James B. Parfitt

Observations on the Effectiveness of Methods to ʻCut Through the Clutterʼ in Selective Print Advertisements Today’s cluttered media environment requires advertising to ‘cut through the clutter’ to effectively sell its brand, product or service. Literature analysis reveals that there is no theory or model of the effectiveness of methods to ‘cut through the clutter’, whereby advertising creatives are seemingly gambling clients’ money generating untested advertising that is only hoped to be effective. A content analysis was conducted upon 40 print advertisements from Ads of the World, published within Australia between 2010 and 2011, to examine the effectiveness of strategic and executional methods to ‘cut through the clutter’. The investigation identified the importance of advertising originality, but revealed its potential negative impact on message clarity and advertising effectiveness. Future and more expansive research using Grounding Theory methodology must be conducted to develop a formal theory or model; until then, it is essential that all advertisements be subjected to consumer-based testing to ensure message clarity and effectiveness of strategy and execution.

1. Introduction Billions of dollars worth of advertising content

worldwide is competing head-to-head with itself for consumers’ attention; but this was not always the case. For at the origins of mass media communication, media channels contained only a limited quantity of advertisements. However, as time progressed, segmented and targeted media vehicles developed, attracting only a fraction of their former mass media counterpart’s audience sizes. With reduced income from audiences, media vehicles resorted to selling greater amounts of non-editorial time or space for advertising to guarantee a profit (Rotfeld, 2006). As advertising quantities in media channels increased, it became apparent that consumers have a mental limit to their advertising tolerance, whereby when the density of advertising, or non-editorial content, within an editorial media vehicle exceeds a consumer’s subjective threshold it is negatively perceived to be clutter (Ha, 1996; Ha & McCann, 2008; Speck & Elliot, 1998). Today all media channels that sell advertising space can be considered cluttered with non-editorial content.

The majority of clutter research over the past few decades suggests that clutter affects consumers’ interaction with advertising and has the potential to reduce advertising effectiveness. Where advertisements once operated on a single dimension, competing brands and products against each other for consumer attention, current levels of clutter have forced advertisements to

compete with one another for attention. This has generated the opinion within the advertising community that advertisements must ‘cut through the clutter’ to maximise audience attention and recall (Pieters, Warlop & Wedel, 2002), and so increase their effectiveness. However, research has been unable to theorise or model the relative effectiveness of methods used to ‘cut though clutter’, with research suggesting the negative impact of the use of certain methods on advertising effectiveness (Politz, 1960; Rotfeld, 2006; Stewart, Cheng & Wan, 2008). As a result, it can be claimed that advertising agencies are essentially gambling their clients’ money, developing ever more expensive and elaborate, yet untested, concepts that will hopefully be effective and break through the clutter.

This investigation seeks to supplement current clutter research and provide insights on methods of ‘cutting through the clutter’ to the advertising industry. An exploratory content analysis of 40 print advertisements will be conducted, developing observations in response to the following research questions:

1. What methods are advertising creatives currently utilising in their advertisements to ‘cut through the clutter'?

2. What effect do these methods have on advertising effectiveness?

2. Literature Review 2.1 Effects of Advertising Clutter

Audience recognition of clutter, and its impact on both audience attention and advertising effectiveness is understood, according to Ha and McCann (2008), through the compounding effects of three distinct dimensions: structural, functional and information-processing. The structural dimension proposes that the physical characteristics of advertising content contribute directly to an audience’s perception of clutter in an editorial medium. Ha (1996) proposes three structural dimensions of clutter in a media vehicle: quantity, the proportion of advertisement space relative to editorial content; competitiveness, the proximity between advertisements of competing brands from the same product category; and intrusiveness, the extent to which advertisements disrupt the flow of editorial content. Examples of such physical effects are present in a recent study by Hammer, Reibe and Kennedy (2009), who reported reduced advertisement recall as a result of increased advertising quantity.

Ha and McCann’s (2008) functional dimension examines the effect of clutter in relation to how media fulfils consumers’ needs. Extending Uses and Gratifications Theory (Katz, Blumler & Gurevitch, 1975), Ha and McCann (2008) described four task orientations in consumer media consumption: exploring, information seeking, shopping and entertainment. It can therefore be suggested that advertising content can subjectively be perceived to be clutter when it is not fulfilling a consumer’s context-dependent need (Ha & McCann, 2008; O’Donohoe, 1994; Speck & Elliott, 1998).

