ABSTRACT

In today’s media landscape advertisers find it ever more challenging to break through the clutter
of competing ads in order to shape consumers attitudes and intentions and move them to
purchase. An alternative strategy to greater advertising spending may be more creative
advertising, which has been proposed to promote advertising effectiveness. However, researchers
have neither agreed on a model of advertising creativity nor conclusively linked Zoozoo ad
campaign to key measures of effectiveness. Based on a sample of twenty real life campaigns
from Vodafone’s ZooZoo Campaigns, and a panel of consumer responses, this thesis provides
strong support for a of ZooZoo characters based on novelty, meaningfulness, humor,
positiveness, and well-craftiness. It concludes that these particular ads were more effective in
promoting ad and brand attitudes, brand interest, purchase intentions, ad and brand WOM
intentions, as well as perceived ad expenditure and effort. Results hold even among consumers
with a negative general attitude towards advertising. A test of the relative effect of Zoozoo ad
campaign and media expenditure on sales value produces inconclusive results, however. Finally,
the study shows that the ZooZoo campaigns were considered more creative among consumers
and were more effective in their communication.

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Many thanks to
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And a number of marketing departments and advertising agencies based in Mumbai

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 The outcome of the discussion:

• In depth knowledge with reference to the “Birth of Zoozoos”.

• Clarity on the master plan of the Zoozoo campaign designed by Ogilvy and Mather.

The Progress of the Thesis:

Completion of the introduction: Vodafone Zoozoos- From an idea to a successful

character.

Work in progress: Research based on the marketing effectiveness of these characters.

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RESPONSE SHEET 2

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RESPONSE SHEET 3

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RESPONSE SHEET 4

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8
RESPONSE SHEET 5

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RESPONSE SHEET 6

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 SYNOPSIS

Area of research
Advertising
Research objective

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The research is on the Vodafone Zoozoo iconic campaign. Secondly, the research would also
show the effect of this campaign on the consumer behavior towards the brand.
Introduction to the area of research
With millions of Indian television viewers expected to tune in, Season 2 of the Indian Premier
League cricket extravaganza, was set to become the biggest mainstream entertainment option for
viewers in the summer of 2009.
Central to the communication package was the Vodafone Zoozoo television campaign,
comprising of 30 simple stories told through 30 films – a film a day, every day all through the
IPL. The initiative was a first in Indian media history, busting conventional media planning rules
and engaging with the customer according to the rules of the medium.
Scope of the thesis work
The research would be based on the success of the Zoozoo campaign across all media.
Research Methodology
Qualitative and quantitative conclusive research through in depth interviews, Focus group
method, Structured Questionnaires
Justification of choosing the topic
The Zoozoo commercials were one of the most successful campaigns of all times. Over 41
million people viewed it across the country. 75% of this population viewed this campaign at least
5 times.
Details of the guide
Name: Debaleena Ghosh
Qualification: Graduate with sociology honors and diploma course in advertising.
Designation: Management Supervisor, Ogilvy and Mather (Mumbai)

INDEX

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SR. NO. TOPIC PAGE NO.

1 Abstract 3

2 Thesis topic approval 4

3 Approval by Guide 5

4 Acknowledgement 6

5 Response Sheets 7

6 Synopsis 13

7 Introduction 15

8 Background 42

9 Research Methodology 59

10 Findings 66

12 Conclusion 75

13 Recommendations 78

14 Interview Questions 79

15 Bibliography 82

13
 INTRODUCTION

There is always a need to find a sustainable differentiation in a highly competitive telecom

market. Search is always on for a perfect platform to showcase the array of products and
services, building emotional connect with the customers and yet be positioned as a market leader.

With millions of Indian television viewers expected to tune in, for the Season 2 of the Indian
Premier League cricket extravaganza, a perfect media opportunity was upon the brand owners of
Vodafone as this was set to become the biggest mainstream entertainment option for viewers in
the summer of 2009 –a chance to talk to over 40 million consumers. Over 47 days.

14
O& M created a unique world of lovable and funny egg shaped characters to tell the brand
stories of Vodafone in. The Zoozoos represented a much simpler and more uninhibited world
than our own – a world we could easily relate to. And the communication for the individual
products and services was set amidst stories of their lives. The Zoozoo commercials were viewed
in rapt attention by over 41 million people across the country. In accordance with an independent
survey conducted by TNS Synnovate, Vodafone was by far the most recognized brand in IPL –
much more than even the presenting sponsor. But massive as they are, numbers alone don’t
really do justice to a campaign that actually touched the hearts of Indian consumers. The ways in
which the Vodafone Zoozoos have affected consumers is what makes it a truly iconic campaign.
A substantiate evaluation study undertaken by Dragonfly Research indicated that the Vodafone
Zoozoos had had a life impact on consumers. And the author believes that. Because of the
wedding cards with a Zoozoo theme that surprised everyone; the Zoozoo cakes that were baked;
Zoozoo cookies were not far behind; Birthday parties with Zoozoo themes fast became the norm;
Zoozoo merchandise did brisk business! Zoozoo rakhis sold in hoards. Cityscapes were painted
with Vodafone Zoozoo murals. Most recently, India’s leading retail chain, Shoppers Stop
approached Vodafone to create and retail exclusive Vodafone Zoozoo merchandise – a first for
any commercial brand in the country. The Zoozoos even caught the attention of leading butter
brand Amul – who paid homage to the Vodafone Zoozoo campaign on its advertising.
Vodafone showcased 29 different products and services through the period of the IPL, each
communicated in a simple, refreshing manner.

From an idea to a character

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16
 Outdoor, PrintOnline and Mobile and
Television On ground PR
and POS Direct merchandise

Spread the
Experience cheer
Interest Conversation Salience Games Making of
29 different Engagement s with the Ground MMS Zoozoo
offerings Cricket brand mats Ringtones capsule for
Zoozoos on related Facebook Greeting TV channels
ground offerings Youtube Merchandise cards DVD
TV IPL Contest Bill perimeter T shirts
interviews messages boards Mugs Merchandise
DVD for
employees

17
seemed sustainable as differentiators for an extended period of time. The challenge was in
finding a way to make that differentiation sustainable, so as to stay in the consumers’
consideration set. Parallely, a perfect media opportunity was upon the brand owners of
Vodafone. Naturally, every brand worth its salt wanted a piece of the IPL action. A number of
these brands had allocated disproportionate spends and were even saving their best campaigns
for the occasion.

The communication challenge then was for Vodafone to use a highly crowded property like IPL
to differentiate itself and establish an emotional connect with customers. Add to that the
challenge of a not-so-happy public spending sentiment during the period and the huge financial
outlay the IPL demanded and the makers had a brand under tremendous pressure to deliver from
all quarters. The objectives set for the campaign were:

- To position the brand as an innovation leader in the mobile services category, thereby
gaining traction for the brand
- And to do so, leverage the Indian Premier League in a manner that the brand would be the
most salient and engaging through the extended period of the tournament

The big idea: With the Vodafone Zoozoos, discover something new every day!

The big idea actually came from the format of the medium available to Vodafone – the IPL, and
the way viewers interacted with the medium. With 59 matches across 37 days, the IPL viewing
audience was characterized by a high level of duplication across the tournament – the same
people seemed to be watching the matches every day. When it came to the cricketing action, they
had something new to look forward to every day. But brand communication on the other hand,
was subject to very high levels of fatigue. So Vodafone turned the characteristics of a media
property into a strategic initiative for the brand. Vodafone decided to do the unthinkable -
surprise the viewers/customers by introducing a new product/service message from the Vodafone
repertoire every day. To bring the idea to life, it was necessary for Vodafone to first string these
brand messages together with a device that would melt its way into the hearts of a billion strong
nation and the now iconic Vodafone Zoozoos were born.

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For the campaign to be successful, Vodafone needed for the world of the Vodafone Zoozoos and
their stories to be all permeating. And every piece of the communication mix needed to work to
the teeth, for the sum of the parts to be greater than the whole.

Driving Interest through television

Central to the communication package was the Vodafone Zoozoo television campaign, where 29
simple stories told through 29 films – a film almost every day of the IPL. The initiative was a
first in Indian media history, busting conventional media planning rules and engaging with the
customer according to the rules of the medium. Ashton bands and pushbacks were also
developed featuring the Zoozoos to promote individual products and services during the IPL
matches. During the semi-finals of the IPL, the Vodafone Zoozoos were ‘inadvertently captured’
by television cameras enjoying the matches with spectators at the grounds.The Vodafone
Zoozoos also found their way as special guests onto television interviews on the presenting
channel, with commentators seeking their expert (gibberish) opinion, and the nation watched in
rapt attention. The Zoozoo interview on Set Max during IPL was viewed approximately by about
more than 11 million people. The Interview was uploaded on Youtube by multiple people and
had over 50000 views in less than a week.

Building Engagement with Print And Out Of Home

Print, outdoor and retail level POS used the Zoozoos to drive relevant cricket related offerings
like Score Alerts, Match schedules and Live Commentary on your mobile phone. For consumers,
Vodafone extended the benefit of being the telecom partner of the IPL by launching the “Star of
the Match” contest for its subscribers. A SMS based contest, the Star of the Match contest gave
20 lucky Vodafone customers to not just experience the IPL in South Africa, but also be part of
the felicitation ceremony, shaking hands with and receiving an autographed cricket ball from the
winning captain. This contest was also driven aggressively using print, out of home and retail
level executions. Zoozoo Chhota Recharges were also released. Customers who bought a
Chhota Recharge worth Rs 50 or Rs 100 could get a Vodafone Zoozoo sticker free.

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For its 9 lakh trade partners, Vodafone launched the “Score Kya Hai (what’s your score)”
contest. A sales driven trade contest that gave retailers a chance to watch the IPL matches live in
South Africa and also win a host of Vodafone goodies

Engaging In Conversations with the Brand Online and One-On-One

Next, Vodafone harnessed the power of the youth, using the new and ever expanding platforms
of social networking and video sharing – to create a Vodafone Zoozoo Facebook page and a
dedicated Youtube channel. Both channels were used to build conversations with consumers on a
daily basis and were instrumental in generating tremendous word of mouth for the campaign, as
well as its viral popularity. Some of the key activities the makers undertook on the Facebook
page to fuel conversations were:

- Naming the characters Zoozoos online

- Distribute viral Tag-me applications
- Preview the television commercials online 3 hours in advance
- Sparking the debate of whether the Zoozoos were real or animated. And then resolving the
debate
- A host of Vodafone Zoozoo goodies distributed periodically

A dedicated microsite and targeted banners on the official IPLT20 website not only helped
specific product message, they also let consumers experience with world of the Vodafone
Zoozoos. Bill envelope backs were also used to share targeted Value Added Service messages
with customers based on their past usage patterns.

Building Salience on Ground

The on ground visibility of the brand was approached with building salience through innovative
branding opportunities. Regular perimeter boards were animated, pitch mats were used and free
merchandise was distributed at the grounds to garner maximum visibility amongst ground
spectators as well as television cameras.

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Driving consumer experience with mobile

In a bid to bring the world of the Vodafone Zoozoos at a more personal level, Vodafone created
mobile specific content like MMS clips, Zoozoo Callertunes, E greetings, wallpapers and Games
for Vodafone customers to download on their phones from Vodafone live! Eventually, they were
seen, heard and experienced on non Vodafone customers’ phones as well.

Seeding Media Conversations with PR

A capsule on the making of Zoozoos was created and that became the most sought after content
for almost all GEC and News channels and all leading publications. This helped in seeding the
right messages with media, because after the initial coverage, the popularity of the Vodafone
Zoozoos took on a life of its own. A special commemorative DVD was later released to media
from Vodafone with all 29 films, mobile downloads and PC downloads. This created such a
large demand that the makers had to distribute 85000 of them to customers at Vodafone Stores
and Mini stores as well.

