currently getting more important for marketers to develop effective strategies for these young startups. Because most consumers are unfamiliar with these new startups, advertising strategies could differ greatly from those of familiar established companies. Furthermore, startups typically have limited resources in terms of capital, know-how and time, in comparison to established companies, thus making them more susceptible to inefficient strategies (Bresciani & Eppler, 2010). Consequently, it is of great importance for these startups to develop effective and efficient
strategies. As creative media advertising tends to be less costly and requires less resources compared to traditional media advertising, startup brands could be inclined to opt for this marketing tool in an attempt to increase their brand attitudes and brand image. However, it remains unclear if creative media advertising indeed elicits these desired effects. Thus far, empirical studies have not been able to keep up with the current startup trend, nor have they analyzed the effects of creative media choice within this context. Therefore, this research attempts to expose the influence of brand familiarity in relation to creative and traditional media choices, by proposing the following main research question: “To what extent does
media choice (creative vs. traditional) have an effect on brand attitude and brand image and are these effects influenced by brand familiarity (unfamiliar: start-ups vs. familiar:
established) and ad understanding?”
Theoretical background
Creativity, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. Nonetheless, the most prestigious awards within the advertising industry concern those handed out each year by industry peers honoring the most creative and outstanding advertisements (Mahmood, 2011). Creativity in this sense encompasses terms such as newness, imagination and originality (El-Murad & West, 2004). However, from this perspective even an advertisement in a traditional medium could be considered to be creative. As creative advertising in this sense is still largely a matter of opinion, it is important for the purpose of this study to narrow down the concept, in order to provide a clear divide between creative and traditional media choice. Dahlén (2005)
differentiates the two strategies by stating that traditional media choice uses traditional media vehicles, such as television, radio and print, whereas creative media choice displays promoted messages on vehicles that are not previously used for advertising and have an associative overlap with the promoted brand. In short, the creative aspect does not necessarily lie in the
message itself, but in the vehicle through which it is presented. For example, an elevator depicting an image of an energy drink, thereby implicitly referring to the uplifting characteristics of the drink (Dahlén, 2005).
Creative media choice
Creative media choice refers to an advertising strategy where a novel medium is used to implicitly communicate the advertising message. In other words, the medium, rather than the advertisement placed on it, is the message. When selecting a creative medium, the brand logo and slogan are placed in such a way that the medium itself implicitly communicates the brand associations due to its congruency with the ad message (Dahlén, 2005). From a practical point of view, this implies that the creative medium itself should convey a message relevant to the attributes of the advertised brand (Ang, Lee & Leong, 2007). If the context (media source) of the message is congruent with the message itself, the media source may function as a
cognitive prime, which affects the interpretation of the ad (Yi, 1990). This process is called priming. Priming causes specific associations that are evoked by the context of the ad, to implicitly spillover on the advertised brand. This process is called assimilation. Assimilation occurs when there is an overlap between the brand and the media context. When a creative media choice merely displays a brand logo and slogan, without a specific ad message,
consumers are triggered to use the knowledge structures activated by the medium. This elicits them to assimilate the brand with the overlapping associations evoked by this medium
(Dahlén, 2005). For example, when referring to the aforementioned advertisement regarding the energy drink, consumers will assimilate the uplifting associations of an elevator with the attributes of the energy drink itself. Consequently, they will perceive the energy drink as powerful and uplifting as well.
Ang, Lee and Leong (2007) extend on this knowledge by stating that novelty alone is not the only prerequisite for a creative media choice. Based on the assumption that random creativity is likely to be inefficient and could possibly even be harmful, they state that the novel element of a creative ad must also be meaningful. In short, a creative ad needs to be acknowledged (creative element) first, and must then have a distinct effect (meaningful element) on the consumer (El-Murad & West, 2004). For example, a yoga center advertises on the flexing part of a straw by portraying a woman with her hands up, and as you curve the straw, the woman bends with it (Eelen & Seiler, 2015). This advertisement is not only noticeable, as it uses a novel medium to portray its message, but it is meaningful as well, because the bending of the straw suggests flexibility, which is a result of doing yoga.
This process can be further explained by the associative learning theory. Derived from Till and Busler’s (2000) matchup-hypothesis, it is suggested that when a brand and a medium achieve a certain fit, associations of the medium are transferred to the brand by way of
associative learning. For example, when an insurance company prints its name and slogan on an eggshell, one implicitly associates the brand with safety and protection (Dahlén & Edenius, 2007). Dahlén, Friberg and Nilsson (2009) even state that creative media advertising is
especially effective because associations can become a cue for the brand, even when its name and slogan are no longer featured in the medium. Creative media choice strengthens
consumers’ associative networks by producing more persisting brand associations, therefore causing one to think of the insurance company even when being presented with a clear eggshell (Dahlén, Friberg & Nilsson, 2009). This assumption has made it particularly important for creative media advertising to use novel media that have never been formerly used for advertising.
