Till and Baack (2005) test whether creative advertising improves recall, brand attitude, and purchase intent.

Award-winning commercials, embedded in television programs, improve unaided brand and execution recall relative to a random set of ordinary commercials. Creativity does not improve aided recall, purchase intent, or attitude toward the brand or the ad. The unaided-recall advantage is still there after one week.

Method

The authors compare a random set of Communication Arts award-winning commercials with a random set of control commercials. Commercials are embedded in television programs. Studies 1 and 2 measure aided and unaided brand and execution recall. Study 3 measures brand attitude and purchase intent.

Main findings

  • Unaided recall moves. Creative commercials facilitate unaided recall of the brand and the execution.
  • Aided recall and persuasion do not. Creativity does not enhance aided recall, purchase intent, or brand and advertisement attitude.
  • The memory advantage lasts a week. The unaided-recall benefit of creative advertising persists over a one-week delay.

Why this is in the Darwin index

This is the award-versus-control test beside Smith, MacKenzie, Yang, Buchholz, and Darley (2007) and the Rosengren, Eisend, Koslow, and Dahlén (2020) meta-analysis. It separates the recall result from the persuasion result.

Source of record: doi:10.1080/00913367.2005.10639201.