Set amidst the canvas of two of India’s greatest entertainment options – the general elections and
cricket – the Vodafone Zoozoos not only managed to overshadow them both; they also managed
to lodge themselves firmly in the hearts of the Indian consumer.

Impact on the brand

The campaign had a very visible impact on brand health scores as well. Immediate traction was
seen on appeal scores. And since the brand was being positively talked about, recommendations
from friends and family also grew.

Pre campaign Post campaign

Brand becoming more popular 48 54
Appeals more 42 47
Recommended by family and friends 38 44

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The slew of products and services showcased helped position the brand as a leader, who
developed the market and had differentiated offerings from the competition

Pre campaign Post campaign

Offers something different 42 45
Best quality products and services 44 49
Leads development of mobile 41 45
category

In category strife with cut throat competition, the most significant impact though, was the sharp
rise in brand consideration scores for Vodafone amongst category intenders - from a stagnant 20
pre-campaign to 25 post-campaign – clearly indicating that communication had impacted
intention to purchase.

Incidentally, the post campaign scores also reflected a dramatically reduced gap between
Vodafone and the market leader, bringing Vodafone within striking distance across all
parameters (and even ahead on a few) – something that had not been last achieved by the brand
only during launch.

Though not even a listed objective, sales of the individual services advertised also saw a
significant increase. An average 30% growth in usage was registered for the individual services
advertised, post airing of the respective commercials. The cricket alerts and commentary services
specifically drew in over 200,000 new user subscriptions during the period of the campaign.
Over 190,000 consumers downloaded Vodafone Zoozoo mobile content onto their phones

What started off as a cricketing extravaganza in South Africa will now also be remembered as
the year of the Zoozoos. The Zoozoo commercials were viewed in rapt attention by over 41
million people across the country. According to an independent survey conducted by TNS
Synnovate, Vodafone was by far the most recognized brand in IPL – much more than even the
presenting sponsor. The same study also declared Vodafone as the top brand to have advertised
on IPL 2 (from amongst 100 plus brands) on all parameters measured - recall, message
comprehension and likeability of message. The Zoozoos on ground during the semi-finals of the

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IPL was another coup the makers pulled off, with the brand garnering over 4 million views from
the television coverage the makers achieved.

Advertising Age crowned the Vodafone Zoozoo campaign the ‘Top viral campaign in the World’
- the first time a campaign had debuted at no. 1 spot ever! The Vodafone Zoozoo Facebook fan
page gathered over 3,15,000 fans and over 10 million page views, in under 2 months time - the
largest for any Indian brand or personality. This fan base is also larger than iconic characters like
Mickey Mouse, Archie, Donald Duck, Popeye, Asterix and Superman! With over 3 million
views in a month, the Vodafone Zoozoo channel on Youtube became the highest subscribed
Youtube channel in the country for the month. Online, the Vodafone Zoozoos overshadowed the
cricket with the Facebook and Youtube pages receiving more hits than the official IPL T20
website itself. Every major online news website in the country covered the Vodafone Zoozoos.
The Zoozoos also found their way into online conversations on over 6000 consumer blogs across
the country.

What’s more important is that the Facebook page did not remain just a short lived part of the
campaign mix. It has evolved to become a channel for continuous dialogue with the brand’s
consumers. And the subject of a hot case on community building and leveraging brands on social
media, in the Indian advertising and marketing fraternity

Dozens of TV stations carried specials on the making of the Zoozoos. Some channels even made
hour long programmes on the Zoozoos and sold it as content to other advertisers. Surprises
popped up everywhere. The Economic Times carried their masthead with Zoozoos and Times
Life had a front page article on Zoozoos. Every national and regional newspaper of repute
carried multiple reports on the Vodafone Zoozoos. Peers from across the industry, elicited
responses of awe, admiration and jealousy all at the same time. In fact, the free media coverage
generated for the campaign in television and print was estimated at over Rs. 6 crore! But massive
as they are, numbers alone don’t really do justice to a campaign that actually touched the hearts

23
of Indian consumers. The ways in which the Vodafone Zoozoos have affected consumers is what
makes it a truly iconic campaign. Surprises popped up everywhere. In fact, the free media
coverage generated for the campaign in television and print was estimated at over Rs. 6 crore!

Cube dangler

Bunting

24
Shelf strip

Mobile
manners campaign

25
Special projects
Star of the match competition:
• A SMS based contest
• Total no of hits on the keyword STAR : 74,652
• Total no of participants: 15,440
• 20 Vodafone customers won a trip to IPL matches in South Africa and also got a lifetime
opportunity to meet and receive an autographed match ball at the match felicitation ceremony
live on TV!
• 39 winners had their names announced on Television and received the autographed match
balls
• Promoted using television, radio and outdoor

Zoozoo Recharge Card with stickers:

• A limited edition of Zoozoo Recharge (Chhota recharge) for Rs 50 and 100 - Each recharge
card with a Zoozoo sticker and 7 different stickers across the Recharge sheet
• A total of XXX Recharge cards ordered from across circles

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 Zoozoo Recharge Card & sticker

Zoozoo DVD
A compilation of all Zoozoo films from season 1 along with a special feature on the ‘making of
the Zoozoos’ and many Zoozoo downloads for your mobile phone and PC. More than 80,000 +
DVD were produced and given to customers under a Vodafone Store led promotion on
recharging, VAS activations and direct debit enrollments across circles.

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Zoozoo merchandise

Zoozoo campaign evaluation

1. Beauty Alerts - on air 20th April

4500

4000

3500

3000
Subscription

2500

2000

1500

1000

500

0
12-Apr 17-Apr 22-Apr 27-Apr 2-May 7-May
Date

2. Dating - on air 3rd May

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 4500

4000

3500

3000
Subscription

2500

2000

1500

1000

500

0
27-Apr 28-Apr 29-Apr 30-Apr 1-May 2-May 3-May 4-May 5-May 6-May 7-May

Dates

3. Stock Alerts - on air 28th April

3000

2500

2000
Subscription

1500

1000

500

0
21-Apr 23-Apr 25-Apr 27-Apr 29-Apr 1-May 3-May 5-May 7-May

Dates

4. Call filter - on air 26th April

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 1200

1000

800
Subscription

600

400

200

0
19-Apr 21-Apr 23-Apr 25-Apr 27-Apr 29-Apr 1-May 3-May 5-May 7-May

Dates

5. Cricket Services

800,000

700,000

600,000

500,000

400,000 Cricket Subscriber base

300,000

200,000

100,000

0
Pre Day 5 Day 10 Day 15 Day 20 Day 25
contest

200,000 incremental subscribers for Cricket Alerts & Commentary services for the contest run
during IPL

Vodafone Zoozoo Facebook page

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Facebook is a relatively new social networking platform available in India, but already has over
12 million fans, fast gaining popularity amongst the youth and the influencers in society. But
Indian brands (for that matter a large proportion of the brands around the world) had not tapped
this medium effectively, yet. As a first step, the unique Vodafone characters were christened
Zoozoos on a dedicated Facebook fan page, giving the online consumers a sense of discovery
when they found out about it. To rapidly spread awareness of the fan page online, special
Facebook Tag-me applications with different types of Zoozoos were created and distributed
virally. As youth signed on as fans in droves, they were rewarded with videos of the much loved
commercials there. A few days later, the makers started previewing the commercials for fans on
Facebook, two hours before they went on air. Fans were then invited to share the advertisements
with their friends and get some serious bragging rights. In the second week, the makers sparked a
conversation of how the Vodafone Zoozoos were made – were they real or animated?

As the discussions gathered fervor, the makers revealed the ‘making of’ videos on Facebook.
These were released periodically a day after the respective film was released on air. By this time,
fans had started begging for more and a large amount of user generated material started
appearing on the Facebook page. So the makers introduced goodies like e-cards, games,
Facebook applications like ‘What Zoozoo are you?’ wallpapers and Zoozoo tones for them

Zoozoos on facebook

Zoozoos on You Tube

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Zoozoo game - Spot the difference

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Zoozoo MMS clips

Zoozoos on the web

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‘Most viewed viral campaign in the world’ in May 2009 and’ Top viral campaign in the World’
for the week’ by Advertising Age (14th May 2009). The Zoozoo Facebook fan page has over 3,
15,000 fans the largest in India across brands & personalities. Over 6000 Indian blogs reviews
online!

A channel on Youtube with over 4 mn views.

Two viral videos on Diwali and
Independence Day with 2 mn views

The Zoozoo commercials were viewed by over 41 million people across the country. 75% of this
population viewed this campaign at least 5 times. Media pundits hailed it as an ideal case study
of how to approach and leverage a media property. The campaign captured the imagination of
viewers and for once, a cricket-crazy country waited and looked forward to the commercial
break in the games. It was the highest subscribed YouTube channel in the country for the month,
with over 4 million views on Youtube alone. And the amount of buzz created on the site and the
resultant spillover on Youtube didn’t go unnoticed as Advertising Age crowned the campaign
the ‘Top viral in the World for the week’ - the first time that a campaign had debuted at no. 1
spot ever! The campaign remained in Ad Age top 10 viral lists for 5 weeks, making it the most
viewed viral in the world in May 2009. Every national and regional newspaper of repute carried
multiple reports on the Vodafone Zoozoos. In fact the free media coverage generated was
estimated at a staggering 1.25 million USD. The Facebook page did not remain just a short lived
part of the campaign mix. It has evolved to become a channel for continuous dialogue with the
brand’s consumers.
The Star of the Match contest was a unique prize, which gave the brand television visibility to
approximately 4 million viewers per match. The hallmark of an iconic campaign is the level it

34
permeates to in public consciousness and the Vodafone Zoozoo campaign emerged with flying
colours. Zoozoo merchandise did brisk business!

In the summer of 2009, three things captured the imagination of India – Vodafone Zoozoos, IPL
and the General Elections – in that order

Campaign evaluation
Night Talk: On air 27th Nov
Circle Nov (in Dec (in lacs)
lacs)
UPE 37.6 33.9

Mah 2.1 2.1

Mum 0.53 0.51

Guj 6.9 6.6

http://www.vodafone.in/vodafone/misc/night_talk30sec_eng_261109.zip

Pay Bills online: On air 27th Nov

• Rs. 22.35 Cr in Dec-09
Increase in payment @average of 70 Lakh/day

Busy message: On air 27th Nov

• Number of selections made in Jan’10: 514
• Number of selections made in Dec’09: 1934
• Number of selections made in Nov’09: 1536

Job Alerts: on air 4th Dec

Dec subscriptions were 102,747 as compared to 70,000 of Nov.

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 December

Date Subscriptions

1-7 11,378

8 - 14 20,905

15 - 21 26,369

22 - 28 29,039

28 - 31 15,056

Total 102,747

Live counseling: On air 4th Dec

• Incremental revenue of Rs. 35,624 daily In Dec as compared to the month of Nov

Impressions
Site Clicks CTR’s
delivered
Orkut 12152524 43504 0.36
Yahoo Msgr 5457413 68221 1.25
YouTube 5493102 33143 0.60

Google 42419558 131101 0.27

Facebook 13190 -
Jivox 1560763 6153 0.39
Sify EDM 3562082 57605 1.62
Sify iWays 648522 5116 0.79
Rediff 100000 9397 9.39
Clinck 2993182 42134 1.41
Site Entries
Vodafone.in 33458
Facebook 7551

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 Orkut 1549
Jivox 82
Total 42640

Site Views

YouTube Video 191049

Hungama Prerolls 743398

Jivox Video 536329

Vdopia Prerolls 448664

Youtube Channel 450000

Total 2369440

Analysis
The total entries of Complete the Zoozoo Story were 42640. The total Video Views during the
Campaign 2369440. The increase in Facebook fans: 9121. The increase in Orkut fans: 540. The
avg. CPC for this campaign Rs.7.25/- and the avg. cost per video view 50paise

Learning
Facebook & Orkut still is a question mark with respect to the regular users. Cyber cafes were one
of the best options for targeting youth. Google content network (Targeted) one of the best
options for online promotions. Interactive banners will still take some time to capture market in
India.

