Choosing your tagline can feel a bit like the old playground game – a bit hit or miss in the chase for perfection.
The right tagline is more art and science than kids’ play.
In just a few words, your tagline will define the course of your campaign.
- It will say who you are as a candidate.
- It will tell voters what your campaign stands for.
- It will explain why you are running.
Words matter, and the words you choose for your tagline need to thread the needle between being clear yet impactful, easy to interpret and memorable.
Ask yourself these questions as you work through options for your tagline:
Does the tagline capture the overall mood of your campaign?
Is the message of your campaign forward-thinking and focused on the future? A positive tagline may include keywords like “new,” “future,” or -er adjectives, like “prouder,” “better” or “stronger.” Is the message of your campaign focused more on moving away from the current officeholder’s policies and agenda? A tagline like that may include keywords like “change” or “fresh.”
Will you be able to carry the meaning behind your tagline throughout all of your campaign messaging?
Your tagline will set the overall tone of your campaign and your communications across mediums. Ask yourself if that feeling, whether it has a positive or negative undertone, is what you want to present to your target audience across your website, television ads, direct mail, digital advertising and fundraising. Will it resonate? Will it move voters? If not, you don’t have “it” right yet.
Take the Majority Strategies tagline as an example. We Play to Win. It sums up who we are as people and as a firm.
Driven. Focused. Relentless.
Proud. Trusted. Experienced.
Our tagline is memorable, instantly recognizable and evokes a Big Picture feeling that we carry throughout all of our work.
How would you rank some of history’s most memorable taglines?
