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Bang!: Getting Your Message Heard in a Noisy World
The founders of one of today's hottest, most innovative advertising agencies explain how to ignite the kind of marketing explosions that will capture customers' attention.
Linda Kaplan Thaler, the CEO and Chief Creative Officer of the Kaplan Thaler Group, is the brains behind a host of memorable and highly successful ads, from the irresistibly sentimental "Kodak moment" campaign to Herbal Essences' "totally organic experience" to, most recently, the irrepressible AFLAC duck. In Bang !, Kaplan Thaler and Robin Koval of the Kaplan Thaler Group, currently ranked as the fastest-growing ad agency in the country, offer the kind of out-of-the-box thinking and proven strategies that marketers anywhere can use to create loud, clear, attention-grabbing messages about their products and services.
Presenting an arsenal of "big bang" ideas, the authors discuss how to create a memorable publicity hook and how to design attention-grabbing packaging that taps into consumers' innermost desires. They interweave entertaining accounts of their successes and failures, as well as those of other companies to suggest specific ways to establish an atmosphere conducive to innovative breakthroughs--why having "enough" time to work on a project can be a disadvantage, and why having a small staff in a cramped space is often the best way to come up with big ideas.
Full of colorful anecdotes and inspiring accounts of campaigns that have catapulted revenues and increased market shares, Bang! shows how to create a marketing campaign that rises above the banal barrage of commercials to create a genuine marketing explosion.
Linda Kaplan Thaler, the CEO and Chief Creative Officer of the Kaplan Thaler Group, is the brains behind a host of memorable and highly successful ads, from the irresistibly sentimental "Kodak moment" campaign to Herbal Essences' "totally organic experience" to, most recently, the irrepressible AFLAC duck. In Bang !, Kaplan Thaler and Robin Koval of the Kaplan Thaler Group, currently ranked as the fastest-growing ad agency in the country, offer the kind of out-of-the-box thinking and proven strategies that marketers anywhere can use to create loud, clear, attention-grabbing messages about their products and services.
Presenting an arsenal of "big bang" ideas, the authors discuss how to create a memorable publicity hook and how to design attention-grabbing packaging that taps into consumers' innermost desires. They interweave entertaining accounts of their successes and failures, as well as those of other companies to suggest specific ways to establish an atmosphere conducive to innovative breakthroughs--why having "enough" time to work on a project can be a disadvantage, and why having a small staff in a cramped space is often the best way to come up with big ideas.
Full of colorful anecdotes and inspiring accounts of campaigns that have catapulted revenues and increased market shares, Bang! shows how to create a marketing campaign that rises above the banal barrage of commercials to create a genuine marketing explosion.
- GenresBusinessNonfiction
256 pages, Hardcover
First published October 21, 2003
2 people are currently reading
95 people want to read
About the author
Linda Kaplan Thaler
11 books33 followersLinda Kaplan Thaler has been responsible for some of the most touching, relevant and famous advertising campaigns during her 25+ years in the advertising and entertainment business. She is acclaimed within the industry for her innovative and topical approach.
Much of her work is now part of the American pop culture landscape. She has authored and composed campaign jingles that are among the industry’s gold standard. Some examples are: “I Don’t Wanna Grow Up, I’m a Toys ‘R’ Us Kid” (Toys ‘R’ Us); “Kodak Moments” (Eastman Kodak) and “The Heart of Communication” (Bell Atlantic). Of her 13 Clio Awards, two were for Best Original Music and Lyrics.
Today, Linda is the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Creative Officer of The Kaplan Thaler Group, which she founded in 1997. Now a billion-dollar advertising and entertainment company, The Kaplan Thaler Group is consistently ranked by industry publications as one of the fastest-growing agencies in the United States, touted for its breakthrough creative and immediate results. Linda and her agency are responsible for some of the most memorable advertising in America, including the beloved Aflac duck and Herbal Essences “Totally Organic Experience” ad campaigns. Its clients include Wendy’s, U.S. Bank, Continental Airlines and Pfizer, as well as Procter and Gamble’s Dawn, Cascade and Swiffer brands.