Zoozoo ID day viral

37
This viral became the most favorite and one of the most viewed videos within just 24 hours
being uploaded.
• YouTube Channel: 57470 views
• Youtube Video Banner: 33888 views
• Facebook: 15000 views
• Vdopia Video Network: 816788 views
• Vuclip : 2080 views
• Rediff.com : 10000 views
• Many blog sites picked it up spontaneously and featured it
• Google, Rediff.com etc
• All top searches showed third party sites streaming the video
Diwali viral

38
This viral became the “Top Viewed” and “Top Favourited” videos within just 48 hours being
uploaded
• Youtube Channel: 58,660 views
• Youtube Video Banner: 67,176 views
• Facebook: 10,402 views
• Vdopia Video Network: 9,50,876 views
• Other Zoozoo videos during this period on Youtube: 36,102 views
• Total 10, 87,114 views of the Diwali video!
• 13,766 customer subscriptions

PROBLEM AREA

39
Ad agency professionals have long supported creativity as one of the most significant elements
in advertising, maybe even important in its own right. The vital figure in the making of
advertising is titled a “creative” and the main advertising awards center on creativity. On the
other hand, many of these have been condemned as “beauty contests, focusing on industry
specific criteria more willingly than on the actual effectiveness of ads. Yet, some view creativity
as essential for advertising effectiveness or even that creativity is effectiveness.

Even though creativity is extensively acknowledged as significant to advertising, researchers

differ on what chief factors of ad implementation add to ad creativity. Chief reviews of the
theoretical space of creativity are short of any major reference to advertising and in advertising
research only a few studies deal openly with creativity. Amongst these, few have formed results
that are together significant and clear-cut. Some findings are open to doubt. Time and again cited
Kover, Goldberg, and James (1995) found that ads classified as creative by consumers also made
the strongest fondness and purchase interest—yet the authors confessed that they could only
“examine trends and indications rather than look for statistically significant differences.” Other
findings are at odds with one another. For instance, while some authors find a positive outcome
of Zoozoo ad campaign on brand attitude and purchase intentions. Lastly, there is a total lack of
research in many areas of advertising effectiveness. No study has tried to associate Zoozoo ad
campaign to brand interest, perceived ad expenditure, perceived ad effort, and the influence of
universal advertising attitude on the effectiveness of Zoozoo Ad campaigns is unknown.

In sum, researchers are undecided on the nature and effects of the Zoozoo campaign on
consumers. The Zoozoo commercials were one of the most successful campaigns of all times.
Over 41 million people viewed it across the country. 75% of this population viewed this
campaign at least 5 times.

Purpose

40
This thesis has the primary purpose to determine the main dimensions of advertising creativity of
ZooZoo ad campaigns and to establish whether these dimensions had significantly improved
several key measures of advertisement’s effectiveness. Secondary purposes are to decide to what
extent each dimension ZooZoo ad campaign impacted each effect measure, to conclude if the
campaign retains effectiveness among consumers with a negative general ad attitude. The
research is on the Vodafone Zoozoo iconic campaign. Also the research would show the effect of
this campaign on the consumer behavior towards the brand.

Limitations

The author has focused on Zoozoo Ad campaigns execution and not, e.g. the media choice. Most
studies of advertising have depended on experimental research designs, using alternatives of
mocked-up ads as stimuli. To keep away from repeating this, the author based the advertisement
selection on real-time campaigns. The author limited the study to the Vodafone ZooZoo
advertising, which he believed is a representative one. The focus has been on consumer
advertising and the author decided to test Vodafone Zoozoo ads from television, print, or outdoor
media.

The campaign collection spans from March 2009 till date, to create a representative sufficient
sample size at the same time as keeping material as up to date as possible. While the age
disparity of campaigns might danger skewing perceived creativity, affirmation checks
determined that this was not the case. Most preceding creativity studies have tested ads from one
product or service category.

41
Thesis Overview

The thesis is separated into five main chapters. Subsequent to this introductory chapter, the
second chapter looks at the present state of theory. It evaluates the likely dimensions for case in
point the Zoozoo ad campaign and proposes some advertising effects to which it may have a say:
ad and brand attitude, brand interest, intentions, perceived ad expenditure and effort. Also
discussed is the function of general advertising attitude, the comparative effectiveness of Zoozoo
ad campaign. Hypotheses are developed all through the chapter on theory.

The third chapter outlines the method used, evaluating the initial work, research design, survey
design (the scales and measures, questionnaire, and sample), external data, reliability and
validity, and instruments and methods of analysis. The fourth chapter is devoted to the analysis
and results from hypothesis testing. This chiefly aims to institute the important dimensions of
Zoozoo Ad campaigns and the effect measures to which it actually contributes. Lastly, the fifth
chapter discusses the results, suggests ways for recommendations, and draws conclusions for
advertising theory and practice.

BACKGROUND

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“An invasion of armies can be resisted, but not an idea whose time has come.”

— Victor Hugo

In 1758, Dr. Samuel Johnson affirmed: “Advertisements are now so numerous that they are very
negligently perused”. Since then it has turned out to be ever more taxing for advertisements to
break through the clutter of rival ads so as to gain consumers’ attention, shape their attitudes, and
let alone shift them to purchase. Nowadays, consumers are open to thousands of commercial
messages each week, making it hard for every advertiser to stick out as only one of its kind and
influence consumers to support their offer.

The broad trend is reflected in a steady growth of advertising expenditure. One approach of
breaking through the clutter is to outspend the rivalry by making more and bigger campaigns
than other brands. Leaders in advertising media spending, as calculated by share of voice, are
awarded greater brand salience and experience less from brand confusion. Certainly, Schroer
(1990) sustains that superior and more steady advertising spending than competitors is a key
factor at the back of larger market share of leading firms. This game is not for the faint heart, on
the other hand: to move market share forward and ahead of comparable competitors, the majority
of firms would require as a minimum doubling-up their chief rival’s advertising expenditure and
sustaining this rank for years.

While one path towards attaining advertising objectives is to make the most of the share of voice,
a small number of firms have the capability to outspend competition to this degree. It has been
probable that 70–85% of new product introductions fall short and empirical proof points to
marketing as a chief factor behind the phenomenon. Senior managers in the U.S. believe that
close to 90% of all advertising fail to meet its objectives. Many markets are affected by advanced
costs, bigger competition, and pulling down demand, promoting the need to get better the
effectiveness of marketing expenses (Keller 1993).

There may be an additional cost-effective way to share market. As ad spending is the way to
share of voice, Zoozoo ad campaign may lead straightforwardly to “share of heart”. Eastlack and
Rao (1986) encourage the creative element of advertising, maintaining it has been established to

43
be far more significant than real spending rates or patterns. Some say it is creativity that “pushes
the message into viewers’ minds”. A small number of studies have tried to bond advertising
creativity to changeable measures of advertising effectiveness. On the other hand, though known
as imperative, the connection between advertising creativity and advertising effectiveness is far
from researched at length and amongst the studies so far, researchers have the same opinion that
findings are open to doubt or even contradictory.

“Some men see things as they are and ask why.Others dream things that never were and ask why
not.” — George Bernard Shaw

Creativity in Advertising

Earlier than developing the hypotheses connected to the dimensions and effects of advertisement,
the reader will be given support of a short introduction to the idea of creativity; its function on
the whole, in strategy, marketing, and advertising; and the a variety of definitions of the word.

The implication of creativity is recommended by the scope of research activity carried out to
know its nature and appliance in assorted fields. These comprise art, music, science, education,
management, and advertising. Near the beginning, work on creativity is characterized by the
“aha” meaning in Parnes (1975). Opening in the late 1980s this inclination was made out of
order and more refined definitions of creativity were launched. Creativity can be conceptualized
as personal attribute, environment, process, and product (e.g. advertising). Zinkhan (1993)
maintains that creativity is very important to the business strategy as strategic planning deals
with the allotment of resources amongst the possibilities of what’s to be done, creativity plays an
imperative role in creating or recognizing what could be done—i.e. to do the right thing rather
than just doing things right.

Marketing researchers have asserted the importance of creativity in marketing programs, of

which advertising is a central element, to build meaningful differentiation from competing
alternatives. This in turn stimulates customer satisfaction and loyalty, and reduces the risk of

44
price wars. For new products, marketing program novelty is at least as important as product
novelty "to add enough value to the strange service to counterbalance the pain of the new idea"
(Wasson 1960). Indeed, products can rise from anonymity to market-leader status without
offering groundbreaking product innovation. Advertising may be the only profession where the
central figure in the business process is titled a “creative,” illustrating the focus placed on
creativity within the field (Till and Baack 2005).

Definitions of Creativity

The Oxford American Dictionary defines creativity as “the use of the imagination or original
ideas, esp. in the production of an artistic work.” Creativity in advertising varies from this
common idea, and unluckily the understanding of it differs a great deal. Though Taylor, Hoy,
and Haley (1996) put forward that definitions of advertising creativity differ transversely through
cultures, certain key elements seem universal. Not contrasting from definitions in psychology,
creativity in advertising is regarded as a way of problem solving. To make this path, the majority
of definitions propose that creativity depends on two central aspects: novelty and
meaningfulness. For instance, Amabile (1996) argues that a “product or response will be judged
creative to the extent that it is a novel and appropriate, useful, correct, or valuable response to the
task at hand.” The “task at hand” in advertising is the advertising objective, i.e. the psychological
and behavioral reaction of target consumers. Amabile argues that together novelty and
meaningfulness must be incorporated in the definition of creativity, for the reason that the target
audience may make out ideas as weird or bizarre if they are novel or unique but carry no
meaning for the audience. More definitions bring into line with and elaborate on this notion.
Zoozoo Ad campaigns communicate the message in a “playful but relevant way”. Likewise,
Marra (1990) defines creativity in advertising as “being new and relevant with your ideas” and
Smith and Yang (2004) consider that creative ads are those that are perceived to be different and
relevant.

Leo Burnett defined advertising creativity as “the art of establishing new and meaningful
relationships between previously unrelated things in a manner that is relevant, believable, and in
good taste, but which somehow presents the product in a fresh new light”.

45
As said by Parnes (1975), the core of creativity is the notion of “aha,” which is “the fresh and
relevant association of thoughts, facts, and ideas, into a new configuration which pleases, which
has meaning beyond the sum of the parts, which provides a synergistic effect”. Tellis (1998)
defines creativity as “productive divergence.” Holtzman (1984) offers a comparable explanation
of creativity: "divergent thinking that yields some kind of highly valued product or idea." These
definitions put forward that creativity must provide value ads.

Many other dimensions have been suggested as element of advertising creativity, and thus
implicitly or explicitly incorporated in the definition: particularly humor, positiveness, and well-
craftiness. As a purpose of this thesis is to determine the effectiveness of ZooZoo ad campaigns,
the author will not set out to choose or construct any one definition beforehand.

Dimensions for Zoozoo Ad Campaign

Even though creativity is important subject matter for advertising, it is not apparent how to
operationalize it. Gordon White (1972) distinguished that creativity “is the X factor in
advertising theory, it escapes the scientific probe of the researcher and the decision-maker.”
While there has been a great deal of research in the field, and some agreement, numerous facets
of creativity are construed in different ways, and results from comparable interpretations may be
vague.

