The AFLAC duck and other big bangs in marketing.
9/1/2003
The CEO and general manager of the advertising agency Kaplan Thaler Group present their "Big Bang Theory" business strategy as an aggregate of unconventional and defiant wisdom, illustrated with battle stories of their own successes and failures as well as those from other companies. Big Bang marketing ideas "will only rise to the surface when everyone at the company is able to reject what worked in the past." Emphasizing the importance of intuitive and even illogical ways of thinking, these kinds of campaigns appeal to consumers' innermost desires and create publicity hooks with explosive power. Do the authors follow their own prescription? Kaplan Thaler created the AFLAC Duck campaign, which helped the insurance company record a 55 percent increase in sales, according to the authors. "Creativity is indeed a messy business, but when we developed that campaign we followed some key principles that can help make any marketing department or company fertile ground for Big Bangs."