4 Tips for Creating an Amazing Tagline

Award-winning taglines don’t happen by accident. If you’re lucky, 1 out of every 5,000 slogans you come up with will be the next “Just Do It.” Throughout my career, I’ve led thousands of brainstorming sessions, pitched hundreds of campaign ideas, and had million dollar deals hinge on the “drop the mic” factor of a few simple words. Here is my tried and true advice for creating an iconic tagline.

• Make time for creativity. It takes effort and dedication to perfect any craft, including writing taglines. Build creative time into your schedule to use for brainstorming, research, and playing around with words. Don’t worry if you don’t come up with “got milk?” in every session – getting your creative juices flowing each and every day will eventually result in tagline gold.

• Don’t be afraid to push the envelope.Successful taglines elicit a response – laughter, a groan, warm fuzzies or shock and awe. Whether good or bad, provoking an emotional response in your target audience will make them more likely to engage with your brand. Sex, violence and humor sell.

• Everything is a potential tagline.I know I said great taglines don’t happen by accident, but sometimes, they do. Keep an ear open for hidden gems in office banter, happy hour chatter, and other conversations that don’t specifically have to do with work. You’ll be surprised what comes out when people are speaking freely, outside of dedicated creative time.

• Make it memorable.Enduring taglines mine universal experiences to help people identify with your brand. “America Runs on Dunkin’” brings up thoughts of early morning and late night coffee runs for a much needed caffeine fix. “A Diamond Is Forever” brings up thoughts of commitment, love and relationships. Evoking a feeling or situation that everyone can relate to shows your brand “gets it” and understands the audience you’re trying to reach.

Happy taglining! Contact Tim Mutrie for PR/media inquiries or speaking opportunities.