Ed Batista

The Big Bang theory of advertising, expounded by people like Linda Kaplan Thaler, asserts that only those ideas that are "too outrageous, too different, too polarizing to go unnoticed" will break through the "sea of sameness out there."  (Quoted in Knowledge@Wharton.)  The Big Bang poster child is Thaler's AFLAC duck, an essentially meaningless ad campaign that nevertheless generated so much buzz that the company remade its logo in the duck's image and now sells an assortment of duck gear (with the proceeds going to charity.)

The countervailing theory is the Unique Selling Proposition, a term coined by Rosser Reeves in the '50s and popularized by Jay Abraham.  The USP can be summarized as "Buy this product, and you will get this specific benefit," a proposition "that the competition either cannot, or does not, offer."

Obviously, there are other approaches marketers can choose, but let's say the Big Bang and the USP represent opposite ends of a spectrum.  Which one makes more sense for nonprofits?  It's easy to say neither.  Few nonprofits have the money it takes to support a sustained Big Bang campaign, and just as few are able to articulate a USP for their organization in opposition to other issues or to their "competitors.  But let's reduce these concepts to their essentials to make them a little more nonprofit-friendly.

The essence of the Big Bang is: Stand out.  Do whatever it takes to get noticed.  Let your freak flag fly.  Nonprofits can do this, and they can do it well; PETA comes to mind, with Pamela Anderson's Explicit New Video and The Naked Truth about Ringling Bros.  (I may disagree with their aims, but I applaud their methods.)

The essence of the UPS is: You need us, and we're better than they are.  Not every nonprofit has the guts to pull this off, but it's the implicit message in every alumni fundraising campaign, and in plenty of health and disease-related campaigns as well.

Is the best approach always contextual?  Perhaps.  But wouldn't it be great to to see a university do something freaky, just to get attention.  Wouldn't you pay attention if a social services org said, "We'll kick the competition's ass!"  Just wondering.

(Hat tip to the February 28 issue of The New Yorker, which featured a Ken Auletta article on Thaler,  the Big Bang approach, and its limitations in a fragmented media environment.)