Because you’re worth it
Just do it
It gives you wings
I still call Australia home
Softens hands while you do the dishes
Maybe she’s born with it. Maybe it’s ...
A diamond is forever
Finger lickin’ good
Oh, what a feeling!
It’s a reasonable bet that on hearing any one of these slogans, most of us would immediately identify it with a brand. In order: L’Oreal, Nike, Red Bull, Qantas, Palmolive, Maybelline, De Beers, KFC, Toyota.
Most of them have been attached to these brands for years, even decades, perhaps with a tiny tweak – they just keep on keeping on. Rather like the latter phrase became synonymous with Berger paints, the brand “that has been helping Australians with their painting jobs since 1916”.
The importance of a catchy, easily memorable slogan cannot be underestimated. First impressions count and in a highly competitive and crowded marketplace if you don’t immediately capture the consumer’s attention, the opportunity will likely be lost.
“First of all, a slogan needs to attract the consumer’s attention with an appealing initial statement, because only then will they be prepared to learn more about the product and the company’s arguments,” says Tom van Laer, Associate Professor of Narratology at The University of Sydney.
“This can be achieved by using unexpected twists or through the use of humour, for example. Devices such as figures of speech can also help with this.
“Figures of speech played an important role in classical rhetoric. In fact, we still regularly see elements of the way it was used then, especially in slogans.
“Slogans can be a powerful way of extolling a product, and persuading people that they just ‘have to’ buy it. Of course, that only works if certain conditions are satisfied and when, for example, there is a latent demand for the item in question.
“In the 1970s, at the age of 23, Ilon Specht interrupted her studies to join the advertising agency McCann-Erickson. That firm had been commissioned by L’Oréal to make its hair dye – a technically superior product, but also a more expensive one – more popular than American competitor Clairol’s Nice’n Easy.
“Specht devised the catchline for a new commercial: ‘Because I’m worth it’. Intended to justify the fact that the dye cost 10 cents more than its rival, the sentence was a huge success.
“L’Oréal became market leader in the 1980s, and from 1997 it applied the claim to its entire product range. Now slightly modified to ‘Because you’re worth it’, in 2013 this classic advertising slogan celebrated its 40th anniversary.
“Slogans often serve a dual purpose: they need to attract people’s attention and they need to be memorable. Ideally, of course, you design a short, catchy sentence which is difficult to forget.
“Commonly slogans use figures of speech that include rhyme or alliteration, for example: ‘Don’t dream it, drive it’ (Jaguar).”
Qantas is a case in point for “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”, just update it.
More than 35 years after it first launched an advertising campaign using the iconic Peter Allen anthem I Still Call Australia Home, last month the airline unveiled a new version of the ad to showcase Australia as the world re-opens and travellers return to the skies.
It has a contemporary arrangement of the song and features the vocals of stars including Kylie Minogue, Hugh Jackman, Ash Barty, former AFL star and Australian of the Year Adam Goodes, Wolverine actor Troye Sivan, Bangarra dancers, Qantas staff, Olympians, the Qantas Choir, a new generation of the Australian Girls’ Choir together with National Boys’ Choir, the Gondwana Choir and Aboriginal elder Rene Kulitja.
The advert was filmed pre-COVID at locations around Australia, from the spectacular Hutt Lagoon in WA to the jagged cliffs of Cape Raoul in Tasmania. Scenes were also filmed in Melbourne, Uluru, Hobart, Brisbane, Sydney, South Australia’s salt lakes, Longreach, the Whitsundays, Los Angeles, Tokyo and London.
Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce said now is the ideal time to unveil the new version of the much-loved theme and provide a boost to Australia’s tourism industry recovery: “The last major Qantas advert came as the country was rolling up its sleeves to be vaccinated so we could all reconnect, and it really struck a chord. Now that borders are finally open, and staying open, this is the perfect time to relaunch this Peter Allen classic as the national carrier’s anthem.”
Campaign credits: Creative agency - The Monkeys, part of Accenture Interactive. Production company – Rabbit. Director - Kiku Ohe.
De Beers started mining South African diamonds in the late 1800s and, in the years to follow, they grew to become the world's largest diamond distributor.
Advertising copywriter Mary Frances Gerety helped create demand for the diamond engagement ring in 1947 when she came up with “A diamond is forever” - associating the stone with everlasting love.
The phrase has appeared in De Beers' engagement ring ads ever since and has been referenced in everything from James Bond films to songs and novels.
