The future of advertising in China: Practitioner insights into the evolution of Chinese advertising creativity

Creativity widely is acknowledged to be a powerful tool for generating effective advertising communication, yet little is known about its application in the rapidly changing Chinese marketplace. The authors of the current study interviewed 18 key advertising professionals based in China about what they considered to be the future of advertising creativity in a Chinese context. The interviews exposed significant and surprising tensions between practitioners and their clients in relation to the role and value of creativity, as well as toward consumers located outside the larger cities in China. The emergence of China’s creative advertising voice is viewed as dependent on many factors, including increased collaboration between the numerous industry players.