Unravelling the Process of Creativity in Advertising

421 Pages·2016·6.27 MB·English

by  Mahsa Ghaffari

Unravelling the Process of Creativity in Advertising: A
Praxiological Approach

Mahsa Ghaffari

A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy

University of Bath
School of Management

June 2016

COPYRIGHT

Attention is drawn to the fact that copyright of this thesis rests with the author. A
copy of this thesis has been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it is
understood to recognise that its copyright rests with the author and that they
must not copy it or use material from it except as permitted by law or with the
consent of the author.

This thesis may be made available for consultation within the University Library
and may be photocopied or lent to other libraries for the purposes of consultation.

Signed on behalf of the Faculty/School of...................................
Acknowledgments
Similar to the process of creativity in advertising, the topic of my PhD
dissertation, a PhD is indeed a multi-crew process. Here I would like to express
my thanks to my PhD crew who through their direct and indirect guidance and
friendship have assisted me in this journey.
I would like to thank Professor Michael Beverland for agreeing to take me on as a
PhD student, and coaching me throughout this journey. He was not simply my
academic advisor but was also my “parental supervisor”; not only did he guide
and encourage me to explore my research interests and find my voice but also
he supported me throughout my many ups and downs. A big thank you goes to
Dr Zoe Lee who always supports me and shows me the light at the end of the
journey. I am especially grateful for her boosting my confidence through her
constant motivation and praise of my efforts. Further, I would like to thank the
head of the marketing group at the University of Bath, Professor Avi Shankar, for
his insightful critiques of my work which have prepared me to face the challenges
of academia and helped me find the path toward success. I would also like to
thank both my supervisors and Professor Shankar for the numerous opportunities
they entrusted to me which significantly built up my work experience record and
recently earned me two nominations at the ICORIA and EGOS 2015 and my first
lecturing job.
The current form of the thesis would not been possible without having consensus
of access to Dalton agency and my research respondents who trusted me and
gave me their time and shared their expertise and views. I would like to thank
Dalton’s creative director and managing director who in contrary to the
confidentiality of data gave me this opportunity to be on site and try to understand
the language games and hidden rules played by creatives and other ad agency
members.
Many thanks also should go to members of the global academic community who
provided me with feedback on the work and who are too numerous to mention.
Special references goes to Professor Theodore Schatzki, and Professor Davide
Nicolini who helped me polish the theoretical lens of my research during 2014
1
summer school at Warwick University on Practice based studies in social and
organisational studies. Also, Professor Arthur Kover, Professor Elisabeth Shove,
and Dr. Aydin Kelly who generously gave me their time and helped me have a
clearer view on the topic and lens of my research. In addition, I would like to
thank Professor Fleura Bardhi, and Professor Dannie Kjeldgaard for their
guidance and advice during 2013 seminar regarding qualitative methods and
research design at University of Lille Nord de France-SKEMA Business School.
Also special thanks goes to my transfer examiners Professor Eric Arnould and
Dr. Haiming Hang who helped me refine my thesis at a very crucial stage as well
as my Viva examiners, Professor Douglas West and Dr. Svenja Tams for
agreeing to take on this role.
Finally and most importantly I would like to give a humongous thank to my lovely
parents, Nayereh and Majid, who not only have supported me financially but
reassured me that I am capable of accomplishing this journey. “Maman baba
mersi” "یسرم اباب نامام”. Also I would like to thank my lovely partner, Sepehr, and
my dear grandmother, Badri, whose moral support were always motivating, and
the doctoral students at university of Bath with whom I bonded over the torments
of our parallel PhD routes.