Finally, Ha and McCann’s (2008) information-processing dimension examines the negative effect of clutter on consumers’ ability to process advertising messages, and is drawn from multiple theories of reactance to communication. Using Malhotra, Jain and Lagakos’s (1982) Overload Theory it can be suggested that when consumers are faced with excessive amounts of advertising, they will consequently absorb one piece of information at the expense of another, reducing the overall advertising effectiveness (Ha & McCann, 2008). Additionally, Inference Theory indicates that brand name recall is reduced by the similarity in advertising of competing brands from the same product category (Burke & Srull, 1988). Furthermore, Reactance Theory (Brehm & Brehm, 1981) suggests that individuals will resist advertising messages if they feel that their freedom is threatened by excessive levels clutter (Ha and McCann, 2008; Speck & Elliott, 1998). The principal theory in understanding the effects of clutter on information-processing is Petty, Cacioppo and Schumann’s (1983)

Elaboration Likelihood Model, which theorises two mental information-processing routes: the central route, where the consumer is highly-involved in the advertised product and will consciously process the message; and the peripheral route, where the consumer has little involvement and the advertisement’s peripheral cues determine whether the message is processed. The percentage of advertisements that consumers may feel a high involvement is limited, and as a result Ha (1996) reported the importance of peripheral cues to advertisement effectiveness in cluttered environments.

Contrary to the aforementioned theories, some claim that clutter has no effect on audiences or effectiveness, arguing that individuals have a selective attention regardless of levels of clutter (Ha, 1996) and that clutter has no effect on a consumer’s brand recall ability (Hammer et al., 2009). Furthermore, claims are made about the influence of advertising sceptics; however these individuals will avoid all advertising messages irrespective of clutter (Obermiller, Spangenberg & MacLachlan, 2005). Overall the majority of research has identified negative effects of advertising clutter, and so this shall be the position held within this paper.

2.2 ‘Cutting Through the Clutter’ As identified by the three effect dimensions,

audiences perceive advertisements to be clutter when the extent of non-editorial content seems excessive or when they fail to meet their specific task orientations. The majority of current media vehicles can be perceived as cluttered, whereby advertisements are ignored, or face low recall, and audiences resultantly perceive only a blur of messages. Advertising creatives are thus presented with a constant challenge to design effective advertising that can ‘cut through the clutter’ and stand out from the information overload as content worth audiences’ attention.

Pieters et al. (2002) suggested that two strategies have been developed to combat clutter: outspending the competition, whereby greater media expenditure produces either a higher quantity of advertisements or a larger overall advertising effort; and outsmarting the competition, where a greater message strategy is developed to produce more original advertisements than competitors. Whilst there is no theory or model for combatting clutter, many have suggested that the latter strategy is of greater value, identifying three primary factors of advertisements that ‘cut through the clutter’: originality, the advertisement’s deviation from the product, brand or medium advertising norms (Ogilvy, 1983; Pieters et al., 2002; Politz, 1960; Rotfeld, 2006); generation of interest, the advertisement’s ability to be interesting, arresting or entertaining, and develop surprise, questions or drama (Patti & Moriarty, 1990;

Ogilvy, 1963); and intrusiveness, the advertisement’s ability to disrupt the flow of disregarded advertising clutter (Beerli & Martin Santana, 1999; Patti & Moriarty, 1990; Speck & Elliott, 1998).

All effective advertisements, by definition, ‘cut through the clutter’; however not all advertisements that ‘cut through the clutter’ are effective. Originality, interest and intrusiveness must be executed appropriately, so as not to overshadow the underlying advertising message and negatively impact effectiveness.

2.3 Advertising Effectiveness Advertising effectiveness is defined as the degree to

which an advertisement achieves its advertising objectives (Bamfo, 2011; Beerli & Santana, 1999); which, according to Bamfo (2011) and Grønhaug, Kvitastein and Grønmo (1991), can include: increasing product sales and profits, increasing product or brand awareness, positioning a product, generating behaviour or attitude change, and correcting brand or product misconceptions. Much to the dismay of many advertisers and their clients, there is no all-inclusive model of advertising effectiveness, whereby the degree of effectiveness for an individual advertisement is relative to a wide range of factors including: the effectiveness of the current campaign and all previous campaigns, the strength of the brand, the product category (Laskey, Fox & Crask, 1995) and consumers’ previous purchase behaviour (Hall, 2002; Van den Putte, 2009). Whilst there is no widely endorsed model of effectiveness, a somewhat subjective assessment can be developed from consolidating two major effectiveness measurement paradigms: external and internal measures.

