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Filed under: Tip of the Day
Though Jeroen Bours, the founder of New York City-based Darling Agency, may not be a familiar name, readers are likely familiar with his work. The co-creator of MasterCard’s “Priceless” campaign and co-creative director on Liberty Mutual’s “Responsibility. What’s your policy?” effort, he has helped coin some seriously memorable slogans. Here he offers tips on devising out-of-the box taglines to help make promotions stick.
- When you have a product or a message to tell, brainstorm what you know of that product, and write down what it’s all about.
- Talk to the people who help create the product, from the ground level to the top. “I love talking to people who actually make the gadgets, who put it in the box,” says Bours. “Before you know it you’ve got great market research right there.” He gives the example of working on a brand message for Hamilton Beach. Its engineers work on familiar products (like coffee makers), but often while making useful improvements (such as the no-pot coffee maker that keeps the coffee fresher). A typical compliment among engineers – not prone to effusive congratulations – was “good thinking.” That became the company’s successful tagline.
- Dig into the details of the product and the company, and you’ll find a story. Bours gives the example of going to a baseball game with his son: “I spent a lot of money – the tickets were a little expensive and I wanted to spoil him with popcorn and all these things,” he says. “But, out of all this we have the kind of conversation where the kid looks at you and they say something and you say, ‘Oh my gosh, this is the next level of childhood I just witnessed.’ ” From this evening, Bours came up with the idea for “Priceless.”
- Look at the story and find the one or two or maybe five words (if you’re lucky, it’s one word) that tell you what the product, the company or the service stands for. “It’s like a pyramid – it’s hidden in there,” Bours says.
- Don’t make it a claim. “Make sure that the tagline is saying something,” Bours says. “Don’t make it, ‘We’re better than everybody else.’ ”
- Consider the line, but don’t fall in love too fast or too slow. “It’s dangerous to fall in love with something too fast, but also dangerous not to fall in love with it – there’s a danger that you have something really good but you throw it away, because you’re over-thinking it,” Bours says.
- Make the promotional products as high-level as the brand message. “If I send you a pen for Liberty Mutual, maybe it will say on the pen, ‘This is the pen with which you’ll sign a contract with your parents that you will not text while you drive,’ Bours says. “Now the pen is not a pen anymore – it’s a challenge.”
From Advantages’ Sept. 2010 issue.
Filed under: Uncategorized
 Ladies and gentleman, this is it! For weeks now, you’ve been diligently listening to our ASI Radio Show for the secret “word of the week” in hopes of winning one of four great prizes … prizes we will be giving away during this week’s show! (Tuesday, Sep. 14, 10:30 a.m. EST)
The high-end prizes include a digital camera, camcorder, netbook and Roomba (bagless robotic vacuum cleaner), and all you have to do to win these great prizes is to call in during the show and tell us the word of the week that matches the week in which we said it.
Don’t know the words of the week? No problem! We have them archived and you can listen now! Just click the image below and go to the appropriate archive file.
On behalf of the ASICentral Team, good luck, we’re all counting on you.
–Dr. Diesel
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