Another important feature of creative media advertising is its atypical setting, through which the medium is not instantly recognized by the consumer as a commercial message.
According to Rumbo (2002) this is why creative media advertising is a pre-eminently useful tool to break through the massive amount of advertising clutter. Speck and Elliott (1997) suggest that this clutter causes consumers to develop more negative attitudes towards
advertising in general. Through this, people generally tend to avoid advertisements, based on cognitive, behavioral and mechanical means. Speck and Elliott’s (1997) research on ad avoidance showed that people are particularly inclined to avoid traditional advertisements by eliminating, ignoring or flipping past ads. Dahlén and Edenius (2007) suggest that consumers are less skeptical and wary towards creative advertisements because the creative medium is not instantly interpreted as a persuasive attempt, as is the case with traditional media. Consumers have developed a so-called advertising schema, also referred to as persuasion knowledge, which helps them to notice when, how and why a specific advertisement is trying to influence them (Friestad & Wright, 1994). Due to the unexpected setting in which creative advertisements are presented, this form of advertising tends to bypass the resistance otherwise caused by consumers’ advertising schema.
Creative vs. traditional
As the definition of creative media choice has now been established, the following paragraph will discuss the studies that have investigated its effects. Creative media choice has steadily gained recognition amongst marketing practitioners. Hence, the scientific interest towards this innovative advertising strategy has been gradually increasing as well. In most studies,
researchers have investigated the effects of creative media advertising in comparison with the effects of traditional media advertising (Ang, Lee & Leong, 2007; Dahlén, 2005; Dahlén & Edenius, 2007; Jurca, Romonti-Maniu & Zaharie, 2013; Mahmood, 2011). However, studies have not always demonstrated similar results.
The concept of creative media choice gained its first recognition after Dahlén’s (2005) research on media-context effects. Dahlén (2005) conducted an experiment comparing
identical ads from an insurance agency and an energy drink in both a creative and traditional media choice setting. Based on the results, Dahlén (2005) suggests that a creative media choice, as opposed to a traditional media choice, could serve as a visual prime that affects the perceived brand associations, enhances ad credibility and has positive effects on ad and brand attitude. Subsequent studies have focused on various effects of creative versus traditional media choice. Dahlén and Edenius (2007) found that creative media advertisements are more difficult to recognize as a persuasive attempt compared to traditional media advertisements. Therefore, consumers are less likely to activate their advertising schema, causing them to evaluate a creative media choice more favorably (Dahlén & Edenius, 2007). Parts of these findings are reinforced by the studies from Ang, Lee and Leong (2007) and Jurca, Romonti-Maniu and Zaharie (2013). Ang, Lee and Leong (2007) studied the effects of creative versus traditional media advertising based on the extent to which an advertisement was novel, meaningful and connected. In general, they found that novel (creative) ads elicited higher recall, more favorable ad attitudes and even more upbeat feelings, compared to non-novel (traditional) ads (Ang, Lee & Leong, 2007). Jurca, Romonti-Maniu and Zaharie (2013) also compared creative and traditional media advertisements and found that the placement of an ad in a creative medium increased consumers’ attention and attitude toward the ad, as well as the perceived credibility of the medium. In contrast to Dahlén’s (2005) results, they found no impact of creative media advertising on consumers’ overall brand attitude (Jurca, Romonti-Maniu & Zaharie, 2013). Surprisingly, Eelen and Seiler (2015) found a similar lack of effects on brand attitude in relation to creative media advertising. They investigated whether creative media choice increased online sharing of the advertisement in comparison with a traditional media choice. Although Eelen and Seiler (2015) were able to find positive results in regard to
the willingness to share the ad and the overall liking of the ad, they were, contrary to what they predicted, unable to demonstrate an increased brand attitude. However, they seem to be somewhat inconclusive towards these results. Referring to the study conducted by Dahlén, Friberg, and Nilsson (2009), they suggest that positive evaluations for the brand might only occur after a time delay. This assumption is based on the associative learning theory, on which Dahlén, Friberg and Nilsson (2009) built their research. They found that ads placed in a creative as opposed to traditional media setting, elicited more persisting brand associations. Furthermore, they stated that over time a creative medium may transfer new associations onto the brand, causing consumers to evaluate the brand more favorably (Dahlén, Friberg & Nilsson, 2009). However, these favorable evaluations might only occur after multiple exposures to the creative media advertisement, because the processing time takes longer compared to a traditional ad (Mahmood, 2011).
