• Title: Bang! Getting Your Message Heard in a Noisy World
• Author: Linda Kaplan Thaler, Robin Koval
• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Currency (January 18, 2005)
• ISBN: 0385508174

This is a brief report on my attendance at a Company of Friends discussion of the book Bang!: Getting Your Message Heard in a Noisy World. In addition to the usual Company of Friends professionals in attendance, this meeting featured special guest Robin Koval, co-author of Bang!. Robin shared her stories about her book and the advertising game.

Robin’s best-known work includes the AFLAC (quacking duck) and Herbal Essences (orgasmic shampooing) advertising campaigns. Both these campaigns made bold statements that helped turn unknown, faltering brand names into well-recognized and popular products.

Bang! defines and illustrates how to create a “big bang” in business. A big bang is an initiative that disrupts, may seem illogical, has a dramatic and irreversible impact, cannot be ignored, and becomes an icon. Sometimes, creating a big bang is the most effective way to make a message heard.

The discussion covered how to make a bang, when it is advisable to do so, and why a bang is useful.

The following are some characteristics of a big bang:

• A big bang disrupts A big bang is illogical
• A big bang has a dramatic, immediate and irreversible impact
• A big bang can’t be ignored
• A big bang becomes an icon

This book provides a number of ideas on how to create big bangs for messages along with some good management and leadership ideas. The book is an easy read but not a simple parable like Who Moved My Cheese.

The overall messages of the book:

• Forget about vision – things move too fast to keep to a vision for very long Think and create in the here and now
• Forget about conventional wisdom
• Forget about fear – be courageous in creation and delivery of ideas
• Don’t over analyze
• Don’t get stuck in the process trap – less process equals more progress when it comes to creativity
• Shrink the space – having people work closely accelerates progress
• Shrink the hierarchy
• Shrink the clock – set short deadlines, sometimes artificial, to create more tension and pressure
• Stop being so polite – maintain proper etiquette, but be willing to put your emotions and feelings on the table
• Let employees find their niche
• Look for ideas in unlikely places
• Break a habit each day
• Encourage failure – don’t fear it
• Stop trying to be so smart – sometimes its useful to play dumb
• Stop being cool – sometimes the simple, hackneyed gimmick works best
• Stop denying your feelings – its okay to bring your baggage to work if you can all get the job done

Some things to see if you have a big bang in the making:

• Is it elegantly simple?
• Is it polarizing?
• Will it catch fire?

Some things to do to sell the big bang:

• Set the stage – make sure the environment will be conducive to success
• Rehearse ’til you drop
• Go low-tech – sometimes talking is more effective and personal than PowerPoint
• Know your audience
• Assume nothing
• Have a warm-up act – have someone good at greeting, giving a joke and generally warming the group up

Some things to do to create an environment for making big bangs:

• Bring your baggage to work – you can’t have depth of character if you don’t show it
• Be manipulative – influence the environment around you in positive ways
• Be a “yes” person – instead of saying “no,” try saying “yes, but”
• Throw your ideas away – allow group claim to ideas
• Act as if your life depends upon it
• Make it personal