The creative code: an organisational influence on the creative process in advertising

A study investigated the phenomenon, called the creative code, which is a collection of implicit theories about an advertising agency’s creative product that are held by people within a creative department.

The creative code: an organisational influence on the creative process in advertising

Mark W. Stuhlfaut

University of Kentucky

Author’s note

Before entering the academy in 2002, I spent 27 years working in advertising agencies. Late in my professional career, I had an epiphany after joining an agency as a senior copywriter. To take the job, I had moved to a midwestern city from a major US advertising centre, and, during the development of a new campaign, I noticed my ideas about what was creative were out of step with those of the copywriters and art directors at the agency with...

Not a subscriber?

Schedule your live demo with our team today

WARC helps you to plan, create and deliver more effective marketing

  • Prove your case and back-up your idea

  • Get expert guidance on strategic challenges

  • Tackle current and emerging marketing themes

We’re long-term subscribers to WARC and it’s a tool we use extensively. We use it to source case studies and best practice for the purposes of internal training, as well as for putting persuasive cases to clients. In compiling a recent case for long-term, sustained investment in brand, we were able to support key marketing principles with numerous case studies sourced from WARC. It helped bring what could have been a relatively dry deck to life with recognisable brand successes from across a broad number of categories. It’s incredibly efficient to have such a wealth of insight in one place.

Insights Team
Bray Leino

You’re in good company

We work with 80% of Forbes' most valuable brands* and 80% of the world's top top-of-the-class agencies.

* Top 10 brands