Words vs. visuals? Friction emerging from expertise diversity: Copy-writer-art director creative collaboration in Vietnamese advertising agencies
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School of Business |
Master's thesis
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en
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86
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Abstract
In advertising, creativity rarely comes from one person working alone. It is built through the daily collaboration of copywriters and art directors, whose different skills, verbal clarity on copywriter side, and visual impact on the art director side. While the diversity of expertise among these creatives can produce advertising ideas, their divergent professional values and practices also generate friction. This thesis investigates how such friction emerges from expertise diversity and how copywriters and art directors describe the ways friction is negotiated at work. Drawing on six semi-structured interviews with creative professionals located Vietnamese independent advertising agencies, the study employs a qualitative, abductive research design and thematic analysis. Theoretically, it is informed by collective creativity (Hargadon & Bechky, 2006; Sawyer, 2007), and paradox theory of divergence and convergence (Schoug et al., 2025), while also engaging with broader organisational creativity frameworks (Amabile, 1983, 1996; Woodman et al., 1993) to examine how friction operates in creative teamwork. It is revealed that friction is not just a problem to be solved but a driving force in idea development. The mediating role of leadership proved critical, as the Creative Directors sheltered the team from noise, organized the psychological idea ward, and nurtured psychological safety. Theoretically, the research adds to the frameworks of collective creativity by showing how friction can serve as a channel of collaboration, rather than a disruption, rather than a disruption. Practically, it highlights the importance of leadership practices, trust-building, and explicit negotiation strategies in channeling expertise diversity. This research positions friction as a positive element of interdisciplinary collaboration, thus contributes to the scholarship in creativity and the practice of advertising team management.Description
Supervisor
Huopalainen, AstridOther note
Attachments:
Thesis_NguyenThu_appendix_1.pdf
Thesis_NguyenThu_appendix_2.pdf