The creativity of figurative messaging in advertising: a collaborative investigation into its application and measurement of success in real-world adv

比喻、转喻、夸张和反讽传达的比喻信息在创造力上各有不同。根据最优创新假说(Giora等人，2004年)，最具创造性的比喻信息比字面上的、常规的或高度创新的信息能引起更有利的消费者反应。然而，一些研究人员认为创造力并不是成功的关键，并认为不同类型的比喻信息会引发不同的消费者反应(例如，Callister&Stern，2007；Burgers等人，2015；Pérez-Sobrino&Littlemore，在出版中)。将最优创新假说、概念隐喻理论(Lakoff&Johnson，1980)和创造力辩论联系起来，我问：比喻信息在创造力水平上有什么不同，这些信息如何有效地引起消费者的共鸣？我建议与Big Cat营销和传播机构合作，分三个阶段解决该项目的研究问题。首先，分析Big Cat档案中针对特定产品的广告，将发现特定类型的比喻信息模式。其次，进行一系列实验，我向参与者展示包含不同含义、形式和创意水平的比喻信息的广告，并要求参与者对它们进行解释、评级和回忆，以衡量比喻信息如何影响沟通的有效性、消费者的态度和活动的可记忆性。第三，分发对消费者有积极影响的广告，并衡量参与度和销售额，将确定在广告中最有效地使用创造性的比喻信息。混合方法将：(A)定性地探索比喻信息的传统意义和创造性意义，(B)定量衡量它们的有效性、记忆性和与消费者的共鸣，以增进我们对创造力的理解，并帮助定义Big Cat的创意清晰度模型。我与Big Cat合作的Emma(探索广告中的多模式隐喻(和转喻))项目获得了伯明翰邮报年度合作伙伴奖(2018)。在这个项目中，我设计并进行了实验，使用眼球跟踪、皮肤电信号测量、访谈和调查来分析消费者对广告中隐喻和转喻的反应，并使用R统计编程和语料库软件。通过在伯明翰大学语言学实验室、语料库语言学暑期学校(2017)和统计语言学家暑期学校(2018)工作，我接受了培训。我的学士学位论文是关于手机广告中的多模式隐喻和转喻，获得了英语语言研究项目奖(2017)，MA的研究论文是关于智能手机应用程序图标中颜色和形状的视觉语言，这为我获得协作博士奖奠定了理论基础。

Metaphor, metonymy, hyperbole, and irony convey figurative messages that can vary in creativity. According to the Optimal Innovation Hypothesis (Giora et al., 2004), optimally creative figurative messaging can elicit more favourable consumer responses than literal, conventional, or highly creative messages. However, some researchers argue that creativity is not crucial to success, and suggest that different types of figurative messages induce different consumer responses (e.g. Callister & Stern, 2007; Burgers et al., 2015; Pérez-Sobrino & Littlemore, in press). Making connections between the Optimal Innovation Hypothesis, Conceptual Metaphor Theory (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980), and the creativity debate, I ask: how do figurative messages vary in their levels of creativity, and how do these messages resonate effectively with consumers?Collaborating with Big Cat Marketing and Communications Agency, I propose to address the project's research questions in three stages. First, analysing advertisements from Big Cat's archives for specific products will identify genre-specific patterns of figurative messaging. Second, conducting a series of experiments in which I present participants with advertisements containing figurative messages that vary in terms of meaning, form, and level of creativity, and ask participants to interpret, rate, and recall them, will measure how figurative messaging can impact the effectiveness of communication, consumer attitude, and campaign memorability. Third, distributing advertisements that favourably impactconsumers, and measuring engagement and sales, will identify the most effective uses of creative figurative messaging in advertising. A mixed-methods approach will: (a) qualitatively explore conventional versus creative meanings of figurative messaging, and (b) quantitatively measure their effectiveness, memorability, and resonance with consumers to advance our understanding of creativity and help define Big Cat's creative clarity model.My work on the EMMA (Exploring Multimodal Metaphor (and Metonymy) in Advertising) project with Big Cat received the Birmingham Post's Partnership of the Year award (2018). For the project, I designed and conducted experiments using eye-tracking, electro-dermal measurements, interviews, and surveys to analyse consumer responses to metaphor and metonymy in advertising with R statistical programming and corpus software. I have received training through working at the University of Birmingham's Linguistics Laboratory, Corpus Linguistics Summer School (2017), and Statistics Summer School for Linguists (2018). My Bachelor's dissertation on multimodal metaphor and metonymy in mobile phoneadvertising, which received the English Language Research Project Prize (2017), and MA by Research thesis on the visual language of colour and shape in smartphone app icons, has laid my theoretical grounding for the Collaborative Doctoral Award.