Linda is also a best-selling author. Her three collaborations with coauthor Robin Koval have all received national recognition. Their most recent title, The Power of Small: Why Little Things Make All the Difference, debuted as an instant national bestseller and shows that in a big picture world, every pixel counts. Linda and Robin’s previous book, The Power of Nice: How to Conquer the Business World with Kindness, debunked the notion that nice “guys” finish last and debuted on the New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller lists. Bang! Getting Your Message Heard in a Noisy World, a savvy marketing book and their first title, was also a national bestseller.
Much of her work is now part of the American pop culture landscape. She has authored and composed campaign jingles that are among the industry’s gold standard. Some examples are: “I Don’t Wanna Grow Up, I’m a Toys ‘R’ Us Kid” (Toys ‘R’ Us); “Kodak Moments” (Eastman Kodak) and “The Heart of Communication” (Bell Atlantic). Of her 13 Clio Awards, two were for Best Original Music and Lyrics.
Today, Linda is the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Creative Officer of The Kaplan Thaler Group, which she founded in 1997. Now a billion-dollar advertising and entertainment company, The Kaplan Thaler Group is consistently ranked by industry publications as one of the fastest-growing agencies in the United States, touted for its breakthrough creative and immediate results. Linda and her agency are responsible for some of the most memorable advertising in America, including the beloved Aflac duck and Herbal Essences “Totally Organic Experience” ad campaigns. Its clients include Wendy’s, U.S. Bank, Continental Airlines and Pfizer, as well as Procter and Gamble’s Dawn, Cascade and Swiffer brands.
Linda is also a best-selling author. Her three collaborations with coauthor Robin Koval have all received national recognition. Their most recent title, The Power of Small: Why Little Things Make All the Difference, debuted as an instant national bestseller and shows that in a big picture world, every pixel counts. Linda and Robin’s previous book, The Power of Nice: How to Conquer the Business World with Kindness, debunked the notion that nice “guys” finish last and debuted on the New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller lists. Bang! Getting Your Message Heard in a Noisy World, a savvy marketing book and their first title, was also a national bestseller.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
May 1, 2017
Rating - 9
An interesting and informative read on the psychology of advertising and how to get yourself across in a noisy world - good anecdotes and a top notch marketing read - would recommend
New appreciation for the similarities that exist in marketing products to consumers and managing employees - all about feeling special and safe
Interesting Thoughts
Big Bang is an analogy for the successful marketing technique of disruption. Only through disruption will your message get through the 3000 messages that a person receives a day
People want two things psychologically - they want to feel safe and they want to feel special. In many ways, marketing is like managing people
Big bangs usually have to defy logic - emotions are not logical so to spur a purchase the message should be illogical. Always focus on the fantasy of the message
Forget every rule that you have ever learned - if you take the traditional pave and do not take risks, it has already been done before and probably better
Rules make it easier to repeat what has already been done before. Rules anticipate that history will repeat itself
Products are not revolutionary so the message should be - Many great icons of modern culture happen by accident
In marketing you need to lose the vision thing, the consumer is a moving target, hence vision will be outdated tomorrow - Vision is a future predetermined by the past
Courage is living w uncertainty and means trying something new even if there is a potential downside. The worst business decision is to remain static
Big Bang Mindset - stay in the here and now, stick to the road not taken, and be fearless
Humor is a method to relax people
Workers who work more in open war rooms are more creative than those who work in traditional offices
To create ideas, you need to shrink the hierarchy - a large hierarchy is a path to mediocrity
When you think you have all the answers you stop looking for questions - the linear way of thinking (using the past to predict the future) is not successful in marketing. Consumer behavior is a complex system
Products might be accidents but the environment that created the accident is no accident
Two minds are always better than one
When people wander into new territories they provide a fresh perspective
People naturally have a failure to listen as they devote 50% of their energy to formulating a response
Encourage failure - if people will always play it safe then there will never be breakthrough goals
Women surpass men in decoding emotional messages
In the business environment, there is not enough time to employ the traditional analytical business model to decision making
Humor and emotion engage the limbic system which make people more productive
Do not try and be the smartest person in the room
We are trained to think that there is only one right answer (school) and as soon as we find it we stop thinking - in fact there are many right answers