2.4 Internal Measures of Effectiveness Whilst external measures are most commonly

evaluated, the success of an advertisement’s internal measures determines its external effectiveness. The internal measures of advertising effectiveness construct an evaluation based upon an advertisement’s message strategy, the intended message, and message execution, the way in which the message is conveyed. Laskey et al. (1989, 1995) proposed two types of effective message strategy: informational and transformational. Informational strategies appeal to the central processing route of the Elaboration Likelihood Model (Petty et al., 1983), logically communicating factual and relevant advantages of a brand or product to increase a customer’s confidence in their ability to assess its benefits (Laskey et al., 1989; Laskey et al. 1995; Van den Putte, 2009). Research on informational message strategy effectiveness has identified the positive effects of messages with brand-differentiation or a Unique Selling Point (Laskey et al., 1989; Laskey et al., 1995; Oglivy,

1963; Rossiter, 2008; Stewart & Koslow, 1989), comparisons to competing brands or products (Laskey et al., 1989; Laskey et al., 1995) and generating an immediate sales-response (Van den Putte, 2009). In contrast, transformational strategies appeal to the peripheral route of the Elaboration Likelihood Model (Petty et al., 1983), encouraging the association of particular emotions with the usage of the product or brand that would not otherwise be experienced without advertising exposure (Laskey et al., 1989; Laskey et al., 1995, Van den Putte, 2009). Research indicates the positive effects of message strategies that encourage product or brand likeability (Bamfo, 2011; Van den Putte, 2009), develop a brand or product personality (Laskey et al., 1989; Laskey et al., 1995) and focus on how and when a brand or product should be used (Laskey et al., 1989; Laskey et al., 1995).

An effective strategy does not necessarily result in an effective advertisement, as the strategy can easily get lost in a poor execution. Measurements of effective message execution range from general characteristics through to individual factors. Research indicates the positive effects of message executions that are clear and compelling (Ogilvy, 1983; Patti & Moriarty, 1990; Politz, 1960), focus on the product or brand (Patti & Moriarty, 1990; Stewart & Furse, 1986; Stewart et al., 2008), humorous (Ogilvy, 1983; Stewart & Koslow, 1989), provide news or focus on a product or brand’s newness (Ogilvy, 1983; Stewart & Furse, 1986; Stewart & Koslow, 1989), feature an image of the product in use within a relevant setting (Ogilvy, 1983; Stewart & Furse, 1986; Stewart & Koslow, 1989) or use a global brand style or layout (Sutherland & Sylvester, 2000).

3. Methodology

An exploratory content analysis was conducted to examine the strategic and executional methods used by advertising creatives to enable their advertisements to ‘cut through the clutter’, and the relative effectiveness of such methods.

3.1 Sample A sample was drawn from print advertisements

featured on the independent advertising archive website, Ads of the World (AOTW). AOTW archives and showcases print, outdoor, TV, online, radio, ambient and direct marketing advertisements from across the world, detailing agency credits and encouraging community discussion. To enable an ease of analysis, print advertisements were selected for analysis from their database due to their static nature and comparable format.

Forty print advertisements, published within Australian publications between 2010 and 2011, were selected from a combined accidental and quota sampling method (see Appendix). Almost all selected were full-page, four-colour, magazine advertisements. The forty advertisements selected represent fourteen product categories: alcoholic drinks; automotive; clothing and footwear; confectionery and snacks; electronics and technology; financial services, food; house, garden and pets; industrial and agricultural; non-alcoholic drinks; professional services; public interest; recreation and leisure; transport and tourism. Product categories, and the number of advertisements selected from each category, were selected based upon their frequency of occurrence so as to best represent the media landscape. The product categories with the highest frequency of advertisements within the nominated time period were selected for analysis. Additionally, the number of represented advertisements from each category (two or four) was indicative of the frequency of advertisements present within each category during the time period. Furthermore, sampling was restricted, on the whole, to ensure that brands were only represented once within the entire sample, encouraging a varied range of advertised brands and products.

3.2 Procedure A single coder worked with high-resolution digital

colour copies of the 40 advertisements. Initial training was conducted on five sample print advertisements from AOTW to enhance comprehension of the measures, and test measure appropriateness. The training process, however, was ongoing throughout the analysis as the coder gained greater familiarity with concepts and measures, requiring a brief secondary analysis to ensure coding consistency.

