The rules of effective advertising slogans?
Nick Padmore has analyzed the 20th century’s 115 best slogans, straplines, taglines, and headlines, as nominated by some of the stars of creative advertising, and tried to find a pattern that spells out how to do this successfully.
- Be five words in length.
- Not mention the brand name.
- Be declarative.
- Be grammatically complete.
- Be otherwise standard.
- Contain alliteration, metaphor, or rhyme.
Of course, there are exceptions to these rules, but the analysis shows that the majority of the best slogans et al. do fit this pattern.
Here’s a provocative chart from the analysis:
In the same vein, here’s an interesting excerpt from MIT’s Adverblog:
Match these brands - Sony, Hummer, Mercedes, Haagen Dazs - with their slogans: “like nothing else”, “made like no other”, “like no other”, “unlike any other”.
An online toolkit
