RECALL AND PERSUASION: Does Creative Advertising Matter?

TLDR

Creativity is considered a key element of advertising. The study investigates whether creative advertising improves recall, brand attitude, and purchase intent. The authors compared award‑winning commercials to control ads in naturalistic TV viewing, measuring aided and unaided recall in Studies 1–2 and brand attitude and purchase intent in Study 3. Creative ads increased unaided recall, but had no effect on aided recall, purchase intent, or brand/advertisement attitude, and the recall advantage persisted for one week.

Abstract

Creativity is an important component of advertising. This research examines the potential effectiveness of creative advertising in enhancing recall, brand attitude, and purchase intent. Our basic methodology compares a set of randomly selected award-winning commercials (Communication Arts) with a random sample of control commercials. The commercials were embedded in television programs and subjects for a naturalistic viewing experience. Studies 1 and 2 had aided and unaided brand and execution recall as dependent variables. For Study 3, brand attitude and purchase intent were the dependent variables of interest. Results indicated that creative commercials facilitate unaided recall, but that creativity did not enhance aided recall, purchase intent, or brand and advertisement attitude. The basic advantage of creative advertising in enhancing unaided recall was found to persist over a one-week delay.