Agency practitioner theories of how advertising works

Abstract

In-depth interviews with senior-level agency practitioners (creative, planning, and account directors) were conducted to explore their thoughts about how advertising works. The study was designed to add to the understanding of the academician-practitioner gap in advertising by uncovering practitioners' hypothesized knowledge autonomy in the context of the sociological theory of professionalization. Results provide evidence for the existence of such autonomous practitioner knowledge schemas. Agency practitioners' core theories include a two-step "break through and engage" process and the longitudinal "mutation of effects" idea. They also believe in the primacy of emotional effects. Creativity..