Ah McCain, you’ve done it again!

This was written as a six minute speech for my Rostrum Club meeting this evening.

Good evening Mr Chairman, Ladies, and Gentlemen.

“Don’t leave home without it”. “Not happy Jan!”. “Ah McCain, you’ve done it again!”.

American Express. Sensis. McCain’s foods.

Have you ever stop to wonder how these phrases enter the vernacular? They’re advertising slogans, and we know that they’re there to make us buy more of their stuff, but when we hear a catchy phrase we know that we will repeat it. And repeat it. And repeat it.

What makes a good slogan, something that enters the lexicon and becomes part of everyday speech? Tonight I am going to explore factors in making your marketing slogan stick. It’s not just luck, although that can be a part of it.

There are three important factors. Firstly, the slogan has to be brief. Secondly, it has to be presented in a way that allows the audience to identify with the situation and the people in it, and be sufficiently flexible that it can be applied in our daily lives. And finally, the slogan has to be so artfully crafted that it catches the eye and the mind, and is ultimately memorable. Let’s consider three slogans in these terms.

“Don’t leave home without it”. American Express’s slogan has been around since 1975, when Karl Malden, the stereotypically solid and reliable cop, warned us not to leave home without American Express Travellers Cheques. It’s brief. It’s short – five simple words. A big tick there. Can we identify with the situation? Well, yes we can – we all leave home regularly, and the aim is to present an American Express card as something indispensable as the front-door key. And it’s flexible – the slogan doesn’t mention the product, you are simply implored not to leave without ‘it’, whatever ‘it’ is. You can apply it to your everyday life without much modification. Finally, is it memorable? Yes – the phrase is memorable and simple, but it also has been presented in many different guises over many years by American Express. A long campaign of use as an advertising slogan, long presented in front of us, brings this catchcry into the mainstream.

“Not happy, Jan!”. This slogan for Sensis was featured in advertising campaigns for three years from 2000 to 2003. This catchcry was everywhere at one stage; it’s still around but perhaps not as much as it once was. Now, three words, that’s brief! Since everyone has cause not to be happy at some stage, we can certainly identify with the catchcry. And it is memorable, mostly because it is simple, and the manner in which the line was first delivered just felt so real – we could feel the despair of the small business owner who opened her copy of Yellow Pages only to discover that her ad was not there. After a series of anger management exercises, she yells loudly down the street, “Not happy, Jan!”. I think we’ve all been there, don’t you?

And “Ah McCain, you’ve done it again!”. McCain Foods has been around since 1956, and that line is delivered with a satisfied voice and images of nutritionally questionable but delicious, hot food. It’s short – still only six words. It is adaptable to any situation, although it does mention the brand name. And it is memorable – the slogan has been force-fed to us over the years, and it rhymes with the brand name. This, like all the examples tonight, has entered the vernacular.

Now, tonight we’ve explored three factors as to why an advertising slogan enters the vernacular. Doubtless there are many others – ‘That’ll be the phone, Reg.’ ‘Ooh, it does get in’, and ‘Drink it, Freddy, drink it!’ come to mind. In these cases it is not just luck that is involved – a brief slogan, applicable to flexible and recognizable situations, and a catchy slogan are all factors.

Luck will play a part, of course – apparently ‘Not happy, Jan’ was thought up on the day of the production shoot. But these three factors have an important part to play in the success of a marketing slogan, and whether your brand enters the vernacular, or disappears into history. “Ah McCain, they’ve done it again!”