Chocolate makes people happier
Being hip is a kiss of death - trends come and trends go, and more often that not, marketers can never successfully predict the timing of
Focus groups only encourage a herd mentality - self-conscious people will never be honest if they feel their ideas are sappy
Only words that ever matter are the words that come after the word but
Focus on entertainment permeates every aspect of our culture
Lack of rehearsal is the biggest mistake that business presenters make - I’ll just wing it is a terrible concept
Every second that people spend on a chart the less they are spending on you the person
Execution is the missing link between aspiration and results
Most senior executives like to parade as big picture, flaunting the notion that strategy requires genius and that execution is just about getting things done
You are never too big to think small
Horizontal Advancement over Vertical Ascension - focus on developing your overall abilities and less on name and title
Less process means more progress
Examples
When Barbie achieved marketing saturation, Barbie changed the focus from featuring clothes but rather make different kinds of Barbie - catapulted from product to brand
Swiffer - cleaning can be fun message - product design and advertising all focused on this disruptive, illogical message
Starbucks - it is not about the coffee, it is about the experience
AFLAC - the quack duck turned it from no-name to big name. Allowed people to remember the name of the company. Added humor to a serious product (insurance)
Target - the re-design to trendy allowed it to survive against Walmart while K-Mart filed for bankruptcy
Pilot Pen - Pen Envy commercial
Herbal Essences - Natural organic experience - came off a side conversation about When Harry Met Sally
Butterfly Principle - the smallest of events can have a ripple effect with enormous consequences
Poster Purchase - people who buy something on gut instinct are happier with the purchase than those who spend time deliberating between different posters
Toys ‘r’ Us - I don’t wanna grow up
Literacy campaign - let people feel what it is like to be illiterate - emotional appeal
Taco Bell dog - immensely popular but did not convince people that they should be eating at Taco Bell
Chevy and Ford - did not check what product names meant in native tongues and they were fiascos
Fear is the most powerful force in business - it spurs creativity and will encourage people to take risks
If it is not broke, fix it anyway because it will soon become stale
Success breeds imitation so you constantly have to be on the cusp - moving forward not behind
Manipulation that reaches a positive conclusion should not be considered in a negative light
Always make speakers feel positive by nodding and making direct eye contact
Talented people tend to be competitive and territorial, but the only way to enjoy sustained success is with group effort
An interesting and informative read on the psychology of advertising and how to get yourself across in a noisy world - good anecdotes and a top notch marketing read - would recommend
New appreciation for the similarities that exist in marketing products to consumers and managing employees - all about feeling special and safe
Interesting Thoughts
Big Bang is an analogy for the successful marketing technique of disruption. Only through disruption will your message get through the 3000 messages that a person receives a day
People want two things psychologically - they want to feel safe and they want to feel special. In many ways, marketing is like managing people
Big bangs usually have to defy logic - emotions are not logical so to spur a purchase the message should be illogical. Always focus on the fantasy of the message
Forget every rule that you have ever learned - if you take the traditional pave and do not take risks, it has already been done before and probably better
Rules make it easier to repeat what has already been done before. Rules anticipate that history will repeat itself
Products are not revolutionary so the message should be - Many great icons of modern culture happen by accident
In marketing you need to lose the vision thing, the consumer is a moving target, hence vision will be outdated tomorrow - Vision is a future predetermined by the past
Courage is living w uncertainty and means trying something new even if there is a potential downside. The worst business decision is to remain static
Big Bang Mindset - stay in the here and now, stick to the road not taken, and be fearless
Humor is a method to relax people
Workers who work more in open war rooms are more creative than those who work in traditional offices
To create ideas, you need to shrink the hierarchy - a large hierarchy is a path to mediocrity
When you think you have all the answers you stop looking for questions - the linear way of thinking (using the past to predict the future) is not successful in marketing. Consumer behavior is a complex system
Products might be accidents but the environment that created the accident is no accident
Two minds are always better than one
When people wander into new territories they provide a fresh perspective
People naturally have a failure to listen as they devote 50% of their energy to formulating a response
Encourage failure - if people will always play it safe then there will never be breakthrough goals
Women surpass men in decoding emotional messages
