Visual Metaphorical Advertising: The Moderating Role of Creativity and the Mediating Role of Informativeness

The use of visual metaphor is a creative and prevalent practice in the advertising industry, but it poses a significant challenge in terms of understanding the intended advertising message. This study suggests the importance of determining the appropriate level of creativity in designing effective advertising campaigns. It also emphasizes the significance of incorporating informativeness into advertising messages, as visuals alone may not suffice in creating a successful advertising campaign. To address these aspects, a combination of research methods was employed, including the analysis of 3,000 conceptual advertisements. Existential-phenomenological interviews were conducted with eight domain experts, and responses were collected from 305 participants, which were analyzed using Smart PLS. This extensive research effort unravels latent dimensions and provides valuable guidelines for advertising and creative agencies’ design teams. The findings underscore that dependence on visual metaphor alone is inadequate to capture the audience’s attention and elicit their emotions without the addition of informativeness and/or creativity. These findings have profound implications for advertising and creative agencies, offering valuable insights for the design of visual metaphorical advertising campaigns.