The majority of engagement rings now feature a diamond (or several), although that might not be “forever” after all: De Beers' sales have declined in recent years, partly due to ethical concerns from younger generations.
Writing for Ecoconsultancy, which helps businesses achieve excellence in marketing, digital and ecommerce through transforming knowledge, skills and mindset, Nikki Gilliland says: “If a logo is the visual representation of a brand, a slogan or tagline is what truly brings it to life. Key features of a winning slogan:
It is succinct: The most enduring brand slogans are often short, catchy and easy to remember. Much like a song chorus that gets stuck in your head, it needs to have a rhythm or sound that rolls off the tongue and is instantly recognisable.
It evokes or instils a positive feeling or provides incentive: Effective slogans highlight what’s beneficial about a product or service, prompting consumers to buy into the brand.
It differentiates: A slogan is often a good opportunity for a brand to tell consumers why it is different or unique.
“For instance, Nike’s slogan “Just do it” is built on the notion that anyone can achieve greatness. Regardless of who you are or where you’re from, the simple call to ‘just do it’ is both uplifting and inspiring – two hallmarks of Nike’s wider brand values.”
AdNews canvassed the views of industry insiders.
Georgia Phillips, COO, Luma Research, offers Six Secrets to Slogan Success: A slogan is a catchy phrase which captures the theme a brand’s marketing communications or advertising. It could relate to benefits or features, emotions or even brand differences. Sometimes an advertising slogan can evolve into the brand tagline if it works well.
“t can be a great way to summarise what your brand stands for and tie everything together. So, what makes a great slogan?
Tell us what the brand stands for: The hardest part of getting a slogan right is trying to summarise the intent of a brand, its values and what makes it special into just a few words. To have meaning, the slogan should be able to tell consumers how you are different.
Be memorable: The best slogans help people to remember the key idea of a campaign. How many current brand slogans can you really remember? Most are from 20 or so years ago. When writing a memorable slogan it comes down to two things – make it easy to remember and then don’t change it!
Short and simple: One of the traps we see brands fall into is trying to be too clever. If someone needs to read your brand strategy to understand what your slogan means, it will not work. We do a lot of research on slogans and taglines and quite often the meaning consumers take from them are not as the marketing team had intended.
Tie together brand and communications: When you think of it from the consumer’s perspective, everything we communicate should align to help explain a brand and what it stands for. The slogan can sometimes join the dots for consumers as the final piece of the advertising puzzle.
Convey a positive feeling: We all know how important feelings are, and we have seen from our data that positive feelings are the most impactful. The tone of the slogan should be upbeat, positive and link to some underlying truth or consumer benefit or feeling.
Keep it consistent: Sometimes as marketers we are our own worst enemies. We get bored with our ads and marketing and so think that our consumers are bored with it too. Wrong. I have never heard a consumer say ‘I am really bored with the Nike slogan, Just Do it. It’s time for a change’. The best slogans have longevity and brands stick with them. It is not to say that you can’t change them, but seriously consider whether you need to. Coca Cola’s slogan from 1906 was `The Great National Temperance Beverage’ and that probably wouldn’t work as well today. But the brand slogan from 1886 (the first for the brand) was Drink Coca Cola and since then it has been changed 50 times. Can anyone recall what it is today?
Richard Berney, ECD, 303 MullenLowe Perth: Cats are to swimming as people are to thinking. That is, they can do it … they just don’t really want to. So, number one rule, make your slogan easy for people to understand. Minimise the thinking.
After that, the best slogans are happily welcomed into people’s lives. They don’t just say what the thing does, they say what they mean to people – and they do it with spirit.
Hamish Stewart, Creative Partner, GHO Sydney: One of the challenges of our job is that the outcomes are so seemingly simple, and when done well they look effortless.
But it’s easy to mistake looking effortless for not requiring a lot of effort. In truth, writing a great slogan - strapline, tagline, brand expression, or whatever the latest term is - is one of the most daunting tasks of our industry.
Ed Sheeran pointed out recently that 60,000 songs are uploaded to Spotify every day, so the chances of duplication are high.
The same principle applies. But that’s just the writing challenge. Slogans are ultimately an expression of the brand, which means they’re often the result of months of work, meetings, and workshops, navigating and aligning competing points of view.
But when done well, they manage to encapsulate the brand strategy, galvanize employees, capture the imagination of customers, and inspire creative work for many years to come.
Have something to say on this? Share your views in the comments section below. Or if you have a news story or tip-off, drop us a line at adnews@yaffa.com.au
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