In the business environment, there is not enough time to employ the traditional analytical business model to decision making
Humor and emotion engage the limbic system which make people more productive
Do not try and be the smartest person in the room
We are trained to think that there is only one right answer (school) and as soon as we find it we stop thinking - in fact there are many right answers
Chocolate makes people happier
Being hip is a kiss of death - trends come and trends go, and more often that not, marketers can never successfully predict the timing of
Focus groups only encourage a herd mentality - self-conscious people will never be honest if they feel their ideas are sappy
Only words that ever matter are the words that come after the word but
Focus on entertainment permeates every aspect of our culture
Lack of rehearsal is the biggest mistake that business presenters make - I’ll just wing it is a terrible concept
Every second that people spend on a chart the less they are spending on you the person
Execution is the missing link between aspiration and results
Most senior executives like to parade as big picture, flaunting the notion that strategy requires genius and that execution is just about getting things done
You are never too big to think small
Horizontal Advancement over Vertical Ascension - focus on developing your overall abilities and less on name and title
Less process means more progress
Examples
When Barbie achieved marketing saturation, Barbie changed the focus from featuring clothes but rather make different kinds of Barbie - catapulted from product to brand
Swiffer - cleaning can be fun message - product design and advertising all focused on this disruptive, illogical message
Starbucks - it is not about the coffee, it is about the experience
AFLAC - the quack duck turned it from no-name to big name. Allowed people to remember the name of the company. Added humor to a serious product (insurance)
Target - the re-design to trendy allowed it to survive against Walmart while K-Mart filed for bankruptcy
Pilot Pen - Pen Envy commercial
Herbal Essences - Natural organic experience - came off a side conversation about When Harry Met Sally
Butterfly Principle - the smallest of events can have a ripple effect with enormous consequences
Poster Purchase - people who buy something on gut instinct are happier with the purchase than those who spend time deliberating between different posters
Toys ‘r’ Us - I don’t wanna grow up
Literacy campaign - let people feel what it is like to be illiterate - emotional appeal
Taco Bell dog - immensely popular but did not convince people that they should be eating at Taco Bell
Chevy and Ford - did not check what product names meant in native tongues and they were fiascos
Fear is the most powerful force in business - it spurs creativity and will encourage people to take risks
If it is not broke, fix it anyway because it will soon become stale
Success breeds imitation so you constantly have to be on the cusp - moving forward not behind
Manipulation that reaches a positive conclusion should not be considered in a negative light
Always make speakers feel positive by nodding and making direct eye contact
Talented people tend to be competitive and territorial, but the only way to enjoy sustained success is with group effort
February 11, 2008
Heard great things bout this, but what a disappointment! I got about one quarter of the way through and got rid of it.
Pros: Some good stories and ideas (but nothing that you couldn't find in any other marketing book of higher quality).
Cons: The author merely gives examples of successful ads and tries to explain how they worked because they went against the grain and got a lot of attention. The real problem lies in the author's conclusions. The underlying theme seems to be: "Do the opposite of whatever you think will work best." If you think an ad is tasteless, inappropriate, and irrelevant, then run it because it will be a great success. If the ad has nothing whatsoever to do with the product, then it is more likely to succeed. For example, one of her "bright" ideas is: "You must forget about what makes sense...illogical thinking means that when you're asked to promote a bottle of water, you realize that water is the last thing you should focus on."
Pros: Some good stories and ideas (but nothing that you couldn't find in any other marketing book of higher quality).
Cons: The author merely gives examples of successful ads and tries to explain how they worked because they went against the grain and got a lot of attention. The real problem lies in the author's conclusions. The underlying theme seems to be: "Do the opposite of whatever you think will work best." If you think an ad is tasteless, inappropriate, and irrelevant, then run it because it will be a great success. If the ad has nothing whatsoever to do with the product, then it is more likely to succeed. For example, one of her "bright" ideas is: "You must forget about what makes sense...illogical thinking means that when you're asked to promote a bottle of water, you realize that water is the last thing you should focus on."
May 12, 2017
Written in 2003, so the most fun you might have with this book is estimating when the inevitable first 9/11 name drop will happen.
You might also wonder, what can the creative minds behind the AFLAC Duck and Clairol 'Totally Organic Experience' campaigns have to offer? Well the answer lies within this book, and it's not as dated as you might think.
