Don't blame me, Mercury is Retrograde

From the Kamikaze Creative email bag:  Tag lines in the news.  What Doreen's been thinking over break.  The next assignment.

Can it be?  Another class, another new group of writers to torture, vex, bullyrag praise? Is Mercury in Retrograde (can't you tell the answer is Yes!)?  Copy Sins march on.

An email from a good friend, former student, great AD smart CD.  Great for tweaking the noggin, he sent another interesting link.  What do you think? 

Doreen:

Maybe you've seen this already, maybe not.  Maybe it's relevant, maybe not.  Maybe it can find its way into one of your lectures or blog, maybe not.  Maybe it'll spark an epiphany that leads to your next book, maybe not.  Maybe I should stop using the word maybe so much, maybe not :)

http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/death-tagline-152255

Thoughts?

Plenty.

Read the article - have always hated tag lines and at times, refused to write them.  Had  to anyway, agency/client insisted or worse - the client tried to write it for me.  I have too much respect for One-Five Perfect Words not to have caved. 

The right tag  can go integrated viral.  Be the brand, the catch phrase.  Today’s issue isn't  to tag or not to tag.  It's Can your line take advantage of all the inventive and traditional media we get to play in.

We have so many options, opportunities.  So many more and varied world markets to target, unique slang, sayings, cultural points of view.  

The article is right, not all tags are suited to all applications.  Characters space words messaging fonts colors.  A tag is not meant to be sacrosanct.  Like English, Russian, French and any other native tongue, tag lines are living, breathing language.  What you want to say is simple.  Say it straight. Then Translate the Thought.  Play in the richness of structure, language, niche terms, trending verbs.  Make it active, visual (in Kamikaze Creativeland, the term visual doesn't mean descriptive - it's writing the Prospect sees themselves in).

If it's not simple enough, drill it down.  Make it easy.  Remember all great Advertising is Singular.  Then translate the thought.

You don’t have to use it the in the same form manner, position, type color paper.  Just Do It lives as #Do, Just This, Just That.  Do This, Do That. Embed it in the video, set tone for the site, packaging, carry the product through ambient, promotions, direct, e- traditional broadcast, apps.  As yet undiscovered media.  It can live long after a new guy decides to change it, in the corporate space, an internal communication to employees.

Tag lines used to be this big important thing – unchanging, protected in use, graphic standards, etc.  I've used Writer by Trade/Problem Solver by Inclination forever.  It expresses what I do better than Kamikaze Creative, more philosophy than function.  I don't always use WBT/PSBI, depends what I need/am trying to do for/to whom.  Writer by Trade/Strategist by Inclination.  Writer/Thinker.  Smarter Writing/Smarter Strategies.  Same tag, simple, flexible in structure, allowing changes Prospects use to connect. 

Our industry is very uncreative about certain things - how we charge, client relations, media, new business.  As we’ve seen in the past two decades, advertising has been way too slow on the what how importance potential, successful use of e- and other emerging media.  How we use creative - to what end, where when. 

With all that Mad Man posturing, why hold the tag sacred? 

Change happens.  You feel it coming, plan ahead.  Play with strong, visual words you can use alone or in phrase.  Use structure to allow the change of a word for global local niche markets, trending slang.  You can reinforce the tag/branding without using all the words/the exact same words.  It's sacrilegious to fool with it is craziness. It's not the tag line that's dated.  It is our use of it. 

I’ve seen tag lines ground wandering creatives and clients - a good thing.  I've also seen "nonsense" tags become ad fashion - the "people helping people people" blind approach.  Hence my anti-tag kick, more about what clients (and agencies) demanded they say or not say - and boy does Company XYZ have a great line.  I want something exactly like that only about us. 

Today's issue isn't to tag or not tag.  It's how to use your line effectively   We have so many more options to reach so many more markets. All those unique customs language quirks points of view to consider.  

If it's structured for an unexpected strong word you can use singly, change words or order to suit global marketing, you're reinforcing the tag/branding without using all the words/the exact same words. 

A killer tag can start as a headline, move to the tag.  Live there for a bit, morph a bit to fit emerging markets, niches, mediums.  That's one of the most fun things about working in today's ad biz - all the options. 

Tag lines have options, too.  The world moves fast, emerging markets change, even mighty America is no longer the world commerce leader we once were.  Doesn't mean we should kill the form - just let it live in expanding opportunities and usefulness.

How can corporations refuse to change tags as they grow larger, expand business offerings, products, prospects, world markets, global applications, etc.  We update logos and still maintain corporate ID – why not tags? 

The real thing I hate about them?  Branding firms get hundreds of thousands of dollars for a clunky one.  Freelance writers are usually paid by a limited number of hours, no matter how great the lines are. 

In response, this what my CD friend wrote back:

Personally, I struggle a bit with the notion of a tag or "positioning" being an organic thing.  Feels to me like, if that copy is doing its job, it should transcend media placement, generational differences, product variations/line extensions and even good English..."Nobody doesn't like Sara Lee" does all those things.

The fact brands are moving away from the tag feels like it has more to do, in my opinion, with this generation's insatiable desire to dictate/influence content and to have an ever changing experience rather than a sound strategic reason to do so.  So brands jump on that bandwagon to appear hip and connected. And that's fine.  But I think brands lose a little something when they can no longer convey what they stand for with the perfect combination of four to six words.

With more brands and touch points than ever before, that seems like the perfect argument to "SAVE THE TAG LINE."  (We'll make t-shirts and start a public service campaign.)  S***, what do I know…I guess my journey toward irrelevance has officially begun.

You’re not irrelevant, toots.  You’re mulling and thinking, discussing, being open to ideas, challenges.  Pushing your own limits so you can push the limits of the solutions you propose.  You're not irrelevant.  You're Kamikaze.

To those in my Circus class this Q:  Your next assignment.  Write a KCWP for a product you are currently working on in another class.  If you are not working on anything for another class use one you know something about. Use it to concept/write/translate the thought behind the product/company mission perception products prospect reality into twenty tag lines.  I want to see your KCWP, including any additional KKFs you try.  

I want to see the simple, plain statement you need to translate.  Then twenty different ways to translate its thought.  For the top three on your list (the ones you think work best), show me at least two additional extensions of the proposed tag, based either on use and/or cultural concerns.  Confused?  Wait for the email.  It'll be in bullets.

HINT:  Tags are like headlines and the last line of a great ad web page broadcast spot.  Memorable, with strong energy and a thought that somehow makes the Prospect participate in it.  Tag lines should be as conceptual as everything else we do.

©2013, Doreen Dvorin/Kamikaze Creative.