3.3 Measures Advertisements were measured upon two

dimensions: their ability to ‘cut through the clutter’, and their internal effectiveness. ‘Cutting through the clutter’ was measured using the three factors identified within the literature: originality, the advertisement’s deviation from the product, brand or medium advertising norms (Ogilvy, 1983; Pieters et al., 2002; Politz, 1960; Rotfeld, 2006); generation of interest, the advertisement’s ability to be interesting, arresting or entertaining, and develop surprise, questions or drama (Patti & Moriarty, 1990; Ogilvy, 1963); and intrusiveness, the advertisement’s ability to disrupt the flow of disregarded advertising clutter (Beerli & Martin Santana, 1999; Patti & Moriarty, 1990; Speck & Elliott, 1998). The three factors had no empirical referents to be identified, requiring the coder’s subjective judgement on the concepts. Additionally, the

end result of this measure was a nominal ‘yes/no’ response, whereby the presence of multiple factors within a single advertisement bore no indication towards a scale of ability.

Advertising effectiveness was measured purely upon its internal dimension, as factors of internal effectiveness directly identify the methods, and effectiveness, of advertising strategy and execution. All effectiveness measures were selected from the proven factors of internal effectiveness identified within the literature.

Table I provides a comprehensive list of measures used. Measures of strategy required a comprehensive analysis of the advertisement to appropriately presume strategies utilised, whereas the measures of execution tended to require purely an observational analysis. Again, the coding system only required a nominal ‘yes/no’ response to a factor’s presence within an advertisement, and the explicit or implicit presence required the subjective judgement of the coder. Additionally, the identification of few or multiple factors bore no indication towards a scale of effectiveness, whereby the coder’s final conclusion was based upon a subjective evaluation of the context-dependant use of identified factors.

3.4 Analysis Advertisements were named according to their

unique brand name within the sample analysed against the established coding system by product category, whereby each advertisement was resultantly presented with the following questions: (1) Does it ‘cut through the clutter’? and (2) Is it internally effective? The responses to these questions enabled the categorisation of advertisements into three sets: ‘cuts through the clutter’ and is effective; ‘cuts through the clutter’ but is ineffective; and ineffective. A brief examination of the general coding results was conducted followed by a comprehensive and judgement-based inter-category trend analysis to identify any observations.

4. Content Analysis Forty print advertisements were analysed from 14

product categories, distributed as follows: alcoholic drinks (n=2); automotive (n=4); clothing and footwear (n=2); confectionery and snacks (n=2); electronics and technology (n=4); financial services (n=2); food (n=4); home, garden and pets (n=2); industrial and agriculture (n=2); non-alcoholic drinks (n=4); professional services (n=2); public interest (n=4); recreation and leisure (n=2); transport and tourism (n=4). Using the coding system, and context-dependant judgement from the coder, the advertisements were analysed on their ability to cut through the clutter and internal effectiveness, and

categorised as follows: ‘cuts through the clutter’ and effective (n=10); ‘cuts though the clutter’ and ineffective (n=19); and ineffective (n=11).

4.1 Measure Analysis A total of 30 advertisements was analysed as being

able to ‘cut through the clutter’ using one of, or a combination of, originality, generation of audience interest and intrusiveness. Originality (n=28) and gaining interest (n=26) proved to be the most popular methods, however their successful implementation was context-dependant. Intrusiveness, whilst least common (n=6), was the most successful method with all intrusive advertisements deemed able to ‘cut through the clutter’.

An effective message strategy was identified within 22 advertisements. USP (n=23) and customer acquisition (n=17) were recognized as the most popular individual strategies, with smaller proportions making use of use likability (n=8), emotional (n=5) and problem-solution (n=4) strategies. No advertisement within the sample was

deemed to use a generation of discussion strategy, however this may be the result of a measure definition failure. The use of effective strategic methods within seven advertisements did not guarantee an effective strategy, however, and they were judged ineffective in their context-dependant implementation.

In contrast, only 13 advertisements were deemed to have an effective message execution. Application of the various executional factors varied widely, however all advertisements presented the brand or product name. Executional factors with a greater frequency of use included superiority claims (n=13), visual setting related to product use (n=10), a package visual (n=9) and humour (n=8). In addition, the advertising message was only identified as clear within 15 advertisements, with the remaining deemed as ambiguous (n=16) or unintelligible (n=9). Similarly, only 13 advertisements were focused on the advertised product. It is important to note that no individual factor proved effective in all applications,

Table I Measured concepts of message strategy and execution

Dimension Measured Concept Reference

Message Strategy USP (Unique Selling Proposition) Stewart & Koslow (1989)

Problem/Solution Format Ogilvy (1983); Stewart & Koslow (1989)