Sure, tasteless advertisements did seem to be excused in the name of buzz and brand recognition. That's a road left up to the discretion of the reader - and in a book entitled BANG! not a shocking revelation. The marketplace of ideas is a full one and the riskier ideas stand out.
So it's useful advice. There's a fair amount of case studies presented and the writing flows and maintains a level of humor that keeps the reading brisk and painless. Yeah some of the work KTG produced is brazen, but it will remind you of that weird 90s mentality where there were such products as GAK. It was a remarkably odd decade, in retrospect. That mentality lived on until about 2001 and between then and 2005 it was slowly replaced by a newer, perhaps savvier, mentality which... I won't go into it. Needless to say much of this book refers to an environment that is about two generations behind leading edge, but the advice has longevity and can still applied to contemporary problems.
Do or don't, with this book, but it won't waste your time if you do.
You might also wonder, what can the creative minds behind the AFLAC Duck and Clairol 'Totally Organic Experience' campaigns have to offer? Well the answer lies within this book, and it's not as dated as you might think.
Sure, tasteless advertisements did seem to be excused in the name of buzz and brand recognition. That's a road left up to the discretion of the reader - and in a book entitled BANG! not a shocking revelation. The marketplace of ideas is a full one and the riskier ideas stand out.
So it's useful advice. There's a fair amount of case studies presented and the writing flows and maintains a level of humor that keeps the reading brisk and painless. Yeah some of the work KTG produced is brazen, but it will remind you of that weird 90s mentality where there were such products as GAK. It was a remarkably odd decade, in retrospect. That mentality lived on until about 2001 and between then and 2005 it was slowly replaced by a newer, perhaps savvier, mentality which... I won't go into it. Needless to say much of this book refers to an environment that is about two generations behind leading edge, but the advice has longevity and can still applied to contemporary problems.
Do or don't, with this book, but it won't waste your time if you do.
October 14, 2008
A good 'airport read'. Honestly, I 'lightly' read through this years ago... but here's the gist:
• In this world you have to be noticed to get ahead
• in this busy world, you've got to make noise to get noticed
- 'Squeaky wheel gets the oil'
• Ergo a "Bang!" is the act of getting noticed
The rest of the book goes through various high-profile examples (such as Herbal Essences & Aflac) examining the characteristics of "BANG!"
In the end, you have mostly been sold on Thaler's ad agency (Kaplan Thaler Group), but it's worth a read.
• In this world you have to be noticed to get ahead
• in this busy world, you've got to make noise to get noticed
- 'Squeaky wheel gets the oil'
• Ergo a "Bang!" is the act of getting noticed
The rest of the book goes through various high-profile examples (such as Herbal Essences & Aflac) examining the characteristics of "BANG!"
In the end, you have mostly been sold on Thaler's ad agency (Kaplan Thaler Group), but it's worth a read.
Want to read
August 2, 2007This book was recomended to me by one of the lead actors of the musical "Jersey Boys"- his Broadway debut. He claims this book as the reason why he's on Broadway. But I'm sure it applies to those of us who are a bit shy about promoting our own ideas, ourselves, or our message.
Haven't read it yet - but when I do - you all will be the first to know exactly what I think of it
Haven't read it yet - but when I do - you all will be the first to know exactly what I think of it
June 7, 2009
I did not think this book was anything special like previous reviews had suggested. In fact, I found it to be very boring (I didn't finish it) and just a compelation of the different campaigns that the author had worked on (and more in a "bragging" sense, not an informative sense). There were no new ideas in this book--it was very commonsense.
March 13, 2012
This book was recommended to me by a friend. I've read several books with a similar theme and found this one had little to offer in the way of tools. I will say that I found the very last chapters the most helpful, but I slogged my way through most of the book before finding only a couple of pearls.
August 14, 2008
Just finished this book...it's really cool for people who are into marketing and advertising. They created a lot of well known campaigns like the AFLAC Duck and "Hallmark Moments."
January 22, 2013
amazing the campaigns she was involved in. Favorite marketing book of all time
Read
February 14, 2016Bought it used at $3.95 until my new batch of books comes in at the library. 212 pages should be a quick read and it has recent enough content to make an impact in this down economy.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews