The Role of Creativity in Marketing

Creativity is a truly essential skill in business (Yang & Smith, 2004, p.935; El-Murad & West, 2004, p.188; Till & Baack, 2005, p.47; Smith et al., 2007, p.819; Smith et al., 2008, p.47; Yang & Smith, 2009, p.935; IBM, 2010; Shirkhodaee & Rezaee, 2014, p.591; Turnbull & Wheeler, 2014, p.176; Baack et al., 2016, p.169; Rosengren et al., 2020, p.39). Nowadays, this is becoming more and more visible. However, the main elements of it and what it is, remain still unclear. Therefore, this research focused on the distinctive nature of advertising creativity within branded content & entertainment. By analyzing award-winning campaigns from the 2022 & 2023 Clio Awards, this study went beyond one definition of creativity and showed that creativity is not only one thing. This study took a qualitative approach, where both a directed content and a visual analysis was used to go beyond the explicit message of the advertisements. This in-depth exploration allowed for the decoding of implicit meanings and the identification of techniques used to engage audiences. Smith's et al. (2007) model on advertising creativity and more specifically, divergence provided a framework for analyzing the main creativity elements (p.830). The results of this research revealed that there are three main elements of creativity that play a huge role. Originality, synthesis, and artistic value are the key elements in creating creative branded content. Marketers, advertisers, etc. should be aware of these elements and explore them in-depth. Moreover, the main recurring themes such as raising awareness to social & environmental issues also played a significant role and created a deeper connection with viewers. Therefore, “Impactful” could be an extension of the Smith et al. (2007) model and be the sixth element of creativity (p.830). Lastly, this research highlighted the effectiveness of qualitative methods, which in comparison to quantitative methods, are more able to capture the richness and complexity of branded content, specifically in portraying the innovative elements that contributed to the award-winning as well as successful advertising campaigns.