Is there a newfound appetite for memorable slogans in the creative sector?
For a feline, Jaguar landed its controversial rebrand very inelegantly last year with its new tagline “Copy Nothing.” If its visuals weren’t enough to generate ridicule, the vacuous language definitely didn’t help: "Fearless. Exuberant. Compelling," “Delete ordinary.” Taglines are the stuff of global brands, the mainstay of food and drink brands amplified by big budget advertising. The hold their own in high production ads: “Because you’re worth it,” “Beanz Meanz Heinz," “Just Do It.” And as a brand writer, I have a passion for them. I love the challenge of saying as much as possible in just a few words – and conveying as much with tone as with content.
But where taglines started out as sales messages explaining how products were different, they evolved into strategic mantras. Taglines were extracted from back-end brand strategies never intended to see the light of day. And as such, they became increasingly abstract and nonsensical seen out of context. As a strategist I completely understand how this happened even though it makes my skin crawl too. Sometimes, crazy as it seems, the easiest way to spread an idea inside the jar is to put it on the outside of the jar. Even if consumers don’t get it. Yup, facepalm.
And while Apple did it well with ‘Think Different,’ in the early 2000s we soon ended up with numerous grammatically creative two or three word mantras – particularly in automotive and then increasingly in tech and B2B too. Until finally, ‘Copy Nothing’ gave us the pinnacle of copy that meant nothing. It was a shockingly un-selfaware move, so unabashed. And in light of this, creatives have quite rightly started self-policing the discipline with frequent call-outs. Taglines have been going out of fashion and the idea of ‘locking up’ a line to a logo now feels very old fashioned.
All of this is to ponder: where are we with taglines? So that we can consider the question in hand: should a creative agency have its own tagline?
In every culture there’s an idiom along the lines of the cobbler’s children who have no shoes. And it seems to hold true in the creative sector. Many (most?) agencies are reluctant to see themselves as ‘brands,’ or somehow unable to commit to a ‘big idea’ in the same way they would expect their clients to. This is a sector I’ve worked in for over 25 years – I’ve worked in brand strategy and copywriting on projects in agencies, and in agency marketing and new business too. I’ve been at the coalface. So earlier this year, I decided to look more closely at brand positioning in a sector I love.
The result was Fully Saturated, an audit of brand positioning by branding agencies in the UK. My collaborator Joel Stein and I reviewed hundreds of design agency websites analysed a shortlist of 150 agencies big and small from all across the UK and ran a survey to gather inside views.
And, look, in the UK, we are abashed, we’re reluctant to put big emotive ideas out there without slightly dying inside, so taglines don’t come naturally. Bring peer-sensitive designers in to the mix and it’s a frigid combination. Glasgow agency D8 proudly proclaims that it’s been “Without a slogan since 1999” which surely wins marks for its deadpan tone. What we also found was a huge volume of very similar words. Design agencies, it seems, like to operate in packs. We saw words like “change,” “transformation,” and “purpose” again and again – promises relevant to design, sure, but in no way distinguishing.
Designer Bryan Kidd explained to us, “Doing your own messaging and positioning is brutally hard—like trying to cut your own hair with a blindfold on. As agency owners, we’re brilliant at solving these challenges for clients, but when it’s our own turn, suddenly the clarity vanishes. We overthink, second-guess, and end up lost in a tangle of ideas. It’s a classic case of not tasting our own medicine—too close to see the wood for the trees.”
In our conversations with people in the design sector, we uncovered the reasons why agencies find their own messaging difficult. Firstly, designers are conditioned to think that it’s all about the portfolio from the minute they leave art school; plus their first language is visual not verbal and sometimes writing skills are close to hand. And let’s be honest, they’re too busy jumping to meet client needs to think about their own brand. But most of all, in a fragile market, they’re paralysed by fear of putting some prospect off by making a stand. Even though the power of a brand is necessarily rooted in focus.
Natalie Prout, co-founder of new studio Mischief Maker, told us, “Agencies are so consumed by the chaos of paid project work that their own brand gets neglected, outdated and unloved. And ironically, the more in demand the agency, the less time or headspace there is to actually look inward.”
But despite the reluctance to build a brand, to have a presence, or to stand for an idea, I believe that there are agencies doing it well. And that agencies that crack their tagline will stand stronger in the market – especially in tough times.
