Posts by Marc Glazer
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Good morning, Thought Leaders!
There is a great website to keep your collective eyes on:
If you’ve never been, you should absolutely go. You can also sign-up for their emails (don’t worry - they don’t spam the heck out of you), then go download PDFs of their briefs.
Ad Copy Slam #1
In a tribute to Jerry Seinfeld (Whose show had an interesting tagline: “A show about nothing”), I think I’ll start this blog commentary by saying: “What is the deal with…”
Hence. Ahem. In my best Jerry Seinfeld…
What is the deal with academics always trashing copywriters? In a recent Ad Age Online CMO Strategy Column, Grand View College professor Stephen Winzenburg (who incidentally has written a book, entitled “TV’s Greatest Sitcoms”) weighs in on taglines.He makes some interesting points about how taglines shouldn’t be so generic that they become interchangeable. But he also seemingly, misses the mark on some of the more successful ideas in the industry (love em or hate em).
Loving taglines is indeed a subjective thing. One thing I know about taglines is that they have to say a whole bunch in very few words. They must position, differentiate, exude emotion (or create some visceral response) and be catchy as hell in, oh, like no more than 8 words. They are tough to write, but really great when they work.
Interestingly enough, Winzenburg debunks the Easy Button and Staples’ “That was easy” tag, because he didn’t get the ad. I think he missed the fact that this brand has been doing this campaign for over a year (maybe more now) and has built incredible equity in both the big idea and the tag. And might I add successfully, gaining market share throughout the campaign.
He also thinks the Macy’s Holiday tagline hit the mark this year: “The Magic of Macy’s.” You be the judge. Personally, a retail store using Magic and alliteration in a tagline, wow, that’s really breakthrough. Don’t you think???
Anyway, here is his slam on crummy taglines.
P.S. He also notes poor punctuation in taglines (clearly this communications professor doesn’t get copywriters), and he really isn’t even talking about taglines (mostly), he is talking about campaign lines and the ones he chooses are for the most part very value/retail driven.
NOTE: I feel like it’s my duty to report copy slams. So more to come.
Being “Good” is Good Business to Female Consumers
After being neck deep in the Active Insights project for a few weeks, it’s interesting to see just how many of our recommended ideas and strategies are aligned with other prominent sources out in the marketplace.
I was reading Ad Age Online and I saw something that immediately caught my attention. They’ve been running this great column called CMO Strategy, with articles from various editors and reporters about value proposition-rich topics that are meant to appeal specifically to M-level business associates (marketing managers). This past week’s column featured a thought-provoking article by Kimberly Anderson Kelleher entitled, “’Good’ Matters to Consumers.”