Whereas most studies on creative media advertising have addressed its relation to brand attitudes, the opposite can be noticed in regard to brand image. The term brand image has been scarcely used throughout the literature. However, slight remarks regarding its relation to creative media advertising can be made. Park, Jaworski and MacInnis (1986) define brand image as a set of brand perceptions reflected by consumers’ associations with the brand. These associations cover functional, symbolic and experiential features, such as brand quality and credibility. From this perspective, some studies do seem to have addressed specific brand image features. Dahlén, Rosengren and Törn (2008) state that creative advertisements signal a greater effort on behalf of the advertiser and a greater ability of the brand as opposed to traditional advertisements. As a result, creative media advertising
enhances both brand interest and perceived brand quality (Dahlén, Rosengren & Törn, 2008). Similar results were found by Rosengren and Dahlén (2012), who suggest that consumers perceive brands utilizing creative media choice to be more able, considering them to be
smarter and more innovative. They also showed that creative media choice elicits a positive impact on brand quality perceptions and brand evaluations, such as brand interest and brand attitude (Rosengren & Dahlén, 2012). Based on the findings of the aforementioned studies, the following two hypotheses are proposed:
H1: Creative media choice leads to a more positive brand attitude compared to a traditional media choice.
H2: Creative media choice leads to a more positive brand image compared to a traditional media choice.
Brand familiarity
Within the field of creative media research, brand familiarity has been occasionally mentioned as a contributing factor to the effects of creative media choice. Nevertheless, a proper attempt at uncovering its true value has never been made. According to Dahlén, Friberg and Nilsson (2009), the significance of brand familiarity in relation to creative media advertising is related to the aforementioned associative learning theory. Creative media choice elicits the learning of (new) brand associations by way of assimilation. As consumers already have stored preexisting representations of familiar brands, it is suggested that this makes it more difficult for new associations to spillover on these familiar brands (Dahlén, Friberg & Nilsson, 2009). On the other hand, consumers have no prior representations of unfamiliar brands, thus making it easier for them to learn new associations, which in turn could have a greater impact on their overall brand evaluations. To the contrary, Sheinin, Varki and Ashley (2011) state that a creative media advertisement for an unfamiliar brand, attracts greater attention toward the ad itself as opposed to the brand, causing consumers to remember the ad, but not the brand. A similar issue is addressed by Lange and Dahlén (2003), who state that creative ads from familiar brands require less processing effort compared to ads from
unfamiliar brands. Mahmood (2011) suggests that when an advertisement is more novel (creative), it will require greater processing efforts. Although a creative media choice attracts attention and interest and might trigger positive evaluations, Mahmood (2011) states that consumers are less likely to understand the main theme of a creative advertisement regarding an unfamiliar brand. This assumption relates to the importance of ad congruency and fit mentioned earlier in this paper. Dahlén (2005) pointed out the importance of an associative overlap between the brand and the creative medium in order to enhance the processing of the ad. However, as consumers have no preexisting associations with an unfamiliar brand, they might not understand the associative link between the brand and the creative medium. In short, they are unable to understand why a specific brand is exposed on a creative medium, thus making them incapable of understanding the message. According to Eelen and Seiler (2015) consumers will evaluate the brand less favorably if they are unable to understand the fit between the brand and the medium. It seems that this ad understanding is a crucial element in determining the potential role of brand familiarity in relation to creative media advertising. However, contradicting assumptions in current literature make it difficult to formulate
hypotheses about its actual impact. On the one hand it is possible that the novelty of a creative media advertisement introduces consumers to an unfamiliar brand in a surprising manor, thus encouraging greater positive outcomes (Eelen & Seiler, 2015). On the other hand, novel ads require greater processing efforts, especially for unfamiliar brands, because it requires tapping into preexisting associative memory structures, which are not formed yet (Ang, Lee & Leong, 2007). Thus, consumers could be less likely to successfully process creative advertisements for unfamiliar brands, making it difficult for them to understand the fit between the
advertisement and the brand. From this perspective, creative media choice could elicit greater positive outcomes for familiar brands, as consumers are more inclined to understand the fit between the creative medium and the familiar brand.
Based on the studies discussed above, it is clear that brand familiarity is likely to have an effect on the relationship between media choice and brand attitude and brand image. Furthermore, this effect is expected to be related to ad understanding. However, inconclusive and contradicting theories and findings based on previous studies make it difficult to
anticipate on any particular outcome. Therefore, this study attempts to expose the true value of brand familiarity and ad understanding by answering the following research question: “To
what extent do brand familiarity and ad understanding affect the relationship between media choice, brand attitude and brand image?”
Figure 1. Conceptual Model
Methods
Design and Participants
The study consists of a 2 (media choice: creative versus traditional) x 2 (brand familiarity: unfamiliar versus familiar) between-subjects experimental design, which will be used to test the aforementioned hypotheses. This design generated four experimental treatment
conditions, to which participants were randomly assigned.