2
Abstract
The purpose of this thesis is to examine the process of creativity in advertising
from a practice-based perspective and illustrate the dynamics and relations
between practices that can constitute this phenomenon. A nine month long
ethnographic study was conducted in the context of an international advertising
agency in Iran, where the organisational aim of doing being creative is in
contradiction with the broader social system of the country which largely
promotes conservative thinking. Such tension makes practitioners aware of their
intertwinement with the practices involved in the creativity process and thus it is
easier for them to reflect on what they are doing (Sandberg and Tsoukas 2011).
This setting thus provides a good platform to capture the logic of practices. By
drawing on Schatzki’s (1996) theories of practice, the everyday practices of
creatives, their interaction with other members of their advertising agency, their
clients and audiences as well as with existing advertising and ideas within the
social and situational milieux from the start of a campaign until receiving approval
are examined. The findings indicate various stakeholders participate in the
process of creativity in advertising, such as creatives, other ad agency members,
the client, the campaign’s audience, and the governmental officers, all of whom
can have different requirements and preferences.
While prior literature makes valuable contributions to our understanding of
creativity in advertising agencies, in particular related to the important features of
the creative outcome, the environmental factors that hinder or foster creativity
and the people involved, particularly those individuals that are responsible for
delivering creativity, their traits and personalities, we lack an understanding of its
process and the recursive roles of environmental and structural factors that can
shape and be shaped by the process of creativity in advertising. The present
study contributes to this literature by adopting a practice lens revealing the
process of creativity in advertising to be entwined in relational/socio-material
practice, be the alignment of different preferences of various stakeholders, and
be a cumulative process. In addition, techniques for pursuing different end tasks
are explored and practices are found to be carriers of culture, and the internal
and external rewards in practices are found to be the perceived competences of
3
a practice and the embracing of the identity of a practice respectively. Finally,
some managerial implications based on the outcomes of this research are
proposed. These cover the establishment of practice-based guidelines with a
corresponding reward system for evaluating creativity in advertising, introducing
an appropriate physical layout and structures for ad agencies that can enable the
alignment of various objectives and avoid potential tensions, providing a
comprehensive induction and training for staff, ensuring an organisational flat
structure as well as deploying collaboration as the most appropriate type of
leadership for controlling creatives.

4
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction ..................................................................................... 15
1.1 Creativity as perspiration rather than inspiration: ...................................... 15
1.2 Demarcation and definitions of creativity in this research: ......................... 16
1.3 Approaches and scope of the research: .................................................... 17
1.4 Research aims and objectives and questions: .......................................... 20
1.5 Outline of thesis: ........................................................................................ 22
Chapter 2: Theoretical Framework .................................................................... 24
2.1 Nature of creativity: From an individual act to cultural participation ........... 26
2.2 Organisational creativity in general and specifically in commercial creative
industries: ........................................................................................................ 31
2.2.1 Demarcation of organisational creativity in general and in commercial
creative industries: .......................................................................................... 31
2.2.2 The process of organisational creativity mainly in commercial creative
industries: ........................................................................................................ 33
2.2.3 Social aspects of the process of organisational creativity in commercial
creative industries: .......................................................................................... 36
2.3 The knowledge regarding creativity in advertising and specifically its
process: ........................................................................................................... 40
2.3.1 The knowledge about the process of creativity in advertising: ............ 44
2.3.2 The overlooked areas in the studies regarding the process of creativity
in advertising: ............................................................................................... 57
2.3.3 David Ogilvy, Bill Bernbach, Leo Burnett, and George Gribbin’s views
on creativity in advertising: ........................................................................... 60
2.4 Practice-based theoretical approach to studying the process of creativity in
advertising within cultural context conditions: .................................................. 64
2.4.1 Theories on practice: .......................................................................... 68
5
2.4.1.1 Different theories on practices, their commonalities and differences:
..................................................................................................................... 68
2.4.1.2 Application of practice theories in empirical settings: ....................... 72
2.4.1.3 Schatzki’s practice theory: ............................................................... 76
2.5 Research design and questions: ............................................................... 90
2.6 Chapter summary: ..................................................................................... 94
Chapter 3: Methodology .................................................................................... 95
3.1 Framework of inquiry: ................................................................................ 97
3.2 Ethnographic research: ........................................................................... 100
3.3 Choice of settings: ................................................................................... 102
3.4 Data collection methods: ......................................................................... 107
3.4.1 Participant observation: .................................................................... 108
3.4.2 Unstructured interviews: ................................................................... 118
3.4.3 Semi-structured interviews: ............................................................... 119
3.4.4 Projective techniques: ....................................................................... 120
3.5 Description of the study settings and its history: ...................................... 125
3.5.1 The history and current structure of Dalton, the selected ad agency:126
3.6 A reflexive account of my time with Dalton: ............................................. 131
3.6.1 Initial contact: .................................................................................... 132
3.6.2 Gaining access: ................................................................................ 133
3.6.3 The evolution of my role: ................................................................... 136
3.6.4 Sampling: .......................................................................................... 138
3.7 Data analysis: .......................................................................................... 140
3.8 Criteria of methods: ................................................................................. 150
3.9 Limitations: .............................................................................................. 152
3.10 Chapter summary: ................................................................................. 154
Chapter 4: Findings ......................................................................................... 155
6
4.1 Creativity as entwined in practices .......................................................... 157
4.1.1 Bundle1, the contact meeting: a detailed account: ........................... 165
4.1.2 Bundle 2, the briefing and generating the campaign’s ideas: a detailed
account ...................................................................................................... 178
4.1.3 Bundle 3, the execution and Reification of the selected ideas: a
detailed account ......................................................................................... 210
4.1.4 Bundle 4, the pre-approval evaluation and socialisation of the
presentation: a detailed account ................................................................ 230
4.1.5 Bundle 5, the convincing and selling to the client via having a
presentation: a detailed account ................................................................ 242
4.1.6 Bundle 6, the governmental approval: a brief account ...................... 262
4.2 Creativity as the alignment of different stakeholders’ preferences: ......... 278
4.2.1 A) Increasing the level of gatekeepers’ approval: ............................. 280
4.2.2 B) Achieving the ad agency desired proposals in order to have
successful campaigns: ............................................................................... 284
4.2.3 C) Achieving the ad agency marketing and positioning aims: ........... 285
4.2.4 D) Developing creatives’ professional identities: ............................... 287
4.2.5 E) Increasing the creatives’ motivation: ............................................ 289
4.2.6 F) Avoiding clashes among practices by harmonising different
considerations/logics behind them and balancing the tension: .................. 290
4.3 Creativity being a cumulative process: the dynamics and relations among
identified bundles in the process of creativity in advertising .......................... 295
4.3.1 Connection of bundles through practice-practice relations: .............. 296
4.3.2 Connection of bundles through arrangements-practices relations: ... 319
4.3.3 Connection of bundles through arrangements- arrangements relations:
................................................................................................................... 328
4.4 Chapter summary: ................................................................................... 330
Chapter 5: Discussion and conclusion ............................................................ 331
5.1 Overview of theoretical framework: ......................................................... 332
7
5.2 Key findings and theoretical contributions: .............................................. 336
5.2.1 Creativity as entwined in practices: ................................................... 337
5.2.2 Creativity in advertising as the alignment of different end tasks: ...... 341
5.2.3 Cumulative and conjunctive formation of creativity in advertising: .... 348
5.2.4 Practices as carrier of culture: .......................................................... 350
5.2.5 Internal and external rewards in practices: ....................................... 351
5.3 Conclusion, limitations, and future research: ........................................... 353
References:....................................................................................................... 358
Appendix I: Semi structured interviews ............................................................. 386
Appendix II: Full account of omnibus and discrete context of Iran regarding
creativity in advertising ...................................................................................... 389
1. Omnibus context of Iran: ......................................................................... 389
1.1 Formative events during past decades in Iran (BBC 2013): .................... 389
1.1.1 The influences of the above events on society and people’s lives in
Iran: ........................................................................................................... 390
1.2 The discrete context of Iran regarding the practice of being creative in
advertising: .................................................................................................... 392
1.2.1 The societal conditions regarding advertising in the context of Iran: . 392
Appendix III: Data source and use .................................................................... 394
Appendix IV: literature Review Tables: ............................................................. 395

