Five Great Killer Work Student Taglines in One Day

Taglines are elusive animals.

Sometimes you find them first, and everything else builds around them.

Sometimes you find them in a corner, embedded in a headline or a line of copy.

And sometimes a great campaign awaits a tagline, like a beautifully baked wedding cake waiting for a topper.

In this summer’s Killer Work class, on one single day, the team came in with a bucket of great taglines. Some were the capstones of campaigns, some staked out a territory they wanted to dig around in. All insightful and interesting.

Here they are:

For Ha-Lo Top ice cream, which distinguishes itself as a healthy dessert and not a diet ice cream:

• Indulge Wisely by Kara Oconnell.
  Can’t ask for a more compact tagline. Two simple words, two dynamically opposing thoughts. Put together they create a nice ‘wha?!’ tension. And the line tells you everything you need to know about the playful attitude of the campaign.
• Believe in a Higher Flavor by Avi Webber. In an arena of diet desserts that mostly disappoint, Avi led with a taste promise that had a slightly spiritual air to reflect the Ha-Lo in the name. The next week Avi beat it with what I thought was an even nicer line:
• It Feels Great To Finish (Avi Webber). Ha-Lo Top actually pushes people to eat the entire pint, which is a ridiculously tiny 240 calories. The line does great double duty: It assures you that you can eat an entire pint of their ice cream and not feel disgusted with yourself. And the company is also sharing its POV about the world – a statement about a behavioral truth in life. Completing something does feel great. The larger life statement helps transform the company into a brand with a distinct point of view. It’s easy to see how the idea can inform the brand’s tone as well as its message in every campaign, every event, every video – any expression in any channel. Ha-Lo Top could own this one for a long, long time.
• It’s All Good by Lydia Schinasi. Lydia came in with ‘You Can’t Be Bad if its All Good’.  Really nice idea, but a bit bulky. However, inside it was a taglne dying to break out. We crossed out ‘Don’t feel guilty’ and there it was: It’s All Good! Now, that may very well already exist for another brand, but it’s great for Ha-Lo Top, because of its double meaning: It’s the product’s essential promise – they market Ha-Lo Top as a healthy dessert. And it’s also an attitude about life that can inform the tone of the stories it tells in all the brand’s communications. You can build an entire world around it.

For Empire Movers, a higher end moving company looking to distinguish itself from  inexpensive local movers, Lawrence Carr developed:

• Don’t just move. Arrive. by Lawrence Carr. The tone nails the premium character of the company, and its aspirational as well. You feel like they’re going to make your move as smooth as possible. And that you’ll get there in style – hey, we all want to ‘arrive’.

For Instinct Dog Training:

• There Are No Dumb Dogs by Lauren Irwin. This NYC training company specializes in dogs with issues – shelter dogs that need to be socialized, dogs with behavior problems. Lauren’s goal was to communicate that they train dogs differently using a positive relationship-focused approach. ‘There Are No Dumb Dogs’ is a great promise to exasperated owners, especially ones who are beginning to wonder whether they made the right choice or not. Notice she doesn’t finish the line with ‘…only dumb humans.’ What makes the tagline so nice is that people finish the thought for themselves.

All of these great lines in one day. I’m so inspired by this group of minds!