The experimental survey was developed using the online survey software platform Qualtrics. Hence, all 253 participants were recruited via various online channels. The first 100 participants were recruited via Facebook, e-mail and Whatsapp and included mostly friends, family and acquaintances. As an extra incentive, it was stated that five quality bottles of wine
requested to leave their email addresses, otherwise, this was not required. Due to a stagnating response rate, it was decided to recruit the remaining necessary amount of participants via Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) in order to acquire a representative sample size. MTurk is a reliable digital marketplace for work, commonly used by scientific researchers to acquire their data. The additional 153 participants were recruited via this service. Each participant was rewarded with a $0.25 compensation after completing the survey, which took
approximately four minutes. Participants were required to have a feedback rating of at least 90% and a response rate of at least 5.000 surveys, in order to ensure the quality of the responses. Eventually, a final sample size of 253 (N = 253) was obtained. A simple exploratory analysis showed that all four conditions were roughly equal in size:
creative/unfamiliar (N = 63), creative/familiar (N = 64), traditional/unfamiliar (N = 60) and traditional/familiar (N = 66). The mean age of the final sample was 32.98 (SD = 11.32). Of all respondents 136 (53.8%) were male and 117 (46.2) were female. The applied methods caused for a wide range of nationalities, of which 91 (36%) were from the Netherlands, 85 (33.6%) from the United States, 58 (22.9%) from India and the remaining 19 (7.5%) from seventeen other countries worldwide. Well over half (64.9%) of these participants (N = 164) had at least completed a bachelors degree.
Procedure
After participants had opened the link to the survey, they were presented with the informed consent. This consent briefed participants about the procedure of the experiment, as well as the guaranteed anonymity of both their answers and their identity. To keep the opinions of participants unbiased, any reference towards advertising or marketing effects was omitted in this consent. Once they had agreed to participate, participants were presented with an image depicting a creative media advertisement or a traditional media advertisement, from either the
sports brand Abebe or Adidas. Participants were told to carefully study the image for at least ten seconds, because the subsequent survey concerned questions regarding this image. After ten seconds had passed, they were able to continue to the following set of questions, involving items regarding brand attitude, brand image and ad understanding. At the end of the survey, participants were asked to provide information regarding their demographics, such as age, gender, nationality and educational degree. At the end, everyone was thanked for their participation and requested to voluntarily leave their email address, if they wanted to stay informed on the progress of the study.
Independent variables
Brand familiarity. The study focuses on sports brands, due to the size and simplicity
of the market and the assumption that people generally tend to have a large frame of reference regarding the sports industry. This was believed to increase the likelihood that evaluations of the stimuli would be predominantly based on the stimuli themselves, instead of participants’ unfamiliarity with the market. Consequently, two sports brands were selected as the prime subjects of the study. At first, the fictional sports brand Abebe was selected to represent the unfamiliar brand. Because this brand had been made-up, it was believed that participants would be unfamiliar with this brand. Next, Adidas was selected as a familiar sports brand. As it is the second largest sports company in the world, it was assumed that everyone would be familiar with this brand. Therefore, it was decided not to perform a pre-test.
Media choice. After the brands were selected, two main advertisements were designed
in Photoshop, one creative and one traditional, thus assuring an equal comparison. The creative media advertisement depicted a photograph of a park bench with a missing seat. On the backrest of the bench, either the brand name and logo of the unfamiliar brand Abebe (see Appendix A) or the familiar brand Adidas (see Appendix B) was displayed, accompanied by
the word “sportswear”. The latter intended to evoke the association of both brands with sports, thus assisting viewers in understanding that the brand suggests people to stay active, as opposed to taking a rest and sitting down. For the traditional media advertisement a
photograph of woman running through a park alongside the coastline was used. The woman was wearing a vest portraying the brand logo of either Abebe or Adidas on the back, and the brand name and logo accompanied by the word “sportswear” were placed in the lower left corner of the picture (see Appendix C & Appendix D). The image intended to represent a typical sports advertisement as could be encountered in any traditional medium, such as a magazine or newspaper. By using the exact same advertisements for both the unfamiliar and familiar brand, any confounding variables elicited by the stimuli were thought to be confined. Furthermore, the exact same subtext “sportswear” was used in every advertisement, thus assuring that the media choice, brand and logo were the only differentiating factors. Eventually, this resulted in four unique advertisement stimuli, each representing a single treatment condition: creative/unfamiliar, creative/familiar, traditional/unfamiliar and traditional/familiar.