Emotional Ogilvy (1983); Patti & Moriarty (1990); Van den Putte (2009)

Likability Bamfo (2011)

Customer Acquisition Binet & Field (2009)

Generate Discussion Binet & Field (2009)

Message Execution Message Clarity Ogilvy (1983); Patti & Moriarty (1990); Politz (1960)

Focus on Product Patti & Moriarty (1990); Stewart & Furse (1986); Stewart et al. (2008)

Product's Convenience of Use Stewart & Furse (1986)

Unique Feature Claim Stewart & Furse (1986)

Superiority Claims Stewart & Koslow (1989)

News Ogilvy (1983); Stewart & Koslow (1989)

Attention to Newness of Product/Brand Stewart & Furse (1986); Stewart & Koslow (1989)

Product/Brand Name Presented Stewart & Koslow (1989)

Product Double Branded Stewart & Furse (1986)

Use of Global Brand Style/Layout Sutherland & Sylvester (2000)

Image(s) of Product Package Stewart & Koslow (1989)

Visual Setting Related to Product Use Stewart & Koslow (1989)

Image(s) of Product in Use Ogilvy (1983); Stewart & Furse (1986); Stewart & Koslow (1989)

"Cute" Imagery (e.g. Child, Animal) Stewart & Furse (1986)

Slogan Stewart & Furse (1986); Sutherland & Sylvester (2000)

Use of Reoccurring Character/Celebrity Ogilvy (1983); Sutherland & Sylvester (2000)

Educational Patti & Moriarty (1990)

Humourous Ogilvy (1983); Stewart & Koslow (1989)

Information on User Satisfaction Ogilvy (1983); Stewart & Koslow (1989)

Relaxed Tone Stewart & Furse (1986)

Indirect Comparison with Competition Stewart & Furse (1986) !! !! !!

whereby many effective execution methods used were judged ineffective in their context-dependant implementation.

Examining the product categories with four represented advertisements revealed trends in category-related effectiveness. Electronics and technology advertisements generally both ‘cut through the clutter’ and were internally effective, whereas automotive, public interest, and transport and tourism advertisements ‘cut through the clutter’ but resultantly failed to be effective. Additionally, advertisements for non-alcoholic drinks were varied in their ability to ‘cut through the clutter’ but all were ineffective.

4.2 Trend Analysis Drawing from the results of the coding process, a

subjective analysis was conducted across the sample that identified trends in the methods of ‘cutting through the clutter’, the relationship between strategy and execution, message clarity and the effective use of executional elements:

Methods Used to ‘Cut Through the Clutter’

Advertisements that make use of interesting or educational visual elements encourage greater audience attention through the arousal of curiosity and increased audience engagement. Figure 5.1 features a hand drawn crowd of approximately 200 authors of, and characters from, popular books, drawing great visual attention and encouraging the examination and identification of the various sketched individuals. Similarly, Figure 14.1 makes use of a humorous restaurant menu parody, encouraging the examination of the flight destination ‘menu items’. An equally visually interesting execution is utilized in Figure 1.2, whereby a flowchart engages audiences in the advertisement and product, creating a memorable experience. Finally, a both interesting and educational parody of a digital camera’s manual is used in Figure 5.3 to demonstrate the fundamental use of the camera and its overall simplicity.

However, advertisements that make use of an original, or ‘different’, execution in an attempt to ‘cut through the clutter’ can deviate too far from the norm. Here originality develops an initial curiosity, yet the overall execution fails to retain audience attention. For example, Figure 2.3 parodies Google’s Street View and Figure 13.1 features an atrium image that is suggestive of a skateboard ramp. Both advertisements, whilst original for their respective product categories, are uninteresting beyond their initial novelty. Conversely, advertisements such as Figure 4.2 and Figure 10.2 are so conceptually obscure in their efforts to be original that they fail to connect to the interests of their target markets.

Strategies and Executions

Advertisements that utilise multiple methods of effective strategy and execution are highly effective. Figure 5.3 was designed with four effective strategic methods and nine effective executional factors, and Figure 5.4 made use of three effective strategic methods and seven effective executional factors. Both advertisements for digital cameras were easily able to ‘cut through the clutter’ and be highly internally effective.