Of course it’s not the tagline per se that will drive an agency’s business, it’s knowing what they stand for. Those doing it well aren’t making the logo bigger, they’re putting the tagline front and center in oversized type. And these are not vacuous clever words cos-playing professional copywriting, these are ideas that can be unpacked in manifestos, white papers and series of thought leadership. Ideas they believe in.
Take Crush’s commitment to the idea of “Honour the craft.” While craft is not an uncommon promise in the design landscape, this small Brighton-based agency goes all in and owns it as an idea and due to its simplicity, I think is likely to be remembered for it.
Among Equals challenges it’s audience, “Start with no one cares. Build brands that change that.” Here is a line that’s a harsh truth and the start of a challenging conversation. I already want to know more. Nomad chooses a three-word mantra that perfectly complements its name while making a meaningful promise for clients: “Keep Moving Forward,” it works as a single-mind concept. Interbrand has been trading for many years on its philosophy known as “Iconic Moves” which it unpacks in extensive thought leadership. It gives the reader something to remember it by. And consider the evocative words of Dawn: “Your brand is a sleeping giant. Let’s wake it up.” This is language used to evoke a reaction.
In our report, we write about 25 agencies that have powerful brand positioning. Not all use taglines but coming to a website cold, I do think a tagline gives the reader a hook as well as providing the team with a focal point. It shows that there is a thought behind the approach. At Becolourful, we’ve recently written taglines (and web copy) for Naked “Local to legendary,” HB “Impact, everywhere, always.” and Some Bright Spark “Big Ideas Made Bigger.” And of course we have our own tagline too: “Don’t be noisy. Be interesting.”
I say it’s time design agencies got over their fear of taglines. Yes, there have been some howlers, but let’s look to the agencies who are getting it right – simple, authentic and meaningful promises that make people read on. Right now, the design sector is under immense pressure; agencies are rebranding at a rate of knots. Start-up agencies are nipping at the heels of the behemoths, and they come with energy and sharp wit in their language. Is it time for design agencies to reach for new ammunition; to think like a brand and pin some powerful words on their homepage?
Emily is founder of brand voice consultancy Becolourful. Fully Saturated is available at www.fully-saturated.com.The full report comes with a 2-hour masterclass with Emily Penny and Joel Stein on 16th September.
Is there a newfound appetite for memorable slogans in the creative sector?
For a feline, Jaguar landed its controversial rebrand very inelegantly last year with its new tagline “Copy Nothing.” If its visuals weren’t enough to generate ridicule, the vacuous language definitely didn’t help: "Fearless. Exuberant. Compelling," “Delete ordinary.” Taglines are the stuff of global brands, the mainstay of food and drink brands amplified by big budget advertising. The hold their own in high production ads: “Because you’re worth it,” “Beanz Meanz Heinz," “Just Do It.” And as a brand writer, I have a passion for them. I love the challenge of saying as much as possible in just a few words – and conveying as much with tone as with content.
But where taglines started out as sales messages explaining how products were different, they evolved into strategic mantras. Taglines were extracted from back-end brand strategies never intended to see the light of day. And as such, they became increasingly abstract and nonsensical seen out of context. As a strategist I completely understand how this happened even though it makes my skin crawl too. Sometimes, crazy as it seems, the easiest way to spread an idea inside the jar is to put it on the outside of the jar. Even if consumers don’t get it. Yup, facepalm.
And while Apple did it well with ‘Think Different,’ in the early 2000s we soon ended up with numerous grammatically creative two or three word mantras – particularly in automotive and then increasingly in tech and B2B too. Until finally, ‘Copy Nothing’ gave us the pinnacle of copy that meant nothing. It was a shockingly un-selfaware move, so unabashed. And in light of this, creatives have quite rightly started self-policing the discipline with frequent call-outs. Taglines have been going out of fashion and the idea of ‘locking up’ a line to a logo now feels very old fashioned.
All of this is to ponder: where are we with taglines? So that we can consider the question in hand: should a creative agency have its own tagline?
In every culture there’s an idiom along the lines of the cobbler’s children who have no shoes. And it seems to hold true in the creative sector. Many (most?) agencies are reluctant to see themselves as ‘brands,’ or somehow unable to commit to a ‘big idea’ in the same way they would expect their clients to. This is a sector I’ve worked in for over 25 years – I’ve worked in brand strategy and copywriting on projects in agencies, and in agency marketing and new business too. I’ve been at the coalface. So earlier this year, I decided to look more closely at brand positioning in a sector I love.