Dependent variables
Brand image. The first dependent variable brand image can briefly be defined as
consumers’ judgments of their overall associations and experiences regarding a brand, relative to alternative brands (Yan, Hyllegard & Blaesi, 2012). Brand image was measured using a six item 5-point semantic differential scale derived from Martinez and De Chernatony (2004), who studied brand images of sports companies and found this scale to be reliable. Participants stated the extent to which they agreed (strongly disagree – strongly agree) with statements such as: “The brand has personality”, “The brand is interesting” and “The brand is different
from competing brands”. The scale proved to be reliable (α = .82). Therefore, all six items were combined into one variable representing the total brand image (M = 3.44, SD = .76).
Brand attitude. The second dependent variable is brand attitude, which can be defined
as the consumer’s overall evaluations of the brand (Percy & Rossiter, 1992). Brand attitude was measured using a six item 7-point semantic differential scale derived from Boerman, Van Reijmersdal and Neijens (2012). The scale included items regarding participants’ perceptions towards the brand being bad – good, unpleasant – pleasant, unfavorable – favorable, negative – positive, not likeable – likeable and poor quality – high quality. The scale proved to be very reliable (α = .96). All six items were combined into one variable representing the total brand attitude (M = 5.31, SD = 1.21).
Ad understanding. Finally, ad understanding was measured to asses whether or not
participants were able to understand and interpret the advertisements. More specifically, if they understood the link between a bench with no seat, thus suggesting to work out and keep moving, and the sports brand displayed on that bench. Therefore, respondents were asked to briefly explain the link between the advertisement and the brand. All individual answers were evaluated and coded into a dichotomous scale item where 0 meant “does not understand” and 1 represented “does understand” (M = .66, SD = .48).
Two manipulation checks regarding the independent variables media choice and brand familiarity were conducted to asses whether or not the stimuli accurately represented the desired manipulation. The manipulation checks for both variables consisted of one item each. In regard to the variable media choice participants had to state on a 5-point semantic
differential scale whether they strongly agreed or strongly disagreed with the statement: “This ad is creative” (M = 3.49, SD = 1.18). The manipulation of the variable brand familiarity was checked by asking participants to declare their agreement (strongly agree – strongly disagree) on a 5-point semantic differential scale with the statement: “I am familiar with this brand” (M
= 3.26, SD = 1.48). Both items were concealed and implemented amongst the other dependant variable items, as this was believed to reduce the possibility of participants guessing the purpose of the study.
Results
Randomization
At the start of the analysis it was important to check whether there was an equal distribution of participants amongst the conditions. Therefore, a MANOVA was conducted, with age, nationality and educational level as dependant variables and media choice and brand
familiarity as independent variables. Nationality was scaled down to four separate categories, representing The Netherlands (N = 91), United States (N = 85), India (N = 58) and remaining countries (N = 19). It appeared that there was a nearly significant difference for age in the media choice conditions (F (1, 249) = 3.33, p = .069) and a weak significant difference between the brand familiarity conditions (F (1, 249) = 4.46, p = .036). Descriptive statistics showed that participants in the familiar condition on average tend to be older (M = 34.45) compared to the unfamiliar condition (M = 31.43), accounting for the weak significant
difference between both groups. Therefore, age will be taken into account as a covariate in all further analyses.
Randomization appeared to be successful for the variables nationality and educational level. There were no significant differences for nationality in the media choice conditions (F (1, 249) = .15, p = .699) and the brand familiarity conditions (F (1, 249) = .06, p = .800). Educational level also appeared to be equally distributed amongst the conditions media choice (F (1, 249) = .85, p = .356) and brand familiarity (F (1, 249) = .92, p = .339) as there were no significant differences.
Determining whether or not there was an equal distribution amongst gender between the conditions, Chi-Square tests were conducted. It appeared that there were no significant differences for gender between the media choice conditions (χ2(1) = .005, p = .946) and the brand familiarity conditions (χ2(1) = .001, p = .976).
Manipulation check
Two manipulation checks were incorporated into the study to assess whether the conditions accurately represented the intended treatments. Two ANOVA’s were conducted to check the success of both manipulations. The first ANOVA checked if there was an actual perceived difference in the creative media and traditional media condition. Media choice was used as independent variable, and perceived creativity of the advertisement as the dependent variable. Participants in the creative media condition perceived the advertisement to be more creative (M = 3.76, SD = 1.10) than participants in the traditional media condition (M = 3.21, SD = 1.19). This difference appeared to be significant (F (1, 251) = 14.52, p < .001), which meant that the manipulation had succeeded.
The second ANOVA tested whether participants in the familiar brand condition were indeed more familiar with the brand as opposed to participants in the unfamiliar brand condition. Participants in the familiar brand condition indeed appeared to be more familiar with the brand (M = 4.28, SD = .72) than participants in the unfamiliar brand condition (M = 2.19, SD = 1.31). This difference also appeared to be significant (F (1, 251) = 250.39, p < .001), implying a successful manipulation of brand familiarity.
