Innovation in advertising : the key to success?

Abstract

The public is exposed to a ridiculous amount of adverts per day and it has become harder for the practitioners of the advertising industry to produce an effective advert, that is one which grabs the public's attention and, consequently, sells the product/brand. This study is built upon two research questions. The first analyses whether the theorists within the field of advertising and the practitioners of the advertising industry agree on what constitutes a classic and an innovative advert. The second research question delves into the role of innovation in the advertising industry and analyses whether innovation is the key to the success of an advert. This study incorporates a qualitative research strategy. The methodology consists of one-to-one semi-structured interviews with the Creative Directors of eight local advertising agencies. This research concludes that each advert is subject to the eye-of-the-beholder phenomenon. This implies that the practitioners need to create effective adverts which will stand out from all the other adverts. This can be achieved through the use of innovation in an advert. A five-step guide has been created for the practitioners to follow before executing the advert in order to ensure that innovation is used in a way which would yield the desired result.