Business in general, and advertising in particular, recognise creativity as a crucial component of success and competitive advantage, but it has received little research attention in Public Relations (PR). This study seeks to address that neglect in relation to the understanding of how creativity is perceived and managed in PR consultancies. It involves a total of 23 interviews that included international PR creative directors as well as senior managers of PR consultancies operating in Spain. The initial findings suggest that creativity is considered a skill required by PR professionals, is seen as something valuable for clients, and is acknowledged in PR industry awards. Nevertheless, the article argues that some unhelpful myths and prejudices still exist around the area of creativity and that creative processes common elsewhere are not widely used in PR consultancies. It concludes by identifying elements that could encourage creativity within the sector.Key Words: public relations, creativity, consultancies, industry
INTRODUCTIONOver the last 30 years, creativity has been considered a competitive advantage and a crucial element in business (Golen, 1983;Mumford, 2000;Florida, 2012), as well as a central component in the advertising sector (El-Murad & West, 2004). Even so, there has been very little scientific investigation focused on creativity in PR although authors in the PR literature cite it as part of the professional competence of a PR practitioner (see Wilcox et al., 2007, Gregory, 2008.The aim of this study is to contribute to the understanding of how creativity is perceived and managed in PR consultancies, to discover the creative processes and techniques that do operate there, and to examine the role of the creative director. It concludes with proposals for further encouraging creativity within the sector.
RESEARCH APPROACHES TO CREATIVITYDefining the concept of creativity is complex (Runco, 2007). Creativity simultaneously refers to a cognitive process and the result of this process (the product or creative idea), to an attribute of the individual, and also to an environment (Rhodes, 1961). Psychology has been one of the disciplines which has studied creativity in more depth with theories generated as early as the 19th century in the London School of Differential Psychology (1869) The concept of creativity has evolved throughout history (see Tatarkiewicz, 2002). Taylor (1959), for example, considered the process of creativity as consisting of a system that entails shaping or designing a stimulating environment in which problems could be transformed into productive solutions through facilitation. In contrast, Landau (1987) claimed that creativity resided in the capacity to discover connections -between previously unrelated experiences -which can, in turn, transform into new mental schemes generating ideas or novel products. The creative process has similarly been the subject of studies, with Wallas (1926) being one of the first to define its stages (preparation, incubation, illumination and v...