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The effects of creativity on advertising wear-in and wear-out

  • Original Empirical Research
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Abstract

Both ad creativity and ad repetition play a pivotal role in advertising strategy. It is therefore of practical and theoretical importance to understand how they interact with one another on advertising effectiveness. After reviewing existing theories, we predict three-way interactions among: divergence, relevance, and repetition over six important dependent variables. Using a 2×2×3 between-subjects experimental design, we find that the classic inverted U-Shape (repeatedly found in previous repetition research) is observed only for ads with low divergence and relevance. In contrast, creative ads (high divergence and relevance) wear in immediately and show little sign of wearing-out even over repeated exposures. Mixed levels of divergence and relevance produce immediate wear-in but do show wearing-out over repeated exposures. Implications for advertising management and media programming are discussed.

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Notes

  1. Precautions were taken to ensure that respondents in the two pretests and the main study were different.

  2. The stimulus ads product categories included creative ads group: Automobile, Retailing, Beverage, Sports Wear, Gum, CD Recorder, TV Network, DVR; divergent-only ads group: Apparel, Insurance, Beverage, Sports Wear, Beer, Investment, Education, Public Service; relevant-only ads group: Automobile, Retailing, Pharmaceutical, Household Goods, Beer, Investment, Cell Phone Network, Engine Service, Furniture; non-creative ads group: Automobile, Retailing, Construction, Financial Service, Legal Service, Carpet, Furniture.

  3. Product categories in the fillers ads include: Retailing, Automobile, Cosmetics, Consumer Packaged Food, Furniture, Legal Service.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the editor and the two anonymous reviewers for their constructive criticisms, recommendations, and support throughout the review process.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Marketing, Monash University, PO Box 197, Caulfield East, VIC, 3145, Australia

    Jiemiao Chen

  2. Sheldon B. Lubar School of Business, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, PO Box 742, Milwaukee, WI, 53201, USA

    Xiaojing Yang

  3. Marketing Department, Kelley School of Business, Indiana University, 1309 East 10th Street, Bloomington, IN, 47405, USA

    Robert E. Smith

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  1. Jiemiao Chen
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  2. Xiaojing Yang
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Correspondence to Jiemiao Chen.

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Chen, J., Yang, X. & Smith, R.E. The effects of creativity on advertising wear-in and wear-out. J. of the Acad. Mark. Sci. 44, 334–349 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-014-0414-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-014-0414-5

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