8
List of Figures
Figure 2.1: Research design ............................................................................... 25
Figure 2.2: A proposed cultural framework of creativity ..................................... 28
Figure 2.3: The process of creativity from a socio-cultural-psychological
perspective.......................................................................................................... 31
Figure 2.4: Interlacement of bundles of practices-arrangements and social
phenomenon as a slice of this interlock .............................................................. 80
Figure 2.5: Theoretical framework ...................................................................... 93
Figure 3.1: The copywriter’s drawing regarding the process of creativity in
advertising ........................................................................................................ 122
Figure 3.2: The creative director’s drawing regarding the process of creativity in
advertising ........................................................................................................ 124
Figure 4.1: Contact meeting bundle .................................................................. 177
Figure 4.2: Briefing and generating the campaign ideas .................................. 209
Figure 4.3: Execution and Reification of the selected ideas. ............................. 229
Figure 4.4: Pre-approval evaluation and socialisation ...................................... 241
Figure 4.5: Convincing and selling to the client. ................................................ 261
Figure 4.6: Governmental approval.. ................................................................. 277
Figure 4.7 : The intertwinement of 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th bundles in the
a
process of creativity in advertising according the practices’ common end A:
increasing the level of gatekeepers’ approval ................................................... 283
Figure 4.7 : The intertwinement of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd bundles in the process of
b
creativity in advertising according the practices’ common end B: achieving the ad
agency desired proposals in order to have successful campaigns. .................. 285
Figure 4.7 : The intertwinement of 1st and 2nd bundles in the process of
c
creativity in advertising according the practices’ common ends which is achieving
the ad agency marketing and positioning
aims…………………………………………………………………………..….…….287
Figure 4.7 : The connection of practices in the 2nd bundle of the process of
d
creativity in advertising according the practices’ common ends which is
developing creatives’ professional identities……………………………………....289
9