The boundaries for ad creativity: effects of type of divergence and brand processing and responses

This paper delineates some boundary conditions for the effectiveness of ad creativity on brand responses. By taking a closer look at the divergence factor—the core of creativity, we conceptually define two types of divergence (brand divergence and execution divergence) and empirically test their interactions on brand processing and responses. Incorporating an important factor in ad-viewing situation (consumer involvement), we predict different interaction patterns for the two types of divergence. With one pretest and one 2 × 2 × 2 between-subjects experiment, we find that under particular type of consumer involvement, more divergence of certain type could be effective or distracting, depending on the stage of processing. These findings have potential implications for brand managers to create and implement ads with appropriate combinations of brand and execution divergence.