The result was Fully Saturated, an audit of brand positioning by branding agencies in the UK. My collaborator Joel Stein and I reviewed hundreds of design agency websites analysed a shortlist of 150 agencies big and small from all across the UK and ran a survey to gather inside views.
And, look, in the UK, we are abashed, we’re reluctant to put big emotive ideas out there without slightly dying inside, so taglines don’t come naturally. Bring peer-sensitive designers in to the mix and it’s a frigid combination. Glasgow agency D8 proudly proclaims that it’s been “Without a slogan since 1999” which surely wins marks for its deadpan tone. What we also found was a huge volume of very similar words. Design agencies, it seems, like to operate in packs. We saw words like “change,” “transformation,” and “purpose” again and again – promises relevant to design, sure, but in no way distinguishing.
Designer Bryan Kidd explained to us, “Doing your own messaging and positioning is brutally hard—like trying to cut your own hair with a blindfold on. As agency owners, we’re brilliant at solving these challenges for clients, but when it’s our own turn, suddenly the clarity vanishes. We overthink, second-guess, and end up lost in a tangle of ideas. It’s a classic case of not tasting our own medicine—too close to see the wood for the trees.”
In our conversations with people in the design sector, we uncovered the reasons why agencies find their own messaging difficult. Firstly, designers are conditioned to think that it’s all about the portfolio from the minute they leave art school; plus their first language is visual not verbal and sometimes writing skills are close to hand. And let’s be honest, they’re too busy jumping to meet client needs to think about their own brand. But most of all, in a fragile market, they’re paralysed by fear of putting some prospect off by making a stand. Even though the power of a brand is necessarily rooted in focus.
Natalie Prout, co-founder of new studio Mischief Maker, told us, “Agencies are so consumed by the chaos of paid project work that their own brand gets neglected, outdated and unloved. And ironically, the more in demand the agency, the less time or headspace there is to actually look inward.”
But despite the reluctance to build a brand, to have a presence, or to stand for an idea, I believe that there are agencies doing it well. And that agencies that crack their tagline will stand stronger in the market – especially in tough times.
Of course it’s not the tagline per se that will drive an agency’s business, it’s knowing what they stand for. Those doing it well aren’t making the logo bigger, they’re putting the tagline front and center in oversized type. And these are not vacuous clever words cos-playing professional copywriting, these are ideas that can be unpacked in manifestos, white papers and series of thought leadership. Ideas they believe in.
Take Crush’s commitment to the idea of “Honour the craft.” While craft is not an uncommon promise in the design landscape, this small Brighton-based agency goes all in and owns it as an idea and due to its simplicity, I think is likely to be remembered for it.
Among Equals challenges it’s audience, “Start with no one cares. Build brands that change that.” Here is a line that’s a harsh truth and the start of a challenging conversation. I already want to know more. Nomad chooses a three-word mantra that perfectly complements its name while making a meaningful promise for clients: “Keep Moving Forward,” it works as a single-mind concept. Interbrand has been trading for many years on its philosophy known as “Iconic Moves” which it unpacks in extensive thought leadership. It gives the reader something to remember it by. And consider the evocative words of Dawn: “Your brand is a sleeping giant. Let’s wake it up.” This is language used to evoke a reaction.
In our report, we write about 25 agencies that have powerful brand positioning. Not all use taglines but coming to a website cold, I do think a tagline gives the reader a hook as well as providing the team with a focal point. It shows that there is a thought behind the approach. At Becolourful, we’ve recently written taglines (and web copy) for Naked “Local to legendary,” HB “Impact, everywhere, always.” and Some Bright Spark “Big Ideas Made Bigger.” And of course we have our own tagline too: “Don’t be noisy. Be interesting.”
I say it’s time design agencies got over their fear of taglines. Yes, there have been some howlers, but let’s look to the agencies who are getting it right – simple, authentic and meaningful promises that make people read on. Right now, the design sector is under immense pressure; agencies are rebranding at a rate of knots. Start-up agencies are nipping at the heels of the behemoths, and they come with energy and sharp wit in their language. Is it time for design agencies to reach for new ammunition; to think like a brand and pin some powerful words on their homepage?
Emily is founder of brand voice consultancy Becolourful. Fully Saturated is available at www.fully-saturated.com.The full report comes with a 2-hour masterclass with Emily Penny and Joel Stein on 16th September.
Further Reading