The simplest way to gauge creativity is on a single-item scale. For instance, Amabile (1982)
circumvented the problems of both the definition and the measurement of creativity by letting
experts evaluate the “creativity” of creative products using their own individual standards and
definitions of creativity. Amabile suggests that if suitable judges separately concur that a given
product is creative, it can and must be established as such. On the other hand, even experts may
differ in their definition of creativity.

In addition, to completely know creativity, one would require exposing what factors are usually
held to include it. Such a requirement would also make measures more similar and dependable.
So, what factors might be positioned behind the concept of creativity in advertising?

46
Novelty

Researchers in the field usually have the same opinion that as a minimum, one facet must be
“novelty” (also referred to as “originality,” “divergence,” “unexpectancy,” and “newness”). This
relates in countless of disciplines, from art to business. For instance, in the fine arts creative
artists have been said to display disequilibrium in their private lives and to mirror such
deviations in their works. In business literature, a creative product is thought to be original and
the result of imaginative thinking that needs a theoretical formation of objects that are not real. In
actual fact, as said by some researchers novelty should be the main criterion measured when
making a decision on a product’s creativeness, in spite of other possible positive attributes.

In the field of advertising, the majority of definitions of creativity entail a feature of newness,
unexpectedness, or originality. This idea of creativity matches to a deviation from the standard—
a stimulus that is not anticipated from preceding information. Such novelty is similar to
expectancy in advertising projected by Heckler and Childers (1992), which concerns how well
information obeys the rules to a prearranged structure suggested by the ad theme. Novelty
matches to unexpectedness in the sense that ads not in agreement with other ads of the same
product category or scheme are novel (Ang and Low 2000). The author therefore expects the
following:

H1a: Novelty of Zoozoo Campaigns promoted its ad creativity

Meaningfulness

Novelty is usually looked upon as a need but not enough criterions for an advertisement to be
measured creative. Consumers have particular expectations for ads in a particular category, e.g.
what visuals a detergent ad ought to have. The more an ad diverges from expectations, the more
consumers will assess the ad as novel.

Simultaneously, unless the creative part expresses some meaning about the advertised product,
unexpectedness does not essentially mean creativity. Consistent with many researchers of
advertising creativity, the novel ad element must also be meaningful for the ad to be eligible as

47
creative. The mixture of novelty and meaningfulness (also referred to as “relevancy,”
“appropriateness,” “usefulness,” and “the strategic component” to creativity) makes sense also
from the viewpoint of advertising professionals and marketing strategy. The course of creativity
in advertising has one central oddity from the process of creativity in the traditional arts and
sciences. The creativity desirable in advertising is problem-solving creativity, forced by
marketing objectives, competition, the organizational support hierarchy, etc. It is practical
creativity: on demand, on a deadline, and inside strict parameters. From this viewpoint,
meaningfulness complements novelty, spinning creativity into an instrument of problem solving
and goal attainment, in the framework of marketing strategy. In addition, Holtzman’s (1984)
definition of creativity, “divergent thinking that yields some kind of highly valued product or
idea,” suggests that creativity must give value ads. Meaningfulness should be vital for
advertising to add value. Based on the preceding discussion the author hypothesizes:

H1b: Meaningfulness in Zoozoo Campaigns promoted its ad creativity

Humor

At the same time as the majority of common elements in previous research, novelty and
meaningfulness are by no means the just factors commendable of consideration for
advertisement creativity. Lee and Mason (1999) did test expectancy and relevancy as variables in
print ads, but tested humor also. The authors hold the three factors to be connected, all
functioning as variables of “information inconguency” in advertising (p. 156). Findings propose
humor can lift the assessment of unexpected–irrelevant ads (but not unexpected–relevant ads).
Smith and Yang also suggest humor as a facet of creativity, connected to the different qualities
of ads. Lastly, Weinberger and Spotts (1989) maintain humor to be “one aspect of […]
advertising creativity” (p. 39). The author expects that:

H1c: Humor in Zoozoo Campaigns promoted its ad creativity

Positiveness

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Ang and Low (2001) also talk about novelty and meaningfulness as parts of advertising
creativity. As an added factor they take account of valence of feelings, i.e. the “emotional
direction of the ad content”—to what degree the advertisement expresses positive feelings. Why
positiveness might be measured? As preceding research proposes, novelty ought to be a core
factor of creativity. Ang and Low compete that the unanticipated stimulus of novelty will draw
out emotional consequences, which in sequence color the assessments of novelty. This would
powerfully persuade whether consumers will acknowledge the novel ad. Consequently,
positiveness should play a function very much parallel to meaningfulness, as a lubricant to the
acceptance a of novel ad implementation. Smith and Yang (2004) suggest a comparable
relationship, in which an ad’s “expression of emotion” adds to its creativity. Make a note that in
this way positiveness is not conceptualized as a measure of effectiveness for the Zoozoo ad
campaign, but rather as a factor corresponding to, e.g. novelty. The author hypothesizes that:

H1d: Positiveness in Zoozoo Campaigns promoted its ad creativity

Well-Craftiness

Besemer and O’Quinn (1986) aimed to build up a semantic scale of creativity, and integrated the
factors novelty, resolution (meaningfulness), and “elaboration/ synthesis.” The concluding
variables stand for the stylistic details of ad execution; how well-crafted it is. The study built on
Besemer and Treffinger (1981), which instituted novelty, resolution, and “attractiveness” to be
criteria to clarify creativity. White and Smith (2001) have built on this custom, and included
“well-craftiness” next to measures of novelty and meaningfulness in their study of differences in
creativity judgments among advertising professionals, the common public, and students. Koslow,
Sasser, and Riordan (2003) include “artistry” along with innovation and meaningfulness in their
study of advertising creativity. To review this line of creativity research, the author proposes:

H1e: Well-craftiness in Zoozoo Campaigns promoted its ad creativity

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Finally, Figure 1 outlines the proposed dimensions of to check the effectiveness of the Zoozoo
Ad campaigns

Humor
H1c Positive
Meaningf
–ness
ulness
H1d
H1b

Well-
craftines
Novelty
s
H1a
H1e

Effectiveness of Zoozoo
Ad campaigns

Advertising Effectiveness

Advertising effectiveness mirrors the extent to which advertising achieves its objectives. Many
such effects are linked in a sequential chain of steps—e.g. brand awareness, knowledge,
favorable attitude, preference, and intentions— which ultimately lead to purchase or repurchase.
However, not all advertising has the main objective to stimulate overt action. For example,
products in different markets or at different points in the life cycle may differ markedly in what
advertising effects are prioritized, whether direct action or long-term behavioral attitudes.
Eastlack and Rao (1986) affirm that creativity in advertising is far more important than actual
spending rates or patterns. They argue that “effective advertising creative” can move a brand into
a new competitive structure, possibly permitting significantly higher prices. Others maintain that
creativity “pushes the message into viewers’ minds”. Researchers generally hold advertising
creativity to be very important, and certain studies have indeed examined the relationship
between creativity and effectiveness.

50
However, these studies are in relatively short supply and in some cases present findings that are
inconclusive or that contradict other studies. The author will now propose several possible
effects of Zoozoo ad campaigns, and develop hypotheses as to how the campaigns may affect
each.

Ad and Brand Attitude

In consumer behavior literature attitude is defined as “a person’s consistently favorable or

unfavorable evaluations, feelings, and tendencies toward an object or idea” (Kotler 2007). As
obliqued by this definition, attitudes are usually considered steady over time. Holding a positive
attitude toward a good or service is one chief requirement for consumers to hold a positive
purchase or consumption intention toward it. Brand attitude (Ab) is the consumer’s assessment
of a brand on the whole, and time and again forms the base of consumer behavior. Attitude
toward the advertisement (a.k.a. ad attitude) (Aad) is the consumer’s evaluative reaction to an ad
through a particular exposure occasion. Notably, ad attitude has been shown to act as a go-
between the advertisement’s upshot on brand attitude, such that AadAb. The upshot of ad
attitude on brand attitude has been established to function both directly and indirectly through its
effect on brand cognitions. Additionally, it holds for in cooperation central and peripheral
processing and is pertinent for both low and high involvement product categories as well as high
knowledge/importance and low knowledge/importance consumer segments (Gardner 1985).

MacKenzie and Lutz (1989) present many antecedents to ad attitude, amongst them ad
execution. A creative ad execution thus holds the prospective to optimistically affect attitudes
(ibid.). To maintain this, Smith and Yang (2004) dispute that creative ads may create
considerably more positive cognitive and affective responses based on the value of different
stimuli. In addition, research has shown that consumers have internal dispositions concerned
with creativity. For instance, novelty seeking, variety seeking, incongruity seeking, exploratory
drive, innovative proneness, and exploration “erg” are all examples of consumers seeking
divergent. There is also well-built proof from social psychology that consumers can be expected
to appreciate creative ideas (Guilford 1967).

51
In addition, under the lower levels of involvement characteristic of most advertising exposure
(Krugman 1965), ad creativity may work as a peripheral cue with significant effect on ad and
brand attitude (Petty and Cacioppo 1986). Some studies have tried to institute the connection
between advertisement creativity and attitude. A lot of these, though, have significant caveats or
produce conflicting results. Additionally, their research designs have always been experimental,
and thus debatably have sacrificed practicality. Kover, Goldberg, and James (1995) found that
ads classified as creative by consumers also produced the strongest liking and purchase interest.
Unfortunately, their test had limited statistical significance. Lee and Mason (1999) showed that
unexpected advertisements, if also relevant, are more favorably evaluated than expected ones.
However, the authors provide no explicit reference to creativity. Ang and Low (2000) found that
the novelty dimension of creative ads contributed to higher ad attitude and brand attitude, with
the strongest effect for unexpected, relevant, and positive-feeling ads. This study relied solely on
a student sample for measuring creativity, a method that has raised significant concerns. Stone,
Besser, and Lewis (2000) linked advertisement creativity to likeability, but in relatively simple
terms. Finally, Till and Baack (2005) studied television commercials, equating creative to award
winning, but found no significant effect of creativity on brand attitude. Research and intuition
suggest that the unexpectedness of novel ad execution would cause greater arousal, more
elaborate processing, and in the end more favorable evaluations, i.e. ad and brand attitude.
Additionally, meaningful, humorous, positive, and well-crafted elements of ads should all work
to promote favorable attitudes toward the ad, with certain effects spilling over to the brand. In
spite of this, the mixed findings above call for a more comprehensive study of the effects of
Zoozoo ad campaign on attitudes. Based on the theoretical foundation laid out, the author
hypothesize the following:

H2a: Ad attitude will be greater for Zoozoo Ad campaigns which are creative ads than for non-
creative ads

H2b: Brand attitude will be greater for Zoozoo Ad campaigns which are creative ads than for
non-creative ads

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Brand Interest

Machleit, Allen, and Madden (1993) contend that research on attitudinal constructs generally has
had an understanding focus on unfamiliar brands. For familiar brands, such as Coca-Cola,
McDonald’s, and Vodafone, when brand attitude by now is well recognized, a boredom factor
can occur even when the attitude is positive and the brand is providing sufficient contentment.
For that reason, advertising that merely reinforces this attitude cannot be anticipated to give as
strong a motivational “push” to action as advertising that revives interest in the brand. This is
especially relevant when fostering repeat purchasing as opposed to trial behavior.

Brand interest is defined as “the base level of approachability, inquisitiveness, openness, or

curiosity an individual has about a brand”. Machleit, Allen, and Madden (1993) maintain that
their conceptualization of brand interest is consistent with approach, exploration, and “creative
encounter”. Advertising should strive for more than to increase brand awareness, and humorous
advertising may not be sufficient. Novel and atypical methods are needed to create an ample
affective reaction and thereby revive interest, especially for familiar brands. Indeed, one study of
agency creatives indicated that sameness among brands has been a key reason for improving
creativity in recent years. Zoozoo Ad campaigns are novel by definition and so should be
expected to enhance brand interest to a greater extent than noncreative advertising. And the
meaningfulness dimension seems reasonably important when promoting repeat purchasing. The
author therefore hypothesizes:

H2c: Brand interest will be greater for Zoozoo Ad campaigns which are creative ads than for
non-creative ads

53
Purchase and WOM Intentions

One of the most important skills of a successful company is the ability to predict the behavior of
its customers. One way of forecasting, e.g. future sales, is by looking at past behavior. However,
due to the fact that behavioral patterns change over time, the prevalent theoretical model of
predicting behavior is to look at. Intentions are “the subjective judgments about how we will
behave in the future”. A number of studies have demonstrated that intentions have an
explanatory effect on actual behavior. But the intentions–behavior model has been shown to have
some imperfections. Belk (1985) refers to several studies that show certain degrees of
discrepancy between consumers’ intentions and their true behavior. However, much can be done
to improve the result (ibid.) and despite these limitations the intention–behavior model is
generally regarded as the best method of predicting actual behavior.

In a previous discussion the author hypothesized that the creativity of the Zoozoo Ad campaigns
should lead to more favorable ad and brand attitudes. As brand attitude promotes purchase
intentions, this means Zoozoo Ad campaigns should result in greater purchase intentions. There
might be direct effects of Zoozoo ad campaign on purchase intentions as well. For example, ad
meaningfulness might illuminate the brand’s link to consumer needs. And ad novelty might bring
the offering into new light, moving previously neutral consumers to “want” the product. Ang and
Low (2000) in fact found that unexpected, relevant, and positive advertisements (i.e. creative ads
by their definition) have the highest positive impact on purchase intentions. The authors relied on
a student sample and used an experimental research design with a mock-up ad as stimuli. The
author aims to extend the general applicability of theory in this regard—backed by a set of real-
life ad campaigns and a large panel of consumer respondents, the author set up the following
hypothesis:

H2d: Purchase intentions will be greater for Zoozoo Ad campaigns which are creative ads than
for non-creative ads

Beside the prediction of purchase behavior, much attention has been drawn to the measurement
of word-of-mouth (WOM) intentions.

54
Research shows that WOM, “the informal transmission of ideas, comments, opinions, and
information between two people”, has an indirect positive effect on the performance of the firm.
One might expect a creative ad to offer more talk fodder than a non-creative one, as people
should be more prone to talk about divergent or humorous experiences. In addition, it should be
easier to convey meaningful elements. Last but not least, both positiveness and well-craftiness
ought to vouch for a more pleasant message, or at least reduce the effort needed to process and
pass it on. In the case of creative advertising, as opposed to creative product development, the
effect should be largest on ad WOM intentions, yet also affect brand WOM intentions. Also, it is
not unlikely that a strong enough ad attitude would increase word-of-mouth intentions. If Zoozoo
Ad campaigns results in greater ad attitude, as reasoned above, then WOM intentions should be
promoted by an indirect effect as well. In sum, the author presents the following hypothesis:

H2e: Ad WOM intentions will be greater for Zoozoo Ad campaigns which are creative ads than
for non-creative ads

H2f: Brand WOM intentions will be greater for Zoozoo Ad campaigns which are creative ads
than for non-creative ads

The effects discussed so far all stem from the classic advertising hierarchy-of- effects. In an
effort to further extend the knowledge of the effectiveness of Zoozoo Ad campaign, the author
will factor in also the perceived ad expenditure and effort, the role of general advertising attitude
and the sales value impact of ad creativity in relation to media expenditure

Perceived Ad Expenditure and Effort

Ambler and Hollier (2004) find that perceived advertising expenditure enhances the consumer's
perception of the brand. The portion of advertising expenditure that may be perceived by the
target market, but which adds nothing to the functionality of the advertisement—that is,
understanding the message or its persuasiveness—is referred to as “waste.” This perceived
extravagance of an ad contributes to its effectiveness by increasing credibility. This theory draws
especially on the “Handicap Principle” in biology: animals use wasteful characteristics to signal
their exceptional biological fitness.

55
The authors maintain that excesses in advertising work in a similar way by signaling “brand
fitness.” They find that perceived ad expenditure is a strong indirect predictor of brand choice,
through its influence on perceptions of brand quality. Interestingly, consumers tend to
overestimate the amounts of advertising expenditures.

The conclusions of Ambler and Hollier agree with those of Kirmani and Wright (1989) as well as
Homer (1995). In addition, the latter tested perceived advertising effort, i.e. perceptions of “the
amount of advertising effort expended by an advertiser,” and found that it too positively
influenced perceived brand quality.

A lower actual level of ad expenditures might very well be compensated for by creative ad
execution, adding to its perceived expenditure. As described above, creativity “has meaning
beyond the sum of the parts”—it “provides a synergistic effect” which may well boost the ad’s
perceived expenditure and effort. Such a relationship would implicate that the Zoozoo Ad
campaigns indirectly promoted the advertised brand's perceived quality. It’s worth noting that
while the author does not measure perceived brand quality in this study, it should be a direct
predictor of brand attitude and purchase intentions, which is measured. In summary, the author
hypothesizes:

H2g: Perceived ad expenditure will be greater for Zoozoo Ad campaigns which are creative ads
than for non-creative ads

H2h: Perceived ad effort will be greater for Zoozoo Ad campaigns which are creative ads than
for non-creative ads

General Advertising Attitude

Obermiller, Spangenberg, and MacLachlan (2005) note how the increase of ad skepticism makes
it harder to inform and influence consumers through advertising. As one would expect,
consumers with a generally negative attitude towards advertising would tend to evaluate any
given ad less favorably than would the general public.

56
However, the authors find that people with a negative general advertising attitude tend to be
more positive towards advertising with emotional appeals, and less influenced by their general
adverting attitude for products that are of interest to them. Some contrary conclusions have
surfaced, e.g. MacKenzie and Lutz (1989) who found that advertising attitude had very little or
no effect on ad attitude, since the specific ad or situation tends to dominate ad evaluation. Also,
Friberg and Nilsson (2006) established that for ads in traditional media there is no significant
difference in ad attitude between consumers with a negative general advertising attitude and the
total population.

But they did show that choosing a Zoozoo Ad campaigns medium significantly raises ad attitude
compared to using traditional media— and the increase is lesser for consumers with a more
negative general advertising attitude. Clearly, more research about the role of general advertising
attitude is needed. It’s conceivable that advertisement creativity would work to mitigate the
negative effect of higher skepticism, as does emotional appeal and product involvement. For this
reason the author hypothesize that although consumers with a general advertising attitude will
evaluate ad attitude and the like lesser, Zoozoo Ad campaigns will be more effective among this
group as well.

H2i: Consumers with a negative general advertising attitude will evaluate objectives lesser, but
among them Zoozoo ad campaigns’ creative ads will achieve greater objectives than non-
creative ads

Media Expenditure and Sales Value

To break through the clutter of competing ads, many businesses resort to larger or longer-
running ad campaigns. Leaders in advertising spending suffer less from consumers confusing
their brand with those of competitors. Media expenditures may also strengthen sales and market
share by increasing brand salience in a particular category. Schroer (1990) believes advertising
spending to be a key factor behind the larger market share of leading firms. As a case in point,
Wilcox (2001) found a positive relationship between total brand advertising expenditures and
brand market share from 1977 to 1998 for eight U.S. brands of beer.

57
However, this strategy is expensive: to successfully raise market share ahead of similar
competitors, most firms would need to at least double its main rival’s outlay and maintain this
level for years (Schroer 1990). Few firms have the ability to outspend competition to this extent.
And most businesses face challenges in achieving cost-effectiveness at any level of spending.
Indeed, most advertising is believed to fail meeting its. In the case of new product introductions,
an estimate 70–85% fall short; empirical evidence points to marketing as a key factor behind
this. Some researchers have therefore shifted focus from ad spending to ad execution, from share
of voice to “share of heart”. For instance, Eastlack and Rao (1986) promote the creative
component of advertising, claiming it to be far more important than actual spending rates or
patterns. Kover, Goldberg, and James (1995) believe creativity “pushes the message into
viewers’ minds.”

Pitched against well-funded campaigns, which are promoted by frequency and breadth of ad
exposures, the author proposes that Zoozoo Ad campaigns have three main advantages. First, the
author has demonstrated that Zoozoo Ad campaigns which are creative ads are more effective in
promoting brand attitude, brand interest, and purchase intentions in each exposure to an ad.
Second, because Zoozoo Ad campaigns are more novel and meaningful, and perhaps more
humorous, positive, and well-crafted, they should have more “staying power” with consumers.
Indeed, creative ads have been shown to be more memorable.

To compete, non-creative campaigns need to be exposed more frequently, and well-funded

campaigns certainly are. They would therefore tend to induce more negative wear-out over time.
Third, because Zoozoo Ad campaigns generated stronger ad and brand WOM intentions, they
should have greater “sharing power” with consumers. Even though greater expenditure buys
exposure in more media channels and thus potentially among more consumers, a Zoozoo Ad
campaigns may compete by more productively spreading its message through WOM, a source of
demonstrated effectiveness and credibility. The question is which advantage—effectiveness,
staying power, and sharing power, or greater scale and scope of ad exposure—are dominant in
the aggregate.

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The notion of an idea overpowering might is a classic one, echoing throughout art and history. In
the words of Victor Hugo, an “invasion of armies can be resisted, but not an idea whose time has
come.” One finds a body of research on Vodafone’s Zoozoo campaigns; a central aim of this
thesis is to ascertain its effectiveness. However, no study has empirically tested the effect of
creativity in relation to media expenditures. Media expenditure is an absolute measure, which is
dependent on product category. It will therefore be tested within each of the three largest
categories. The author proposes that in each category:

Up until now the author has reviewed a number of psychological advertising objectives, all
prevalent in research and business practice. One effect measure remains, however, as it deserves
special attention. While several studies have linked advertising creativity to the psychological
hierarchy-of-effects, there is currently no research relating Zoozoo Ad campaigns to actual sales
value. Assuming that Zoozoo Ad campaigns positively influenced the hierarchy-of-effects, as
hypothesized—strengthening notably ad and brand attitude, brand interest, and purchase
intentions, which in turn have been shown to predict consumer behavior and thus sales value—
then advertising creativity should, to some degree, positively influence sales value. Such a link
would prove to be a novel and quite valuable discovery. Like media expenditure, sales value is
an absolute measure, dependent on product category. It will be tested together with media
expenditure within each of the largest categories. The author hypothesizes that in each category:

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 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

“Whatever is common is despised.”

— Dr. Samuel Johnson, 1758
Initial Work
The author got underway discussions with experienced advertising agency professionals and
marketing researchers. This led the author to focus on the time and again problematic and
questioned connection between Zoozoo Ad campaigns and its objectives, such as attitudes,
intentions, and sales.

The surprised author found that definitions of creativity differed substantially, especially within
the field of advertising. Also, research was usually restricted to experimental research designs,
which the author wanted to move beyond in the interest of general applicability and to be able to
introduce data on media expenditure and sales.

Research Design
Since this study built on previous research and the aim was to test specific hypotheses and
examine relationships between Zoozoo Ad campaigns and its effectiveness variables the author
chose a conclusive research design. This choice was also supported by the clear definition of
sought-after information and the large and representative sample in the experiment. The author
aimed to test both established and, from literature, proposed theories with quantitative research,
and draw conclusions and discuss the conclusions and recommendations. This also called for a
conclusive research design. To be able to test how Zoozoo Ad campaigns ratings correlate with
quantifiable effect measures, and compare different groups’ ratings, the author chose to conduct
a quantitative study. A quantitative study gave the opportunity to answer the proposed
hypotheses and draw significant conclusions. The first question to address was how many and
which advertisings campaigns to include in the study.

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Campaign Period
The first thing was to decide on was from which period of time the campaigns were to be
selected from. In addressing a relevant time period for advertisement campaigns, there is some
trade-off between using up-to-date material on the one hand, and obtaining a large and
representative campaign sample on the other. There is also the issue of natural time lag in the
production and collection of relevant sales data. Too recent campaign would not have had a
measurable effect on the market and therefore analysis of the market impact would have been
impossible.

Campaigns
The author needed to find real campaigns where one could get access to representative
advertising material along with data on media expenditure and sales value growth. In the first
phase the author amassed a set of 30 advertising campaigns, mostly based on Vodafone’s
Zoozoo campaigns. Further, campaigns deemed to target a market too local were not included.
Lastly, a few campaigns exhibited special external circumstances and were thus excluded. From
this phase remained the following material: 30 campaigns from campaigns all based on
Vodafone’s Zoozoo campaigns 2009 and 2010. To be able to draw general conclusions and to
minimize stimulus-specific effects the author chooses to include 20 campaigns in the study. This
was also the quantity that balanced the wish of including a high number of campaigns and a high
number of responses per campaign, as the limit of the study initially were set to 200 respondents.
In the third phase the author started to search the internet to get campaigns along with sales and
media expenditure data. To make sure that respondents would be presented with a representative
media sample of each selected campaign, the author focused on campaigns that were dominated
by one single media choice. The author also delimited the selection to Vodafone, and excluded
entirely new launches. This was important both because the author wanted to measure sales in
percentage increase and since the novelty rating should focus on the advertising, not new product
launches. This also led to the choice of focusing on brands that are at least somewhat familiar to
respondents.

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In the final selection of 20 campaigns are represented. Yet awards are no definite, end-all proof
of creativity or lack thereof. The author used a scale of 1–7 and, when choosing which additional
campaigns, aimed to arrive at a final selection of ads with a wide apparent range of Zoozoo Ad
campaigns. The mean of all Zoozoo Ad campaigns ratings were in fact 4.33, ranging from 3.40
to 5.66, on a scale of 1–7. This indicates a good distribution between Zoozoo Ad campaigns
which are creative ads and non-creative ads (out of 200 responses, 6% were 1-ratings and 10%
were 7-ratings).

Advertisement Media

Advertisement campaigns in the initial set were either focused on one ad medium, such as
television or print, or built on a mix of media. The latter was the predominant case. The survey
panels at the disposal did not technically limit to only, say, print ads; the author had the ability to
test executions of television, print, and outdoor advertising. This freedom had important
methodological gains. It promoted the aim to execute a realistic, non-experimental research
design. The ability to test the hypotheses across a real-life spectrum of media contributes to the
external validity of findings. Furthermore, it minimizes distortion from the potential
idiosyncrasies of any one medium. Of course, from campaigns using a mix of media the author
selected only one element for inclusion in the panel surveys, to avoid respondent fatigue. Out of
the 20 campaigns finally chosen, 7 were represented with a movie and 13 with images.

Survey Design
After deciding on research design, which included twenty campaigns the author needed to find a
survey design that could be implemented in practice. The author decided to conduct two surveys
that complement each other. First survey targeted consumers, testing both Zoozoo advertising
creativity and measures of its effectiveness and therefore constituted the main study, used to
answer the hypothesis. To decrease respondent fatigue each person rated only four campaigns.
The second survey targeted ad industry professionals. This study was aimed at obtaining specific
Zoozoo Ad campaigns ratings from creatives, strategists and advertisers.

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These ratings worked as a complement to the consumer study and are reported in the analysis
only where specific ratings differ from consumers. The author chose to delimit the number of
campaigns per respondent to four, and respondents were exposed for the same eleven creativity
questions used in the consumer survey.

Since the sample of respondents in this survey is not representative of consumers in general, the
effectiveness questions were wholly excluded from this survey. This also worked to reduce
respondent fatigue. To be able to separate the different judges of Zoozoo Ad campaigns within
the industry survey the author included a question where the respondents had to pick one of the
four following positions: creative, strategist, advertiser or other. The author also included a
question of how many years the respondent had worked in the industry. The respondents were
also offered to get access to survey results.

Scales and Measures

The author only used structured questions in the survey, mainly because unstructured questions
are not suitable for web based surveys but also to decrease interviewer bias and coding time and
cost. For the questions regarding respondents’ position and years of experience in the industry,
the author chose to use multi-choice questions when there were several possible, mutually
exclusive alternatives, and dichotomous questions for two response alternatives. For all Zoozoo
Ad campaigns and effect questions the author used the interval scale, ranging from 1 to 7 with
numerically equal distances. Interval scale, or in this case a semantic differential scale, is a well-
established measurement technique in the field of marketing research, which permits many key
statistical analyses.

Questionnaire
The author started with an extensive review of previous research and made a list of questions or
propositions relevant for measuring the variables. The author rounded up those formulations
most proven in the literature, and took care to make them easy to understand. Wherever possible,
the author chose to limit the number of questions to minimize respondent fatigue and the risk of
response bias.

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Creativity: The questionnaire starts off with a single-item scale to measure creativity with the
pair creative vs. non-creative. This is the simplest way to measure.

Novelty: This concept is probably the most acknowledged dimension of creativity. The author
chose a multi-item scale with three frequently used pairs: predictable vs. novel, expected vs.
unexpected and conventional vs. original.

Meaningfulness: Meaningfulness has long been an accepted dimension of creativity and as such
has been included in many studies. The author chose a multi-item scale with three pairs- relevant
vs. irrelevant, appropriate vs. inappropriate, and adequate vs. inadequate.

Humor: Another potential dimension of creativity is humor. The author used the proposition
“The ad is humorous” from Lee and Mason (1999).

Positiveness: Ang and Low (2001) presented valence of feeling or positiveness as a possible
dimension of creativity. The author followed their formulation and asked consumers whether the
ad conveyed feelings that were positive vs. negative.

Well-Craftiness: the author used a multi-item scale with two propositions to measure well-
craftiness: well-made vs. botched and skillful vs. bungling

Ad and Brand Attitude: For both ad and brand attitude the author used a well established multi-
item scale with three questions: like vs. dislike, good vs. bad and positive vs. negative impression.

Brand Interest: Three propositions were used: “I am curious about [brand]”, “I would like to
know more about [brand]”, and “I am intrigued by [brand]”. Machleit, Allen, and Madden
(1993) recommend these questions for measuring brand interest.

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Intentions: There are three different intention constructs: intentions-as-expectations (“How
likely is it…”), intentions-as-plans (“Do you plan…”), and intentions-as-wants (“Do you
want…”). Earlier research has shown that intentions-as-expectations are finest in forecasting
behavior. On the other hand, the priority with this measure was not to come as close to predicting
behavior as probable, but to a certain extent to inspect the psychological outcome of the
campaigns. Most campaigns have the reason to build positive attitudes and create loyal
costumers over time, and intentions-as-wants are more connected with consumer variables such
as positive affect and motivation. In addition, the author included actual sales data to represent
behavior. Therefore the author has chosen the following three questions “I want to buy [brand]”
to measure buying intentions, “I want to recommend [brand]” to measure the will to recommend
a brand and “I want to talk about [ad]” to measure word-of-mouth intentions.

Perceived Ad Expenditure and Effort: the author chose two propositions, corresponding with
previous research, “I perceive the cost behind this ad campaign as — high vs. low” and “I
perceive the effort behind this ad campaign as — high vs. low”.

General Attitude towards Advertising: To measure the general attitude towards advertising the
author used the proposition “I like advertising” from MacKenzie and Lutz (1989).

Sample
In a final entry to the survey design, the author discusses how he went about collecting large and
representative enough samples for the two surveys, and how response rates were managed.

Consumer Survey
The author needed to determine an appropriate sample size, large enough to give us a valid
representation of the original population of consumers in India. Malhotra (2004, p. 318)
recommends a sample of 150 responses minimum when examining TV or print advertising. After
discussions the author agreed on a target sample size of 200 responses per campaign. The survey
resulted in 500 valid responses with at least 25 for each campaign.

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Industry Survey
The total population for this survey is defined as professionals in the advertising industry. Due to
the risk of respondent fatigue the author divided the total sample into five subgroups with four
campaigns each. The data collection was active for two weeks and resulted in 278 valid
responses for a completion rate of 18.1%. Since the investigated population is highly delimited
and the author was not able to get in touch with non-respondents, the author cannot perform non-
response adjustments such as sub-sampling, replacement or substitution. To inspect whether non-
response bias has prejudiced results, the author instead performed a trend analysis and compared
early respondents to late ones. Respondents during the first week (173 hours) were placed in the
first group (n=161) and respondents during the following week (173 hours) in the second (n=39).
Comparisons of the responses revealed no significant difference between the groups.

External Material and Data

To build the industry and consumer surveys the author drew material from several external
sources. Firstly, high quality print and television ads were collected directly from advertising
agencies, various magazines and the internet. Secondly, sales data was collected mainly from the
advertiser or the ad agency that produced the campaign (O&M).

Instruments and Methods of Analysis

All survey data was collected through surveys and electronically plotted in Microsoft Excel
documents, which then were altered into SPSS files. Participation figures were coded into SPSS
by the author. The author used SPSS for all analysis, which includes factor analysis, independent
t-test, linear regression and MANOVA (multivariate analysis of variance). When a measure
needed to be split in high vs. low values the author used a cut-off point to compute two groups. If
nothing else is written, the main analysis is based on the consumer sample of 200 respondents.
The author has chosen to accept results only sat the 0.1% level of significance.

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 FINDINGS

“Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.”

— Steve Jobs

Hypothesis Testing
As discussed earlier, the main motive for studying the Zoozoo ad campaigns is to check the
effects it has on consumer behavior, and consumers, rather than experts, “may have the last
word” in the matter. As a result, the author will report results from hypothesis testing based on
the consumer study, and add industry results only in cases they significantly differ.

Dimensions of measuring the effectiveness of Zoozoo ad campaigns

Hypotheses 1a addresses the issue of defining which dimensions influencing Zoozoo campaigns.
These were tested using linear regressions, where the five independent variables novelty,
meaningfulness, humor, positiveness and well-craftiness were run towards the dependent variable
creativity, across all consumer responses. Results confirm novelty (0.298), meaningfulness
(0.108), humor (0.220), positiveness (0.154), and well-craftiness (0.187) to be significant in
explaining the effectiveness of the Zoozoo campaigns. All five hypotheses are accepted at a high
level of significance. See Table 1 for details.
Hypothesis: Beta Decision
Dimension (β)
H1a: Novelty 0.298 Accepte
d
H1b: Meaningfulness 0.108 Accepte
d

H1c: Humor 0.220 Accepte

d

H1d: Positiveness 0.154 Accepte

d

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 H1e: Well-Craftiness 0.187 Accepte
d

Table 1: Dimensions of Zoozoo Ad Campaigns: linear regressions for H1a–e

Results confirm that these five dimensions are able of explaining Zoozoo campaigns as judged
by consumers. Each hypothesis is accepted as significant at the 0.1% level. The five dimensions
together account for 68.8% of the variation in the measure. In addition, removing any dimension
from the model results in a reduced the industry research R2, suggesting that the dimensions
complement one another in influencing creativity.

The regression model based on the industry study has an even greater R2 (0.819). In other words,
unknown variables or natural variability explain less of the variation in creativity. One reason for
this may be that the general public has a lesser-defined notion of the effectiveness of Zoozoo
campaigns. Also of note, for industry respondents, positiveness does not significantly influence
Zoozoo ad campaign and is thus removed from the regression model. This proves to be valid, as
R2 stays constant upon running the test with the four remaining factors. R2 is reduced when
removing any other dimension from the model. Lastly, a t-test revealed no significant differences
between creatives and strategists in judging any dimension of the Zoozoo campaigns.

Novelty: Novelty seems the most well accepted dimension of Zoozoo campaigns. The regression
analysis lends further support to this argument. In line with H1a, Zoozoo campaigns were
considered more novel are indeed associated with greater creativity. As evident in Table 1,
novelty’s β (0.298) is the highest among the proposed dimensions of Zoozoo campaigns. In fact,
the effect of novelty is almost triple that of meaningfulness. Striking is that in the industry study
novelty has a considerably greater β than in the consumer study (0.613 vs. 0.298), while the other
dimensions differ to a lesser extent. This implies that to advertising agency professionals, the
novelty dimension plays an even larger part in the extent to which the campaign was deemed
creative, both in relation to consumer judgment and to the four remaining dimensions.

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Meaningfulness: While most researchers consider novelty to be essential to advertising
creativity, many agree that ad elements must also be meaningful for an ad to qualify as creative.
The more unexpected an ad element, the more meaningfulness is needed for consumers to retain
the connection to product category needs.
H1b predicted that greater meaningfulness should strengthen ad creativity, and testing supported
this at a high level of significance. Notably, however, β is the lowest among these dimensions
(0.108).

Humor: Research has proposed humor as a facet of creativity, related to the divergent qualities
of ads. In accordance with H1d, the humor level in the Zoozoo campaign should positively
influence its creativity. This relationship is supported by regression as in fact humor has the
second highest impact on creativity (β = 0.220).

Positiveness: Similarly to the role of meaningfulness, the emotional direction of the ad content
—positiveness—could help lubricate the acceptance of novel elements. H1c proposed that higher
positiveness should raise perceptions of the Zoozoo campaign. This was supported by the
consumer study (β = 0.154). For ad professionals, however, no significant relationship was found
between the variables. This might suggest that professionals, experienced by the craft behind the
scenes, are not swayed by the conveyance of “mere” positive feelings. To them it is, first and
foremost, ad novelty that counts.

Well-Craftiness: Quite a few researchers contend that the Zoozoo campaign’s well-craftiness is
also brought to bear on perceived creativity. Indeed, whatever idea lies behind the campaign,
intuition suggests that one part of the creative element should spring from the ad’s attractiveness.
H1e proposed that Zoozoo campaign’s well-crafted ads should garner greater creativity. This
was supported by testing as wellcraftiness demonstrates high impact on creativity (β = 0.187).

The author started testing the effects of the Zoozoo campaign by running a MANOVA—with ad
creativity as a fixed factor and ad attitude, brand attitude, brand interest, purchase intentions, ad
WOM intentions and brand WOM intentions as dependent variables—to test hypotheses 2a–f

69
simultaneously. The overall multivariate test demonstrates that the Zoozoo campaign has a
significant effect on all dependent variables, which confirms all of these hypotheses as working
independently.

To answer hypotheses 2a–f the author split the consumer sample in two groups, noncreative
versus creative ads. The author wanted to examine Zoozoo Ad campaigns that stand out and
therefore the author chose a cut off point that place ratings 1–4 in the non-creative and 5–7 in the
creative group. the author tested the hypotheses with a t-test for the mean difference between the
two groups on the dependent variables ad attitude, brand attitude, brand interest, purchase
intentions, ad WOM intentions and brand WOM intentions. See Table 2 for details. Hypotheses
2a–f are all accepted, the conclusions of which is discussed for each effect measure further
below.
Hypothesis: Effect Beta Decision
(β)
H2a: Ad Attitude 2.09 Accepte
d
H2b: Brand Attitude 1.17 Accepte
d
H2c: Brand Interest 0.77 Accepte
d
H2d: Purchase Intentions 0.75 Accepte
d
H2e: Ad WOM Intentions 0.91 Accepte
d
H2f: Brand WOM 0.78 Accepte
Intentions d
Table 2: Effects of Zoozoo Ad Campaigns: t-tests of H2a–g

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To get further insights and likelihood to understand the results on all five dimensions of the
Zoozoo Ad campaigns the author also ran linear regressions, where the five independent
variables novelty, meaningfulness, humor, positiveness and well-craftiness were run towards a
single dependent effect variable across all consumer responses. This was performed for all six
effects variables ad attitude, brand attitude, brand interest, purchase intentions, ad WOM
intentions and brand WOM intentions, which resulted in a total of six linear regressions that are
horizontally summarized in Table 3.

Effect \ Factor Novelty Meaningf Humor Positivene Wellcrafti R2

ulness ss ness

Ad Attitude 0.065 0.170 0.289 0.252 0.284 0.84

Brand Attitude 0.110 0.194 0.041 0.218 0.157 0.38

Brand Interest 0.048 0.262 0.128 0.101 –0.018 0.21

Purchase Intent. 0.068 0.205 0.050 0.105 –0.025 0.13

Ad WOM Int. 0.104 0.169 0.254 0.021 0.010 0.24

Brand WOM Int. 0.060 0.195 0.080 0.107 –0.006 0.14

Table 3: Effects of Zoozoo Ad Campaign dimensions: linear regressions

Ad and Brand Attitude

In accordance with theory, creativity in advertising is expected to cause arousal, more elaborate
processing, and in the end more positive evaluations (Ang and Low 2000). Nevertheless, earlier
studies have created ambiguous results in trying to ascertain this relationship. The author
therefore used sample of actual advertisements to test the effect on both ad and brand attitudes.
The results, displayed in Table 2, are unambiguous: since the Vodafone ads were more creative,
more creative ads generated considerably greater consumer ad and brand attitudes (mean
difference = 2.09 and 1.17, respectively, at p < 0.1%). Ad attitude is evidently affected to a
greater extent, which is intuitive as the creativity judged is that of the advertisement and not the
brand. The linear regressions of Table 3 confirm this: the hypothesized creativity dimensions

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explain an impressive 84% of the variance in ad attitude (R2). Still, their effect carries over to
explain 38% of the variance in brand attitude. Among the creativity dimensions of Zoozoo Ad
campaign, the author believed the different ones to be dominant in promoting favorable
responses among consumers. The results are mixed in this respect. For ad attitude of Zoozoo Ad
campaign, the divergent quality of humor does have the greatest impact (β = 0.289).
On the other hand, novelty has the least effect on ad attitude (0.065). Wellcraftiness (0.284) has
an influence comparable to humor, followed by positiveness (0.252) and meaningfulness (0.170).
For brand attitude, however, positiveness (0.218) is the predominant dimension, followed by
meaningfulness (0.194), well-craftiness (0.157), and novelty (0.110). The modest effect of
humor on brand attitude (0.041) is significant only at the 5% level. It seems that, any
entertainment value of the campaigns promoted attitudes towards the ad but not towards the
brand advertised. This is intuitive; much like the melody of a national anthem might move one to
better like the anthem, but not the nation. In sum, in Zoozoo Ad campaign, the perceived ad
creativity significantly affected both ad and brand attitude; humor raised ad attitude but hardly
affected brand attitude; and novelty has limited effect on either.

Brand Interest
When advertising familiar brands, a boredom factor can arise even when the brand attitude is
positive. Advertising that simply reinforces this attitude cannot be expected to provide as strong
a motivational “push” to purchase as advertising that revives interest in the brand. Even though
one might anticipate the deviation of Zoozoo Ad campaigns to help revive interest in the brand,
no currently published study has investigated this relationship. The author therefore tested
whether Zoozoo Ad campaigns would enhance brand interest to a greater extent than non-
creative advertising.

The test confirms this relationship at a high level of significance (mean difference = 0.77 at p <
0.1%). The results lend further support to the effectiveness of Zoozoo ad campaign. Interestingly
though, ad novelty has no significant effect by itself when compared to the other dimensions
(Table 3). The same is true of well-craftiness. Instead, it is meaningfulness (0.262), humor
(0.128), and positiveness (0.101) that impact brand interest.

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In sum, in Zoozoo ad campaigns has a significant effect on brand interest, with ad
meaningfulness as the primary driver and humor and positiveness as supporters. This finding is
instrumental to the objective of promoting repeat purchasing of established brands.

Purchase and WOM Intentions

Purchase intention is a well-established predictive measure of actual consumer behavior, e.g.
purchase. Theory has shown purchase intentions to be promoted by brand attitude, which in turn
is affected by ad creativity. Also, one previous study, based on experimental ad execution, has
hinted at a direct Zoozoo ad campaign effect on purchase intentions. The author thus
hypothesized that in the case of Zoozoo ad campaign positively influences purchase intentions,
and the result is clearly in agreement (mean difference = 0.75 at p < 0.1%). Besides purchase
intentions, advertisement execution may also spark intentions to talk about the ad or brand.
Results confirmed the hypotheses that Zoozoo ad execution promotes both ad and brand word-
of-mouth intentions (mean difference = 0.91 and 0.78, respectively, at p < 0.1%). The linear
regressions confirm this: dimensions of creativity explain 24% of the variance of ad WOM
intentions, 14% of brand WOM intentions, and 13% of purchase intentions (Table 3). This is a
consequence liable to testing Zoozoo Ad campaigns as opposed to creative product development.

Meaningfulness surfaces as the only dimension to exert both significant and substantial influence
on all three types of intentions. This strengthens the problem-solving role of ad meaningfulness,
which should illuminate the Vodafone’s link to the needs of consumers and thus propel their
purchase intentions. As for the effect on WOM intentions, meaningfulness might work to
simplify relaying the message. Humor is a great factor for ad WOM intentions, but lesser so for
brand WOM intentions and both lesser and less significantly so for purchase intentions. This
seems reasonable— a humorous ad is interesting enough to become the topic of conversation,
but the effect doesn’t extend as well to the brand and in itself drives few consumers to purchase.
Similarly, novelty most significantly affects ad WOM intentions, but lesser so than does humor.
Interestingly, ad positiveness is significant in affecting brand WOM and purchase intentions, but
not ad WOM intentions. Conceivably, while positiveness offers nothing tangible to talk about, it

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may work as a peripheral cue to spark conversation and action vis-à-vis the brand. Lastly, well-
craftiness is at most a hygiene factor, with no significant effect on any measure of intentions.

Perceived Ad Expenditure and Effort

Excesses in advertising expenditure, which adds nothing to the message or its persuasiveness,
may still promote perceived brand quality in the case of Zoozoo Ad campaigns. The perceived
amount of advertising effort expended by the advertiser may have an analogous effect. No
currently published study has attempted to link the creativity of ad execution to perceived ad
expenditure or effort. The author hypothesized that Zoozoo Ad campaigns promoted both, and
results are positive (mean difference = 0.69 and 1.34, respectively, at p < 0.1%). Whether
Zoozoo Ad campaigns was less or more costly, consumers apparently perceive it to be backed by
greater expenditure. And whether Zoozoo Ad campaigns took less or more effort to produce,
consumers perceive the effort to be greater. Linear regressions unveil that, between perceived ad
expenditure and effort, the dimensions of Zoozoo Ad campaigns explain a greater deal of the
latter’s variance. Well-craftiness dominates the other dimensions in influencing these two
effects, which is highly intuitive. Perceived ad effort is also affected by ad novelty and humor.
This is reasonable, since crafting novel or humorous ads would tend to demand more effort.
Perceived ad expenditure is actually (slightly) negatively affected by positiveness. Beyond the
workings of each dimension, perceived ad expenditure and effort are clearly promoted by
Zoozoo Ad campaigns. In this way, Zoozoo Ad campaigns should signal “brand fitness” and
promote perceived brand quality, which in turn is a demonstrated precursor to brand attitude.

General Ad Attitude
Increasing ad skepticism among the general public compounds the challenge of influencing
consumers through advertising. A more negative general advertising attitude tends to dampen
attitude toward specific Zoozoo Ad campaigns. However, the author hypothesized that Zoozoo
ad campaign has the power to elevate ad attitude among those negatively inclined towards
advertising in general, and to the same extent as for those with a positive general ad attitude.

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Summary of Main Results
Based on hypothesis testing at the 0.1% level, the main conclusions can be summarized in the
following:

 HYPOTHESES H1A–E: ACCEPTED

Zoozoo ad campaigns were positively influenced by ad novelty, meaningfulness, humor,
positiveness, and well-craftiness.

 HYPOTHESES H2A–H: ACCEPTED

Zoozoo ad campaigns were effective in strengthening central measures of advertising
effectiveness: ad and brand attitude, brand interest, ad and brand WOM intentions, purchase
intentions, as well as perceived ad expenditure and effort.

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 CONCLUSION

“The best way to predict the future is to invent it.”

— Alan Kay

Based on an ample review of effectiveness Zoozoo Ad campaign research, the author

hypothesized based on the dimensions of novelty, meaningfulness, humor, positiveness, and
well-craftiness. Analysis gave strong support to the model, with regression among consumers
yielding an impressive R2 of 0.688. This is in contrast to an R2 range of 0.16–0.58 from
comparable studies. Notably, the multi-dimensional model of Zoozoo ad campaign exhibits
greater explanatory power than the single measure of creativity towards all hypothesized
communications effects; for example, creativity, ad attitude yields R2 0.60, while the
dimensional model ad attitude yields R2 0.84. The model’s strength may stem from such factors
as the non-experimental, realistic research design, the well-distributed sample of Zoozoo Ad
campaigns, and the sizeable respondent base of real consumers.

Leaking Buckets
The hypothesized effects of Zoozoo Ad campaigns may be ordered into a hierarchical chain, e.g.
from ad attitude to brand attitude to purchase intentions. Such a chain may be conceptualized as
a set of “leaking buckets” in the course of which the effect of its ad exposure dissipates through
each step: for instance, a subset of consumers positive towards the ad is positive towards the
brand, and a subset of the latter has positive purchase intentions.

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The model here has straightforward conclusions for how pliant each dimension to check the
effectiveness of Zoozoo Campaigns. First and foremost, it sheds new light on the two most
prevalent dimensions in this research, ad novelty and meaningfulness, the workings of which are
apparently more complex than previously understood. The author turns to explain this below,
along with what remains to uncover.

Novelty and Meaningfulness

Amongst the dimensions hypothesized, novelty was shown to have the greatest impact on
perceived creativity of the Zoozoo campaign. These findings reinforce the key role of novelty as
suggested by prior publications. Not to the author’s surprise, novelty was shown to have doubled
the impact on creativity perceptions among creative professionals. Regardless of this, novelty
was one of the weaker dimensions in following through the chain of psychological measures.
This is an interesting finding, which shades the role of novelty suggested in earlier works: even
though novelty is dominant in Zoozoo Ad campaigns, it translates into a more modest impact on
the hypothesized measures of effectiveness of those ads. Although novelty does affect other
psychological measures, e.g. attention and memory, more research is needed to extend the
knowledge of the precise mechanism of ad novelty.

Meaningfulness is another factor emphasized in previous research. Although significant, its

impact was shown to be lesser than the other hypothesized dimensions. Theory suggests that
meaningfulness works as a hygiene factor for creativity, which may still be the case even though
it does not elevate it as much. To further clarify the role of meaningfulness, future studies should
attempt to establish interaction effects between this and other dimensions of creativity such as
novelty.

In addition, even though meaningfulness was not the greatest factor in Zoozoo ad campaigns per
se, it had the greatest stamina in the flow of “leaking buckets” from ad attitude through brand
attitude and purchase and WOM intentions. Also recall that meaningfulness dominated the other
dimensions in affecting brand interest, important for well-established brands. This resilience is
perhaps testament to the proposed status of meaningfulness as a hygiene factor. Again, the link

77
between meaningfulness and creativity deserves further probing, as does its interplay with effect
measures.

Well-craftiness, Humor, and Positiveness

Earlier studies have principally missed the significant role of well-craftiness in explaining THE
dimensions for effectiveness of Zoozoo ad campaigns, as demonstrated by this study. It
significantly affects both ad and brand attitude, while being the main influence on perceived ad
expenditure and effort. It seems well-craftiness is entitled to more room in coming studies. While
humor is instrumental in improving ad attitude, positiveness is the same to brand attitude. As
concluded, any entertainment value of Zoozoo ad campaigns promoted attitudes towards the ad
but not towards the brand advertised. Brand attitude is arguably the main objective in most
practical cases—however; humor may have positive side effects on other variables, such as
memory. The explanatory power of the multi-dimensional model makes for interesting potential
application to complementary variables like attention and memory. This would deepen the
understanding of the effects of Zoozoo ad campaigns. Furthermore, the author concluded that
humorous ads are interesting enough to spark ad WOM intentions, but the effect doesn’t extend
as well to brand WOM intentions or purchase intentions. Also, the ad positiveness is significant
in affecting brand WOM and purchase intentions, but not ad WOM intentions. The author
suggested that while positiveness, unlike humor, offers no incentive to tell friends of the ad, it
may work as a peripheral cue to influence talk and even purchase of the Vodafone brand. Further
study is needed to determine if this is the case.

Conceivably most notably, against a backdrop of questionable or even contradictory studies on

the effectiveness of creativity this model provides conclusions of much-needed clarity and
certainty—Zoozoo Ad campaigns are effective, significantly strengthening ad and brand attitude,
brand interest, purchase intentions, ad and brand WOM intentions, as well as perceived ad
expenditure and effort.

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In sum, the author advocates the continued use of the dimensional model based on its great
explanatory power. A natural next step is to apply the model to a single brand at a time, to
establish which dimensions play larger or smaller roles in different ones—both in explaining
creativity and affecting attitudes and intentions. The model can also be applied to ascertain the
impact of creativity on additional measures of advertising effectiveness.
RECOMMENDATIONS

The author recommends others to build on this study of media expenditure and sales value, and
perhaps include other actual market performance measures, such as market share. The next
methodological step is to deploy a creativity study with sole focus on actual market performance
measures, in one particular category: ridding the survey of psychological measures will shorten
the amount of questions, so the number of questionnaires per respondent can be raised; and
focusing on one category will aggregate more comparable data. Furthermore, the author’s advice
is to work even more closely directly with advertisers, ad agencies, market research agencies,
tracking agencies, or ad effectiveness award shows, to capture market performance data as
standardized as possible, or transparent enough to allow for standardization with other, equally
transparent sources for case in point the Zoozoo ads. Beyond the conclusions based directly on
the findings, the author would like to propose a number of related avenues of research: applying
the multi-dimensional model to other advertising media, e.g. radio, web, or integrated marketing
communications; introducing the theoretical implications in studies of creative product
development, creative marketing strategies, creative market segment choice, and creative media
choice; examining any interaction effects among or non-linear effects of Zoozoo ad campaign
dimensions; looking into the interaction effects between creative media choice and creative ad
execution; investigating the moderating roles of context, knowledge, brand-congruence, and
involvement on the effectiveness of creativity (i.e. maybe humor loses some effectiveness if
brand-incongruent; perhaps product benefits take over ad characteristics in high-involvement
categories); determining the effect of Zoozoo ad campaign on certain emotions or brand values,
and on brand equity; combining it with informational/ transformational or central/peripheral

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processing frameworks (i.e. perhaps positiveness acts as peripheral cue on brand WOM and
purchase intentions); studying different effects of creativity among various demographics (i.e.
age, educational level, or income); testing the effect of Zoozoo ad campaign on evaluation of the
product/service itself; ascertaining whether, e.g. meaningfulness and well-craftiness work as
hygiene factors and novelty as a motivator; determining the endurance of Zoozoo ad campaign
effects in terms of wear-out and memory; testing which ad elements (message, visual, etc.)
INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

1. Thinking about brands of telephone connection, what brands have you seen of heard of?

2. If you were to buy a telephone connection, which brands would you seriously consider?

3. If all the brands shown below were available to you at the same price and quality, which
one would you be most likely to choose?

4. Please select the statement that best describes the likelihood of you buying the brand
listed below the next time you get a new telephone connection

o Definitely will buy

o Probably will buy

o Might or might not buy

o Probably will not buy

o Definitely will not buy

5. Please think about all the different places you have seen, heard or read about Vodafone’s
Zoozoo ad campaign

6. Please tell me everything you saw the Zoozoo ad campaign that was just shown to you

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7. Have you seen this TV commercial before?

o Yes

o No

o I don’t know

8. Have you seen a commercial similar to this one?

o Yes

o No

o I don’t know

9. What specific product was being advertised?

10. What is your overall satisfaction, having seen the Zoozoo characters

Not satisfied at all Extremely satisfied

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

11. What did this commercial make you feel it was?

o Creative

o Non-creative

o Expected

o Unexpected

o Conventional

o Original

o Relevant

o Irrelevant

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 o Appropriate

o Inappropriate

o Adequate

o Inadequate

o Humorous

o Positive

o Negative

o Well-made

o Botched

o Skillful

o You liked it?

o You disliked it?

o I am curious about Vodafone now

o I would like to know more about it

o I’m intrigued by Vodafone brand

12. Thinking about the ad you just saw, please evaluate the following statements:

Yes No I don’t know

I enjoyed watching it a lot
It made me want to buy the product
It contained new information about the brand
The points made in the commercial were believable
It was like any other ad for a tee phone connection
I like the characters in the commercial
I thought it was irritating
It made me feel differently about the brand

13. Having seen the advertisement, how likely would you be to

o Speak to friends and family about Zoozoo’s

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 o Visit Vodafone.com

o Search the internet to find out more information about Zoozoo

o Go to a telephone Shoppe to see the Zoozoo merchandise

o Purchase a Vodafone connection

14. There are some commercials that people remember but never know which brand they are
for. Which of these phrases applies best to this commercial?

o You couldn’t help but remember it was for

o It was pretty good at making you remember it is for

o It is just okay at making you remember what it is for

o It could have been for any telephone company

o It could have been for almost anything

15. You perceive the cost behind this ad campaign as

o High

o Low

16. You perceive this effort behind this ad campaign is

o High

o Low

17. What is the highest level of education you have completed?

o Some high school or less

o Graduate

o Post college graduate school

o Prefer not to answer

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18. What is your gender?

o Male

o Female

BIBLIOGRAPHY

• Amabile, T. M. (1982) “The Social Psychology of Creativity: A Consensual Assessment

Technique”. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
• Ambler, T. and Hollier E. A. (2004),”The Waste in Advertising Is the Part That Works”
• Andrews, J. and Smith, D. C. (1996), “In Search of the Marketing Imagination:
Factors Affecting the Creativity of Marketing Programs for Mature Products”
• Ang, S. H. and Low, Y. M. (2000), “Exploring the Dimensions of Ad Creativity”.
• Belk, R. W. (1985), “Issues in the Intention-Behavior Discrepancy”. Research in
Consumer Behavior
• Blackwell, R. D., Miniard, P. W. and Engel, J. F. (2005), Consumer Behavior
• Brown, S. P. and Stayman, D. M. (1992), ”Antecedents and Consequences of Attitude
Toward the Ad: A Meta-Analysis
• Chattopadhyay, A. and Nedungadi, P. (1992),”Does Attitude Toward the Ad Endure?
The Moderating Effects of Attention and Delay”
• Dichter, E. (1966), “How Word-of-Mouth Advertising Works”. Harvard Business
Review

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• Gonten M. F. and Donius, J. F. (1997), “Advertising Exposure and Advertising Effects:
New Panel-based Findings”. Journal of Advertising Research
• www.slideshare.com
• www.vodafone.in

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