An effective strategy does not, however, necessarily yield an overall internally effective advertisement, with ten of the sampled advertisements identified as ineffective due a poor execution of an otherwise effective strategy. For example, Figure 2.2 uses both a USP and likability strategy to sell automobile aftercare on its comparative cost-effectiveness. Whilst the advertisement ‘cuts through the clutter’, being original and interesting, its execution is too minimalistic to effectively present the somewhat complex service to the audience. Similarly, Figure 3.1 utilizes a USP and customer acquisition strategy to present the shock absorbent feature of the shoes. Its execution however, whilst original and humorous, presents a potentially confusing message, comparing shoe comfort to food poisoning discomforts.

Furthermore, eight of the sampled advertisements employed a strategy that failed to make use of any of the proven effective strategy methods found in the literature, and resultantly were deemed ineffective. Figure 7.1 and Figure 8.2 make use of only a brand awareness strategy. Whist these advertisements ‘cut through the clutter’ they fail to be internally effective, as their awareness strategy has enabled originality to dominate the execution.

Importance of Message Clarity

Advertisements that ‘cut through the clutter’ can substitute message clarity, and thus effectiveness, for originality or interest generation. In developing such executions, the clutter ‘cutting’ methods can overshadow the underlying message, making the advertisement confusing and difficult to comprehend. Figure 10.1 uses an indirect comparison of its ice cream product to modern art in an implication of superiority. However the relationship between the elements of the visual and the product is extremely unclear, making the advertisement’s message confusing and deterring the audience’s attention. Similarly, Figure 12.3 ‘cuts through the clutter’ using a shocking visual depicting a washed-up and garbage-filled surfer’s skeleton on a beach. The message is intended to imply that the dangers of garbage within oceans extend beyond simply harming wildlife. However, the execution obscures the intended message through its reliance upon ambiguous copy and an unclear visual.

Furthermore, in executing methods of ‘cutting through the clutter’ advertising concepts can be reduced to a vague visual supported with a single line of copy, or no copy at all. These advertisements are minimalistic beyond understanding, and thus ineffective. Figure 4.1 advertises cake mix with the visual of a model pirate ship made from cake. Whilst ‘cutting through the clutter’ through creating audience curiosity, with very little copy, the meaning behind the relationship between the two elements is unknown to the audience, and thus the advertisement is totally ineffective. Similarly, Figure 10.3 promotes the release of a new non-alcoholic drink without any copy or visual indication in the execution of what the drink is or the fact that it is a new product.

Likewise, advertisements can seemingly be developed with an intentional use of obscure or product-unrelated executions to ‘cut through the clutter’. The execution’s underlying strategy and messages are either unclear or unintelligible, making the advertisements ineffective. Figure 1.1, advertising beer, uses a visual of an explosion within a solid white room to symbolise the beer’s purity. However, the image is so obscure that viewers could easily fail to understand the advertisement’s message. Similarly, Figure 8.2, advertising an online furniture store, depicts a naked woman licking herself in a dark and empty bathroom, with the tagline “Furniture – it’s what separates us from the animals.” Such extreme and sexualised imagery, whilst able to attract audience attention, seems unnecessary for the product category, potentially resulting in the perceived disconnection been message and product, and the audience failing to understand the advertisement’s message. Furthermore, Figure 14.3, advertises a subway rail system through a visual of a barista in a coffee shop. The message is intended to promote the food and beverage facilities within the stations, however the relation to the subway system is subtle and easily overlooked.

Finally, advertisements with overall effective strategies and executions can, in striving to ‘cut through the clutter’, develop messages that are easily misunderstood and misinterpreted, and therefore be ineffective. Figure 7.2 uses visual of a bear swimming with a shopping bag filled with cans of the product, with the intended message that the fish is of such quality that even bears are purchasing it. However, the advertisement easily can be misinterpreted due to the common, and very similar, visuals of animals trapped in garbage used in environmentalist advertisements.

5. Discussion 5.1 Summary of Observations

An advertisement’s effectiveness can be measured through the consolidated evaluation of its internal and

external measures, whereby its internal effectiveness is a substantial determining factor of its external effectiveness. Internal effectiveness is evaluated upon the relative effectiveness of the advertisement’s message strategy, the intended message, and message execution, the way in which the message is conveyed. To successfully ‘cut through the clutter’, an advertisement is required to utilise one or more effective ‘cutting’ factors within its strategy and execution, creating a dependant relationship between the factors of ‘cutting through the clutter’ and those of strategy and execution. By identifying the strategic and executional factors utilised within advertisements, it is therefore possible to determine the relative effectiveness of methods used to ‘cut through the clutter’ by cross-referencing the relevant strategic and executional factors with advertisements’ internal effectiveness. A content analysis was thus conducted, examining forty print advertisements from the advertising archive website Ads of the World, published within Australia between 2010 and 2011, for their methods and ability to ‘cut through the clutter’ and their internal effectiveness.

