Linda Kaplan Thaler
CEO, Chief Creative Officer
The Kaplan Thaler Group
In today’s highly competitive, noisy marketplace, breaking through the clutter and getting your brand noticed is extremely challenging. Messages bombard us: from the bottom of golf cups, flashing on ATM screens, and even posted over urinals (so I’m told).
So how do you make a great brand in an age of information overload? Create a big bang!
At its core, a big bang idea takes the spotlight — too outrageous, too different, too polarizing to go unnoticed. A big bang helps a brand explode into the marketplace virtually overnight. Its huge multiplier effect generates buzz and talk value and makes the brand part of the culture. A big bang creates an ever-expanding universe for a product, turning an occasional user into a fierce brand loyalist.
AFLAC is a great example of a great brand, growing from 3 percent to 91 percent awareness in a record amount of time with the introduction of the AFLAC Duck. Perrier, Starbucks, and Federal Express are other examples of great brands, because they forever altered the landscape by creating a new way of thinking about a product or service.