Main analyses
To test the hypotheses a MANCOVA was conducted with media choice and brand familiarity as independent variables, brand attitude and brand image as dependent variables and age was
taken into account as a covariate. The analysis showed weak significant effects for the media choice condition (F (1, 248) = 3.16, p = .044, Wilk’s λ = .98, partial η2 = .03) and significant effects for the brand familiarity condition (F (1, 248) = 11.62, p < .001, Wilk’s λ = .91, partial
η2 = .09). The MANCOVA indicated a marginally significant interaction effect (F (1, 248) =
2.46, p = .088, Wilk’s λ = .98, partial η2 = .02). The univariate results for every dependant variable will be discussed in the following paragraphs.
Brand attitude
An ANCOVA, with the variable age as a covariate, was conducted to test the hypothesis stating that creative media choice would lead to a more favorable brand attitude compared to a traditional media choice. The analysis also tested if this effect was influenced by brand familiarity, as had been expected. It was found that a creative media choice actually led to lower brand attitudes (M = 5.12, SD = .10) compared to a traditional media choice (M = 5.48,
SD = .10). This effect was found to be significant (F (1, 248) = 6.26, p = .013). Therefore,
hypothesis 1 can be rejected. The brand familiarity condition also proved to have a significant main effect (F (1, 248) = 21.42, p < .001). It appeared that familiar brands led to a higher brand attitude (M = 5.64, SD = .10) as opposed to unfamiliar brands (M = 4.94, SD = .10).
Furthermore, the analysis showed no significant interaction effect between the
variables media choice and brand familiarity on brand attitude (F (1, 248) = 1.45, p = .294). It can therefore be concluded that, as opposed to what was expected, there is no moderating effect of brand familiarity on the relationship between media choice and brand attitude.
Brand image
The second hypothesis stated that creative media choice would lead to a more positive brand image as opposed to a traditional media choice. An ANCOVA with age as a covariate was
conducted to test the hypothesis, as well as the expected effect of brand familiarity. The analysis showed a non-significant effect between media choice and brand image (F (1, 248) = 2.41, p = .120). Therefore, hypothesis 2 can be rejected. Brand familiarity on the other hand, appeared to have a significant effect on brand image (F (1, 248) = 18.01, p < .001). Familiar brands scored significantly higher on brand image (M = 3.64, SD = .06) compared to
unfamiliar brands (M = 3.24, SD = .07).
Additionally, a weak but significant interaction effect was found between the variables media choice and brand familiarity on brand image (F (1, 248) = 4.54, p = .034). A simple main effects analysis showed that participants in the unfamiliar condition valued the brand image higher after being exposed to a traditional media advertisement (M = 3.41, SD = .09) compared to a creative media choice (M = 3.07, SD = .09, F (1, 249) = 6.66, p = .010). This effect was non-significant in the familiar brand conditions (F (1, 249) = .17, p = .610). The reversed simple main effects analysis showed that participants in the creative media condition showed a higher brand image for familiar brands (M = 3.66, SD = .09) compared to unfamiliar brands (M = 3.07, SD = .09, F (1, 249) = 20.72, p < .001). However, this effect was not
significant for the traditional media choice (F (1, 249) = 2.29, p = .131). The following charts present a clear overview of the aforementioned results:
Figure 2. Brand image; unfamiliar brands (sig.). Figure 3. Brand image; familiar brands.
0 1 2 3 4 5 Unfamiliar brands Creative media choice Traditional media choice 0 1 2 3 4 5 Familiar brands Creative media choice Traditional media choice
Figure 4. Brand image; creative media choice (sig.). Figure 5. Brand image; traditional media choice.
Ad understanding
In determining the role of ad understanding, the following analyses determine its potential value as a mediator. The ANCOVA with media choice and brand familiarity as independent variables, age as covariate and ad understanding as the dependent variable showed no
significant interaction effect between media choice and brand familiarity on ad understanding (F (1, 248) = .01, p = .934). The possibility of a moderated mediation can therefore be
dismissed. Next a mediation analysis according to the subsequent steps of Baron and Kenny (1986) was conducted.
Brand image. The first step of Baron and Kenny (1986) determines the direct effect of
the independent variable media choice on the dependent variable brand image. As this effect was proven to be non-significant ( = .10, t = 1.53, p = .128), the subsequent steps can be disregarded, as there will be no mediating effect of ad understanding.
