How do advertising creative directors perceive research?

Abstract

Past research indicates that advertising practitioners have systematically ignored research for a number of reasons. This study is perhaps the first to understand how creative directors of international advertising agencies perceive the topic. A total of 17 creative directors based in Singapore were interviewed. Their responses focus on the shortcomings of research instead of its benefits. More specifically, they criticise the misguided use of focus groups to understand consumers; the fact that published research often comes too slow and too late; the non-contextual fashion in which most advertising research is conducted; the unrealistic nature of pre-campaign research; and the use of research as a rhetorical tool. In addition, they assert that the creative nature of developing advertisements is fundamentally at odds with the methodical, ‘scientific’ nature of research, and doubt that the two can be fully reconciled. Nonetheless, several of them acknowledge that research that provides fresh consumer insights and product ‘truths’ can help in the ad development process. Several suggestions for making research relevant and attractive to agency creative directors are offered in the discussion.

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