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Dr Aidan J Kelly

Senior Lecturer in Marketing 

Business Management, Business and Law

Aidan is a Senior Lecturer in Marketing at the Royal Docks School of Business and Law. He is the current Course Leader of the B.Sc. Marketing and B.A. Business Management (Marketing) and leads modules in Integrated Marketing Communications, Digital Marketing, Marketing Work Placement, Business Research Methods, Cultural Marketing and Marketing Planning. His current research interests are in the areas of advertising theory, consumer research and cultural branding.

    Aidan joined University of East London on July 20th 2009. He holds a B.Sc. in Marketing Management and Ph.D. in Advertising and Promotion Management. He is the current Course Leader of the B.Sc. Marketing and the B.A. Business Management (Marketing) programmes, the latter of which has achieved overall student satisfaction on the National Student Survey of 93.2% (2017), 85% (2018) and 94.75% (2019).

    He teaches in the areas of Integrated Marketing Communications, Digital Marketing, Cultural Marketing, Business Research Methods and Marketing Planning. He has validated three programmes in his time at Royal Docks School of Business and Law, B.Sc. Marketing and M.Sc. Brand Management (now deleted). His research interests are presently in the areas of consumer collecting, cultural branding, advertising account planning and polysemic interpretations of online advertising, his current methodological focus is on the application of grounded theory to marketing and consumption-related phenomena.

     



    I am currently a reviewer for Journal of Marketing Management, Marketing Theory and Arts and the Market (where I was awarded as "2018 Outstanding Reviewer"). I also serve on the Editorial Advisory Panel for the bestselling textbook "Business Research Methods" (Fifth Edition), authored by Emma Bell, Alan Bryman and Bill Harley (2019, Oxford University Press). I have served as an external panel member for programme validations at Northumbria University and University of Greenwich, and I was External Examiner for the M.B.A. programme at Henley Business School, University of Reading from 2012 - 2016.

    I have also validated academic programmes externally for University of East London, with collaborative international partners in Greece (AKMI Metropolitan College) and Egypt (Ain Shams University).

    Overview

    Aidan's research interests are in the areas of consumer research, branding and advertising theory. His most recent project explores consumer collecting practices in the context of vinyl record collections (with Dr Henrik Linden of the Institute of Hospitality and Tourism, University of East London). He is also researching projects in the areas of advertising account planning, cultural branding and polysemic interpretations of online advertising. 

    He was Co-Chair of the School Research Ethics Committee at Royal Docks School of Business and Law from 2015 - 2018 and also served on the University Research Ethics Committee during this time.


    Research

    Peer Reviewed Journal Publications

    Heller, Michael. and Kelly, Aidan. (2015) ‘Throwaway history: Brand ephemera and consumer culture’, Journal of Macromarketing, 35(3), pp. 397–406.

    Kelly, Aidan., Lawlor, Katrina. and O’Donohoe, Stephanie. (2008) ‘A fateful triangle? Tales of art, commerce and science in the Irish advertising field’, Advertising & Society Review, 9(3), pp. 1-48. 

    Kelly, Aidan., Lawlor, Katrina. and O’Donohoe, Stephanie. (2005) ‘Encoding advertisements: The creative perspective’, Journal of Marketing Management, 21(5/6), pp. 505-528.

    Book Chapters

    Kelly, Aidan (2019) 'Brands, branding and brand culture' in Gbadamosi, A. (ed.) Contemporary Issues in Marketing. London: Sage Publications, pp. 155-184.

    Kelly, Aidan. (2014) ‘Advertising’ in Smith Maguire, J. and Matthews, J. (eds.) The cultural intermediaries reader. London: Sage Publications, pp. 67–76.

    Kelly, Aidan., Lawlor, Katrina. and O’Donohoe, Stephanie. (2009) ‘Encoding advertisements: The creative perspective’ in Turow, J. and McAllister, M.P. (eds.) The advertising and consumer culture reader. New York: Routledge, pp. 133-149.

    Book Reviews

    Kelly, Aidan. (2013) ‘Book Review: Ernest Dichter and motivation research: New perspectives on the making of post-war consumer culture by Schwarzkopf, S. and Gries, R. (eds.)', Journal of Euromarketing, 22(1-4), pp. 86-89.

    Kelly, Aidan (2010) 'Book Review: Advertising and promotion: An integrated marketing communications approach (Second edition), by Hackley, C.', International Journal of Advertising, 29(4), pp. 501-504.

