Highly Creative Advertising Can Backfire for Popular Brands

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Summary

Highly creative advertising is essential for lesser-known brands, but for familiar ones the effort may backfire, new research shows. If the highly creative ad is perceived as off-brand or forces too much information processing, it can damage consumers’ attitudes toward the familiar brand.

Author bios:

Ahmed al-Shuaili (ahmed.alshuaili.niz@cas.edu.om) is assistant dean, academic support affairs, at the University of Technology and Applied Sciences – Nizwa, Oman. He received his PhD from Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia, where his thesis focused on advertising creativity.

Scott Koslow (scott.koslow@mq.edu.au) is a professor of marketing at Macquarie University, Australia. He specializes in research about advertising creativity and has worked with most major agency brands. Koslow is a recipient of the JAR Best Reviewer award.

Mark Kilgour (mark.kilgour@waikato.ac.nz) is a senior lecturer of marketing at the University of Waikato, New Zealand. Over the past two decades, Kilgour has worked throughout Southeast Asia and Australasia, in both private consultancy and academic positions. His current research focuses on creativity and innovation, social media and omnichannel retailing.