Brand attitude. A regression analysis of media choice on brand attitude showed a
significant relationship between the two variables ( = .16, t = 2.54, p = .012), as was already uncovered in the earlier ANCOVA. Step two of Baron and Kenny (1986) tested the effect of media choice on ad understanding. Participants in the traditional media condition understood the link between the brand and the ad to a higher extent (M = .90, SD = .04), compared to participants in the creative media choice condition (M = .42, SD = .04). This effect was
0 1 2 3 4 5
Creative media choice
Familiar brand Unfamiliar brand 0 1 2 3 4 5
Traditional media choice
Familiar brand
significant ( = .51, t = 9.26, p < .001). Step three determined the relationship between ad understanding and brand attitude. The outcome showed a significant relationship between ad understanding and brand attitude ( = .14, t = 2.19, p = .029), suggesting that participants had higher attitudes towards the brand when they had a greater understanding of the ad. The final step included an analysis of the effect of both media choice and ad understanding on brand attitude. The outcome showed no mediating effect of ad understanding on the relationship between media choice and brand attitude, since the relationship between media choice and ad understanding on brand attitude was non-significant ( = .08, t = 1.06 p = .291).
Conclusion and discussion
The main purpose of this study was to investigate the value of creative versus traditional media choices in establishing a positive brand attitude and brand image. The study also set out to determine whether these effects could be influenced by brand familiarity and ad understanding. In establishing the effects of media choice, the study showed that a creative media choice actually led to less positive brand attitudes compared to a traditional media choice. This effect proved to be irrespective of familiarity with the brand, which was shown to have no influence on the relationship between media choice and brand attitude.
Furthermore, the study showed that people are able to understand the link between traditional media advertisements and the brand to a greater extent than creative media advertisements. Moreover, people tend to develop more positive brand attitudes when they are able to better understand the advertisement. However, ad understanding was not proven to be an underlying influential factor in the relationship between media choice and brand attitude.
When assessing the effect of media choice on brand image, no relationship was found. This means that there is a similar effect on brand image between a creative and traditional media choice. However, differences in brand image were found in regard to media choices for
familiar versus unfamiliar brands. The study showed that creative media choices result in a more favorable brand image for familiar brands as opposed to unfamiliar brands. Moreover, if unfamiliar brands aim to achieve a favorable brand image, they are better off opting for a traditional media choice as opposed to a creative media choice.
From a scientific point of view, the results of the study were not as predicted. Neither was this study able to replicate the findings of earlier studies, on which the initial hypotheses were based. It was predicted that creative media choices would lead to a more positive brand attitude and brand image as opposed to a traditional media choice. This notion was based on the findings of earlier studies (Dahlén, 2005; Dahlén, Friberg & Nilsson, 2009; Rosengren & Dahlén, 2012), which have now been contradicted by these results. However, establishing favorable brand evaluations from creative media choice has proven to be difficult in the past. Jurca, Romonti-Maniu and Zaharie (2013) found no direct impact of creative media choice on brand attitude and neither did Eelen and Seiler (2015). Supplemented by the results from this study, showing that creative media choice actually tends to decrease brand evaluations compared to traditional media choices, it appears that establishing a true coherent value of creative media choice remains difficult. A possible explanation for the unexpected findings from this study could be linked to the process of understanding the link between the creative media choice and the brand. Although ad understanding had no influence on the overall relationship between media choice, brand attitude and brand image, the study did suggest that creative media advertisements were understood less as opposed to traditional advertisements. A personality trait referred to as need for cognition (NFC) could possibly be an underlying explanation for the less favorable evaluations in regard to the creative media advertisements. Martin, Lang and Wong (2003) state that some people enjoy effortful cognitive activities more than others. In short, some people have a higher need for cognition than others. Dahlén, Friberg and Nilsson (2009) suggest that creative media choice could particularly ensure
favorable evaluations because people like the challenge (high need for cognition) presented by a creative advertisement. They suggest that people tend to evaluate the brand more favorable once they have solved the puzzle in regard to why the brand is exposed on a
particular creative medium (Dahlén, Friberg & Nilsson, 2009). However, it could be possible that the unexpected findings from this study are related to the fact that some people who eventually were able to understand the creative advertisement, did not enjoy the effortful cognitive process (low need for cognition) that lead them towards solving that puzzle. Hence, they evaluated the brand less favorably.
A second explanation could be that the creative media advertisement itself was not inviting enough to challenge people to actively think about the brand in the context of the medium at first glance. Respondents were immediately asked to evaluate aspects of the brand and the advertisement after viewing the image, but were only triggered to try and understand what the actual advertisement meant at the end of the survey. Hence, they might have
evaluated the brands less favorable after viewing the creative media choice as the
advertisement itself didn’t trigger them enough to understand why the brand was exposed on the particular medium. This suggestion is related to earlier arguments from advertising creativity researchers Till and Baack (2005), who state that it is difficult to change
consumers’ brand attitude after just a single exposure. Mahmood (2011) investigated brand attitudes after a single exposure and after three exposures and was able to confirm these assumptions. Mahmood (2011) was unable to find a significant effect of creative
advertisements on brand attitude after a single exposure, but did find significant effects after three exposures. Moreover, after three exposures a creative advertisement yielded
significantly more positive brand attitudes compared to a traditional advertisement. Therefore, it could be that the unexpected findings from this study are related to the less effective single exposure of the creative media advertisement utilized in this experiment.
