CREATIVE IDEA 211z Oslo Sporveier wanted to encourage existing users to use public transport more often, as well as encourage
new users to take up the habit of using public transport. To reach these objectives, public transport had to be
made easier since at that time tickets could be purchased at only one place. Therefore, Oslo Sporveier started
to sell season tickets through newsagents. The communications campaign promoting this season ticket
featured a ticket collector on a bus. A smug-looking, self-satisfied woman holds her ticket ready for the
collector. Just before the collector arrives, a punk seated next to the woman grabs the ticket, eats it, and then
shows his season ticket to the collector. The pay-off slogan reads ‘Smart people buy season tickets – not single
tickets.’^21 A Belgian animated advertising campaign to promote the public bus featured penguins on a flake
of ice. Suddenly, a killer whale shows up and prepares for a nice penguin dinner, already slightly opening
its mouth. All the penguins smartly move backwards, as a consequence of which the flake of ice tilts up and
the killer whale bumps into it as if it were a wall. The ad ends with the baseline ‘It’s smarter to travel in groups.
Take the bus.’
z Nicorette, a product to help smokers give up the smoking habit, received a Silver Euro Effie for its Beat Cigarettes
campaign. Instead of showing quitters suffering cravings, they were shown beating a giant cigarette. In some ads
the giant cigarette represented a boxing-ball; in others it was used as a battering ram. All ads showed happy
quitters in a humorous setting, while the baseline ‘Beat cigarettes one at a time. You’re twice as likely to succeed
with Nicorette’ summed it all up.^22
z Frisk Mints received a Gold Clio Award for its campaign in which an imbecilic-looking guy is brought into a
laboratory to test his response latency. In the laboratory, a real horse and a fictitious horse played by humans
are shown. The imbecile first has to eat a Frisk and is then asked to distinguish between the real horse and the
fictitious horse by pushing a button. Amazingly he succeeds in pressing the right button, after which the slogan
‘Frisk sharpens you up’ appears.^23Source : Reproduced with permission of De Lijn, Belgium.Besides the need for a creative idea to develop eff ective advertising, one can question
how creative the ad itself has to be. Indirect evidence of the belief in the success of creative
ads might be the fact that advertising seems to be more creative than a few decades ago.^24
However, attention-grabbing, originality and imagination do not suffi ce. In the end, advert-
ising must help to accomplish marketing objectives. Th e existing studies do not convey
consistent results. Some studies^25 claim creativity has a positive impact on ad likeability,
brand awareness, brand liking and purchase intentions, but other studies could not fi nd a
relation between ad creativity on the one hand and attitude towards the ad, brand attitude,
purchase intention or fi rm profi tability on the other.^26 Although it is clear that a creative idea
is needed to express a brand’s positioning statement attractively, the question remains as to
how creative the ad itself should be. Also, research indicates that practitioner views on advert-
ising creativity diff er from those of consumers.^27 I t o ft en happens that consumers rank
commercials diff erently to creative directors. Th e latter are oft en quite surprised that the
public do not select the ads perceived as most creative by themselves. Th e foregoing illustrates
that more research is called for to fi nd out how important creativity is in the eyes of consumers
and what creativity means to them.M07_PELS3221_05_SE_C07.indd 211M07_PELS3221_05_SE_C07.indd 211 6/5/13 3:01 PM6/5/13 3:01 PM