The Problem behind the problem formulation process in advertising creative development: a marketer-agency dyadic pair perspective of the creativity cascade

<p dir="ltr">This research examines the role of strategic intent in relation to problem formulation within advertising development. Previous literature has explained the advertising strategy development process through a knowledge resource-based view. This lens, however, fails to capture the realities of stakeholder influence on how client and agency individuals identify and formulate problems in advertising creative development. This is investigated through an exploratory qualitative approach with seven marketer-agency dyads who work on advertising strategy development together plus four additional marketer and agency practitioners to fill learning gaps. 18 interviews using repertory grid and semi-structured discussion techniques were conducted with client marketing leadership and agency strategy and new business leads. Research findings suggest that problem formulation follows a cascading three stage collaborative process, in which organisational strategic intent influences marketer openness, which in turn influences agency intrinsic motivation and activates the dynamic capability of creativity. Within this process, marketer and agency practitioners demonstrate differing perspectives on the nature of problems, their role in the process and trade-offs between a consumer and stakeholder orientation. This dynamic is captured in the emerging creativity cascade theory and conceptual model. The contribution of this research is three-fold. First, it offers a dyadic client-agency perspective on gaps in upstream advertising strategy literature. Also, it connects advertising literature to strategic intent and problem formulation literature in other strategic and creative domains. Finally, it offers practical guidance for organisational leaders, marketers and agencies to improve the quality of problem formulation within the advertising development process.</p>