Advertising creativity - the right balance between surprise, medium and message relevance

Nowadays, alternative advertising is driving not only a new perspective, but also key challenges for marketers. There is growing evidence that creativity has become many-faceted over time. Considering the medium as a contextual cue, the current study investigates the role of creativity in the new advertising formats among university students. Therefore, the purpose of the present paper is to identify the effectiveness of non-traditional advertisements in generating consumers' favorable attitude and credibility toward the brand and the way it influences consumer behavior. The findings suggest that the creative change of the context could be a solution to consumers' negative perceptions and avoidance caused by traditional media. (C) 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.