    Selected Conference Proceedings

    Bakeberg, Bastian. and Kelly, Aidan. (2012) ‘Value creation practices of brand communities in computer mediated environments: lessons for nonprofit organisations’, in proceedings of the 11th International Colloquium on Nonprofit, Social, Arts and Heritage Marketing, London Metropolitan University, September 19th 2012, pp. 5-7.

    Magan, Tanvi., Kelly Aidan. and Wheeler, Margaret. (2011) ‘Brandscapes as theatre: Extraordinary consumer experience and the Abercrombie & Fitch retail store’, in proceedings of the 39th European Marketing Academy Conference (EMAC) Annual Conference, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, May 24th – May 27th.

    Kelly, Aidan. (2011) ‘Sociocultural branding research (SBR): An evolutionary paradigm for brand management theory’ in Bradshaw, A., Hackley, C. and Maclaran, P. (eds.) European Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 9, pp. 439-440.

    Kelly, Aidan. and Lawlor, Katrina. (2010) 'Sociocultural branding research (SBR) A paradigmatic review', in proceedings of the 40th European Marketing Academy (EMAC) Annual Conference, Copenhagen Business School, Copenhagen, Denmark, June 1st - June 4th.  

    Kelly, Aidan, Lawlor, Katrina and O'Donohoe, Stephanie (2007) 'Aesthetic advertisements and scientific evaluations: Divergent philosophies in advertising production' in Fitzsimmons, G. and Moritz, V. (eds.) Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 34, pp. 81-82.

    Kelly, Aidan., Lawlor, Katrina. and O’Donohoe, Stephanie. (2005) ‘Encoding advertisements: The creative perspective’, in O’Driscoll, A., McDonagh, P., Lawlor, M.A. (eds.), Proceedings of the Academy of Marketing Annual Conference, Dublin Institute of Technology, Aungier Street, Dublin 2, Republic of Ireland, July 5th – July 7th.

    Kelly, Aidan., Lawlor, Katrina. and O’Donohoe, Stephanie. (2005) ‘Advertising ideology and the encoding of advertising meaning: An ethnographic and discursive approach’, in Menon, G. and Rao, A. (eds.), Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 32, pp. 645-646.

    Kelly, Aidan. and Lawlor, Katrina. (2003) ‘Advertising ideology and the encoding of advertising meaning: Toward a methodological framework for the study of the social construction of advertising’ in Wilson, Jerry (ed.), “Marketing in a Dynamic Global Environment”, Proceedings of the Atlantic Marketing Association Nineteenth Annual Conference, Portland, Maine, USA, October 1st –   October 4th, pp. 247-254.

    Kelly, Aidan. (2002) ‘The ideology of the advertising process: An exploration of the generation and creation of advertising meanings and values’, in Tynan, A.C., Ennew, C.T., Winklhofer, H, O’Malley, L, McKechnie, S, Mitussis, D, Patterson, M and Liao, M-N (eds.), Proceedings of the Academy of Marketing Annual Conference, Nottingham University Business School, United Kingdom, July 2nd- July 5th.                                                                                                                        

    Publications


    Funding

    My primary academic interests are in advertising theory, consumer research and brand management. I am currently engaged in projects exploring consumer collecting behaviour in the context of vinyl records (with Dr Henrik Linden of the Institute of Hospitality and Tourism, University of East London), advertising account planning in the digital age, polysemic interpretations of online advertising and the cultural branding of luxury. I invite any potentially interested collaborators or students to contact me if you wish to engage with any of these or related topics. 

    Outside of academia, I have a keen interest in club culture, music, reading, film, theatre, distance running and travel.

     



    Interests

    Portfolio

    As well as leading the B.Sc. Marketing and B.A. Business Management (Marketing) programmes, I currently lead the following modules at Royal Docks School of Business and Law:

    MK5009 - Integrated Marketing Communications 

    HR6004 - The Business Professional (Marketing stream) 

    MK5004 - Digital Marketing 

    MK5006 - Marketing Work Placement

    MK6009 - Cultural Marketing

    MK7227 - Postgraduate Dissertation

    I teach research methods at postgraduate level and I supervise academic projects at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels.

    I was awarded the "Best Postgraduate Teacher" prize in 2012, and I have been nominated for the UEL Student-Led Teaching Awards in 2016, 2017 and 2018.

    Teaching