Sheinin, Varki, and Ashley (2011) separate two pieces of ad creativity, novelty and message usefulness, and test what each one does to brand judgments and recall.

Both novelty and usefulness influence attitude toward the brand, and both of those paths run through attitude toward the ad. Only usefulness influences brand trust. Novelty improves short-term ad recall. Usefulness improves brand recall in the short term and the long term.

Method

The experiment treats novelty and usefulness as separate inputs. Outcomes are attitude toward the ad, attitude toward the brand, brand trust, ad recall, and brand recall. Recall is split by type, brand versus ad, and by duration, short term versus long term.

Main findings

  • Both move brand attitude. Novelty and usefulness each influence attitude toward the brand, through attitude toward the ad.
  • Only usefulness builds trust. Usefulness influences brand trust. Novelty does not.
  • The memory clocks differ. Novelty leads to better short-term ad recall. Usefulness leads to better short-term and long-term brand recall.

Why this is in the Darwin index

This is the split inside creativity, beside Till and Baack (2005) on unaided recall and Smith, Chen, and Yang (2008) on divergence and relevance. Novelty and usefulness are not interchangeable.

Source of record: doi:10.2753/JOA0091-3367400301.