Advertising creatives were found, in support of the literature, to predominantly utilise executions that displayed originality, or were able to generate interest, to ‘cut through the clutter’. However, the effective usage of these executional factors was context dependant, relative to both the individual strategy and execution, whereby advertising employing the lesser-utilised intrusive executional factors proved more internally effective. It is assumed this is due to the increased difficulty in creating advertising that is truly intrusive and arresting within a media environment such as print, which enables a greater amount of audience control over their content exposition. Additionally, whilst advertisers were observed to have used problem-solution, emotional, likeable and acquisition strategies, a Unique Selling Point, an informational strategic factor commonly identified as the most effective strategy within literature (Laskey et al., 1989; Laskey et al., 1995; Oglivy, 1963; Rossiter, 2008; Stewart & Koslow, 1989), was the most predominantly used. Furthermore, whilst 21 individual executional factors were identified within the examined advertisements, the most frequently used factors included: stating product or brand name, a package visual, a visual setting appropriate to the product use, a product focus, superiority claims and some form of humour.

Almost three quarters of all examined advertisements were identified as able to ‘cut through the clutter’, yet only one third of these advertisements were internally effective. Many of the same strategic and executional factors were present within both effective and ineffective advertisements, with no specific factors identified as

producing more effective or ineffective advertisements than others. In evaluating advertising internal effectiveness, ‘the whole is greater than the sum of the parts;’ whereby, the internal effectiveness of an advertisement is determined by the contextual implementation of effective strategic, message and executional factors. A trend analysis of the implementation of all clutter ‘cutting’ factors was thus conducted to identify any common implementation styles and methods producing a positive or negative effect on advertising effectiveness.

Several trends were identified within internally effective advertisements to have a positive impact on advertising effectiveness. Firstly, it was observed that executions with interesting or educational visuals, that were more engaging, had potential to retain audience attention for a greater length of time. This finding is supported by Uses and Gratifications theory, which suggests that audiences use media to fulfil needs (Katz et al., 1975), whereby interesting or educational visuals are more likely to fulfil an audience’s media consumption need and provide a certain pleasure from the sense of participating in an advertisement’s content (Aitken et al., 2008). Additionally, it was observed that advertisements utilising a greater number of effective strategic and executional factors in ‘cutting through the clutter’ were deemed more internally effective. This is in line with Petty et al.’s (1983) Elaboration Likelihood Model, which suggests the dependence on peripheral cues in selling low-involvement products. With the majority of products in the marketplace being considered of low-involvement to the most of the population, an increased proportion of executional methods represent an increased number of peripheral cues that aid in attracting the audience’s attention. Furthermore, this observation was particularly prominent within the electronics and technology product category where multiple methods could easily be utilised for the category’s feature-intense products.

Equally, several trends were identified within internally ineffective advertisements to have a negative impact on advertising effectiveness. It was observed that many of the ineffective advertisements that ‘cut through the clutter’ substituted message clarity, and thus effectiveness, for originality or interest generation. According to Politz (1960), an advertisement’s message should shape a consumer’s motives and desires by providing a reason for choosing the brand or product over the competition. In developing such executions, the clutter ‘cutting’ methods overshadow the all-important underlying message, and make the advertisement confusing and difficult to comprehend. Factors that were observed to contribute to a lack of message clarity

included: unclear visuals, vague supporting copy, obscure executions, product-unrelated executions, poorly executed minimalism, and easily misinterpreted visuals and/or copy. The ineffective usage of these factors is context-dependant, however they were all repeatedly observed within ineffective executions.

5.2 Research Limitations The sample for this content analysis was limited only

to print advertisements, neglecting all advertisements from media of higher audience consumption, such as TV or online. Furthermore the sample was limited to only the Australian advertisements published between 2010 and 2011 hosted upon Ads of the World. The sample size was small, examining only 40 individual advertisements from 14 product categories, where each product category was represented by only two or four advertisements. Additionally, the combined accidental and quota sampling method, whilst encouraging a distribution of brands and product categories reflective of the media landscape, was highly subjective in advertisement selection, whereby single advertisements were chosen from multiple executions within a campaign and large quantities of potential advertisements were rejected to establish even quota limits.

