Extra tables had to be set up in order to accommodate a record number of walk-ins at an already packed room of luncheon guests who turned out for the February 18th Smartalk Speaker Series at the Westin Morristown. The attraction was a presentation by Linda Kaplan Thaler, co-author of Bang! Getting Your Message Heard in a Noisy World. Attendees included members of both the NJ Ad Club and Art Director’s Club of New Jersey. Undoubtedly, none were disappointed by Thaler’s presentation, given with her unique brand of wit and charm.

Thaler’s agency, Thaler Kaplan Group, is responsible for creating some of the most successful and memorable advertising in recent years — including the AFLAC duck ads and the Herbal Essence “totally organic experience.” She began by explaining just what “bang advertising” is. “It is illogical,” she said, which is what gives bang advertising its overpowering strength, since it is based upon concepts most people would least expect.

Thaler’s most famous example, of course, is the advertising created for the American Family Life Assurance Company, sellers of serious medical coverage — secondary insurance that people with serious illness such as cancer depend on. How irreverent and inappropriate, therefore, to employ a silly, quacking bird. At least that’s what many thought, including a hired focus group, as well as Thaler’s business partner and Bang! co-author, Robin Koval. Thaler, on the other hand, suspected that she had something real here, and so relentlessly pushed for the duck idea to be tested further. The result of her persistence — AFLAC leaped from a 3% to a 93% public awareness level in just one year. And this is due much to the media attention spawned by it.

Bang ideas are also polarizing. When Thaler’s agency produced a television commercial for Pilot Pen, entitled “Pen Envy,” it ran just a few short weeks, inspiring scores of letters from upset viewers. But sales rose too, reaching number one gel-ink position during the crucial back-to-school period.

Other advice Thaler gave her audience included:

Stop thinking so much
A clear slate is required to come up with bang ideas, and that requires the freedom to think up even crazy ideas. At Kaplan Thaler Group, employees brainstorm in small, intimate spaces, often with people sitting on the floor. That’s a good posture, believes Thaler, to be creative. And then they throw out ideas, all kinds — good ideas, bad ideas, half-baked ones. “What is everyone so afraid of?” Thaler asked her audience. “Bad ideas are just good ideas turned upside down.” Improvisation is another technique Thaler espouses to stimulate creativity. “Shrink the timeframe,” she says, “even when you don’t have to. Runners run best at the end of a race.”

Sweat the small stuff
It’s all about the details, asserts Thaler. That’s what separates one brand from another, especially when different products deliver the same type of service, i.e. clean hair.

Watch for accidents
Often brilliant ideas happen by accident. Examples include Post-It Notes, Velcro, Goldfish Crackers, Ziplock bags and
that little blue pill, Viagra, originally developed as a blood pressure medication.

For those who missed this installment of Smartalk or would like to know more of Thaler and Koval’s philosophy about creating Bang advertising, get yourselves a copy of their book, Bang! Getting Your Message Heard in a Noisy World, published by Currency/Doubleday.