Creative personalities, processes, and agency philosophies: implications for global advertisers

This article examines the management of creativity facing international advertisers and agencies. There has been a substantial amount of research comparing advertisements in different cultures but relatively little work on the nature of the creative personalities, processes, and philosophies used in developing such advertising. The research question posed in this article is whether the differences in advertising observed between "individualistic" and "collective" societies are mirrored by differences in creative people and practices. Australia is studied as a representative individualistic society and Singapore as collectivist. Using a questionnaire, a sample of creatives in each country was examined. Differences were found to exist between the 2 cultures, particularly with personal qualities, control of the process, and use of philosophies. However, agency philosophy types were remarkably similar between the 2 cultures. Implications are identified along with directions for future research.