SummitMedia's The Write Stuff

  Building Memorable Taglines: The Science and Art of Summing Up a Brand. A great tagline is more than just a catchy phrase—it’s a brand’s identity that is brought to life in as few words possible. But what is the sorcery to creating a memorable tagline? 1. Understand the Brand Inside Out Before putting pen to paper, immerse yourself in the brand: Mission and Values : What drives the company? Target Audience : Who are they speaking to? Unique Selling Proposition (USP) : What sets the brand apart? 2. Keep It Short and Sweet The best taglines are concise. Aim for fewer than seven words. Short taglines are easier to remember and more impactful. Examples include: “Just Do It” (Nike) “Think Different” (Apple) 3. Evoke Emotion Great taglines make people feel something. Whether it’s inspiration, trust, or humor, emotional resonance makes the phrase stick. It’s the emotion that drives the action. For instance: “Melts in Your ...

Turning Holiday Stress into Creative Gold: Tips for Radio Content Creators It’s the fourth quarter. It’s the holiday season. AE’s are under pressure to make budget. Programming and Promotions have pulled out all the stops, so each station has a stellar book. For radio content creators, the season often brings an added challenge: crafting compelling, timely, and engaging content in the midst of the chaos. The good news? That holiday stress can be a catalyst for your most creative work. Here’s how: 1. Channel Emotion Into Relatable Stories The holidays are a season of heightened emotions—joy, nostalgia, and sometimes stress. Use these feelings as inspiration. Think of a humorous take on a family holiday tradition.   “Everybody loves Great-Grandmamma’s chicken and dressing. But her recipe feeds an army of 32 people. Yet, try and portion it down to a manageable 7 or 8 people, it doesn’t come out right. So, you end up making that football stadium sized pan of chicken and dressin...

             How Social Media’s Changed Radio (and What We Can Do About It) Hey team! Let’s talk about something big that's changed for radio: social media has literally shortened people’s attention spans. Think about it—the average listener now has less patience for long ads and even fewer breaks in focus. So, how do we get our messages across effectively in today’s short-attention world? It’s all about adjusting our content and scheduling approach. Quick refresher: OES (Optimum Effective Schedule) Since the ‘80s, we’ve relied on OES to find the right balance between ad frequency and effectiveness. This formula still works, but with everyone’s attention span shrinking, we’ve got to tweak a few things. ( For a full explanation of OES, click or copy and paste this link: https://radioconnects.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Figuring-out-OES-scheduling.pdf ) Here’s how we can get more mileage out of OES in a social media-driven world: 1. ...

  Nine Emotional Triggers to Influence Listener Buying Behaviors Every decision we make involves emotions, including subconscious ones. Understanding what triggers those emotions can go a long way when it comes to developing effective marketing material. Most of us have the same basic mental triggers which drive an action. Let’s explore the   nine most popular emotional triggers that go hand in hand with effective marketing tactics. Emotional Trigger #1: Fear What it is: Ever heard of the phrase “FOMO” aka Fear of Missing Out? It can produce reactions without conscious thought and override our entire thought process. How it’s used: Make sure to use caution though when triggering fear, it can get a bit risky. When used ethically, it can be highly effective Example: “You do not want to miss this event! Buy your tickets now! Emotional Trigger #2: Time What it is: Time makes us a feel a lot of things. It always depends on the situation. How it’s used: We’re so busy,...

  THE QUEEN MOTHER OF ALL KEY MARKETING CHALLENGES IS YOUR TARGET'S SUBCONSCIOUS. What you and I do for a living isn’t rocket science. It’s people science. And because it’s people, it can be fickle and somewhat complicated. In almost every campaign, we are attempting to attach the client’s brand to a pleasant or comforting emotion. That makes brand recall and awareness easier. This pleasant sensation can better help the target want to learn more and try the brand. Hopefully, the target has a good experience with the brand to where they adopt it and eventually become a heavy user. No different from station ratings, our campaigns are dependent on memory and recall. Memories aren’t just raw data. Almost all of them are attached to some type of emotion. And we try our best to make them work for us. But, here’s the caveat. Most of our basic emotions stem from the subconscious mind. And it has some mighty big walls around it. First; human beings are bombarded with data and messages. In t...

                        What "Write What You Know" is and isn't. One primary golden rule to creative writing is  write what you know. Its natural to assume that if someone has a PhD in organic chemistry or some other subject, they want everyone to know all that they've learned. Not the case.  They know that not everyone desires to know how proteins can act as enzymes. Sharing every minute and niche detail of a subject is not  write what you know .  Write what you know  is taking a subject virtually everyone knows --or can at least relate to --and shedding a new and different light on it. No one understands this more than stand-up comedians. It's their bread and butter. Let's take a look at this clip from Roy Wood Jr. Its about relationships. Thermostat Relationships (I chose Roy because he's a former co-worker. His career was launched at SummitMedia Birmingham's WBHJ, first as a morning show feature, th...