In regard to the anticipated role of brand familiarity in the effectiveness of a particular media choice, mixed results were found. The finding that brand familiarity did not affect the relationship between media choice and brand attitude and only had a small influence when unfamiliar brands were introduced in the relationship between media choice and brand image, could be due to a lack of participants’ pre-stored brand associations. It is likely that as
respondents had no previous associations with the unfamiliar brand, the traditional media advertisement was able to provide them with a clearer and more favorable brand image as opposed to the creative media choice. This could suggest that the creative medium was just not able to transfer the intended positive associations onto the brand. In their study on brand perceptions of familiar brands, Rosengren, Dahlén, and Törn (2008) found that a creative media choice enhances positive perceptions of a brand’s image, such as a greater effort, ability, quality and interest. These findings are extended by the additional results from this study, which suggest that a creative media choice elicits a more favorable brand image for familiar brands as opposed to unfamiliar brands.
Thus, from a practical point of view, this study provides a few new insights for marketing professionals. First of all, the findings suggest that marketers should opt for a traditional media advertisement over a creative media advertisement if they intend to increase brand attitudes, irrespective of the brand being an unfamiliar startup or a familiar established brand. Furthermore, if marketers intend to increase the brand image of an unfamiliar startup brand, they are better of developing a traditional media advertisement as opposed to a creative media advertisement. For familiar established brands both media choices will have similar effects on the brand’s image.
Limitations and future research
to a few limitations. The first of which, can be due to the lack of any pre-tests. Although both manipulation checks indicated a successful manipulation of both dependant variables, the creative media choice only proved to be perceived as slightly more creative compared to the traditional media choice. Furthermore, some participants stated that they were not able to get a clear impression of the creative media choice, as they were unsure to conclude from the image that the bench had a missing seat. A pre-test could have ensured a greater perceived difference in both media choices and could have ensured that respondents would have been able to get a clear view of every aspect in the image. Furthermore, no associations were tested in this study. The creative media choice depicts a park bench with a missing seat, which if encountered in real life could evoke positive feelings in regards to being outdoors, feeling free in nature and being active. It is possible that these positive associations were not evoked by a mere image of the bench. Although earlier studies have proven the effectiveness of creative media choices through images (Dahlén & Edenius, 2007; Eelen & Seiler, 2015; Rosengren, Modig, & Dahlén, 2014), this might just not have properly worked in this study.
A second limitation of the study was the measurement of ad understanding, which took place after respondents had already filled in items regarding their evaluations of the brand. In hindsight, from respondents answers to the question in regard to their interpretations of the link between the brand and the advertisement, it appeared that a lot of respondents only started to think about the actual meaning of the advertisement after being asked for it. This could suggest that respondents only started processing the actual meaning of the
advertisement, once they had already evaluated the brand. As has been suggested in the previous paragraph, there could be a difference in respondents need for cognition. If some respondents had a low need for cognition, they might have started evaluating the brand straight away, without caring to understand the actual meaning of the advertisement before specifically being asked about it. Hence, if future studies aim to determine a true value of ad
understanding in the context of creative media choice effectiveness, need for cognition could be an important factor to take into account. Furthermore, no evaluations regarding the
advertisements themselves, such as ad attitude or ad liking, were investigated in this study. Therefore, it could be possible that this particular creative media advertisement was evaluated less favorable compared to this traditional media advertisement and that this opinion spilled over on the evaluations of the brand.
Due to the contradicting results from this research in regard to the findings from previous studies, it is clear that it remains difficult to determine the true value that creative media choice has to offer a brand. As this study partially proves that a traditional media choice leads to more favorable brand evaluations, it is clear that the effectiveness of creative media choice is dependent on various factors, which haven’t all been taken into account in this study. This study provides new insights into the weaknesses of creative media choice as opposed to a traditional media choice, which have not been previously uncovered. It is therefore essential for future researchers to not be biased by the positive results found in earlier studies, but to stay critical towards all conclusions in regard to the effectiveness of creative media choice. Future research should elaborate on the studies that have already been conducted and consider other aspects that might influence the effects of creative media choice, such as need for cognition. It is important to exclude any confounding factors that might contribute to the effects of media choice on brand evaluations.
All in all, this study has shown that marketers should remain critical towards every element of their advertising strategy. Although the demand for novel and innovative
marketing practices has been increasing, one should never underestimate the strength of time-honored traditional tools, as they could be more effective than one might think.
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Appendices
Appendix A: Creative media choice Abebe (unfamiliar)
Appendix C: Traditional media choice Abebe (unfamiliar)