In addition, the lack of an established model of effectiveness, or means of ‘cutting through the clutter’, rendered the content analysis coding process highly subjective. Factors of ‘cutting through the clutter’ and internal effectiveness were identified from various studies found in the literature, many of which were not directly related to either clutter or the effectiveness of print advertisements. Furthermore, many of these factors had no empirical referents, requiring a purely subjective evaluation of their presence by the coder; and all final judgements of an advertisement’s ability to ‘cut through the clutter’, or of its internal effectiveness, were concluded based solely upon the coder’s personal judgement. The evaluation of all advertisements by a single coder augmented the coding subjectivity, whereby a coding team was not present to discuss and compare individual observations and produce a more objective overall evaluation. Furthermore, in evaluating advertisements’ ability to ‘cut through the clutter’, no consideration was given to the publications in which they were printed, or their relative placements, or surrounding editorial and advertising content, within said publications. Additionally, in evaluating advertisements’ internal effectiveness, no consideration was given to any previous campaigns, other executions from print and other media within the same campaign, or the overall strength of the brand.

6. Conclusion

In conclusion, with rising levels of advertising clutter in mass media vehicles, it is necessary for advertising creatives to develop advertisements that ‘cut through the clutter’ to effectively sell their client’s brand, product or service. However, at present, there is no theory or model of the relative effectiveness of the methods used to ‘cut through the clutter’, whereby creatives are seemingly gambling their clients’ money generating ever more expensive and elaborate, yet untested, advertising that is hoped to be effective. Observations on the effectiveness of methods to ‘cut through the clutter’ in print advertisements from content and trend analyses, whilst subjective and unable to be generalised to the population, can offer several implications in advertisement design for advertising creatives.

Most importantly, it is recommended that creatives focus on ensuring message clarity within all advertisements, whereby executions are product-related, understandable and not easily misinterpreted. It is therefore advised that the various factors observed to have a negative impact on advertising effectiveness not be used within executions, or used only with care and moderation. Furthermore the effective usage of message and execution originality to ‘cut through the clutter’, is strongly recommended. However, it is important to understand that originality is volatile and relative to the advertising environment and the information-processing ability of the audience. Not all advertisements can ‘cut through the clutter’, and as soon as today’s effective methods become the ‘norm’, their ‘cutting’ ability will diminish. There is therefore a constant need for original material, which can be seen in the changing advertising styles over the past 60 years, to keep ‘cutting through the clutter’ of yesterday’s originality. It is within this effort that advertising can be seen to substitute message clarity for originality, and thus effectiveness. It is therefore essential that all advertisements be subjected to consumer-based testing to ensure message clarity and closely examine the effectiveness of the strategy and execution.

Future research should be conducted to repeat this exploratory content analysis with a greater precision in methodology, examining a far wider range of advertisements from more product categories, and analysing effectiveness from both internal and external dimensions. The resulting observations would be of far greater validity and reliability, and could indicate more definite trends in the relationship between methods of ‘cutting through the clutter’ and effectiveness. The lack of theory and hypotheses in the field suggests a requirement for the use of Grounded Theory (Glaser &

Strauss, 1967) methodology, whereby empirical observations can be compounded over time into concepts and categories that can resultantly develop a formal theory and/or model of effective methods of ‘cutting through the clutter’.

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8. Appendix – Advertisement Sample

Figure 1.1 James Boag Figure 1.2 Mountain Goat Beer

Figure 2.1 Beaurepaires Figure 2.2 Peugeot

Figure 2.3 Toyota Figure 2.4 Volkswagen

Figure 3.1 Blundstone Figure 3.2 Puma

Figure 4.1 Clucky Figure 4.2 Wagon Wheels

Figure 5.1 Amazon Kindle Figure 5.2 Integra

Figure 5.3 Panasonic

Figure 5.4 Sony

Figure 6.2 Westpac Figure 6.1 UBank

Figure 7.1 Cracker Barrel Figure 7.2 John West

Figure 7.3 McDonalds Figure 7.4 Steggles

Figure 8.1 Chux Figure 8.2 ConnectFurniture.com.au

Figure 9.1 Gorilla Figure 9.2 Hydro Tasmania

Figure 10.1 Connoisseur Figure 10.2 Oak

Figure 10.3 Subway Figure 10.4 Billy Tea

Figure 11.1 Cohen Handler Figure 11.2 Hillross

Figure 12.1 IPAW Figure 12.2 MAC

Figure 12.3 Surfrider Foundation Figure 12.4 Western Australian Office of Road Safety

Figure 13.1 Evolve Figure 13.2 Icehouse

Figure 14.1 AirAsia Figure 14.2 AirAsia

Figure 14.3 Metro Figure 14.4 Yarra Trams