We all think about new marketing slogans, headlines to introduce our service, products and sometimes ourselves to the outside world. And we all experience the same difficulty when coming up with new headline: the headline is not sexy, at all.
I have always wondered about what makes an exceptional headline. When I saw this Apple Billboard at CES 2019, an event held in Las Vegas, I thought I got some answers. As a marketer, let’s see what we can learn from this, shall we?
“What happens on your iPhone, stays on your iPhone.”
apple.com/privacy
What makes this headline special?
This high contrast between the black background and the white texts achieve 2 things:
1. The headline can draw many eyeballs, even from a very long distance.
2. The headline is separate from the dull surrounding.
Who makes this headline special?
The ones who makes this headline special are not Apple, but the headline’s targets. These targets appeared more and more often on News front page due to privacy conflicts: Facebook, Google, Amazon, etc. This headline sends its viewer a firm message: Apple thinks your privacy is important and other companies do not, and if you value your privacy, buy an iPhone.
Apart from the big companies, the media is also the headline’s target.
You may wonder: Why would Apple want to attract the media?
Just think about this reversely. You are reading this headline in our post. Where did we find this headline? From other blog posts. Then where did those blog posts find this headline? From the media. Then where did the media get this headline? They kept searching for controversial issues that intrigued readers like you. And privacy is the best possible topic for now.
By attracting the media, it helps spread the message across, without Apple spending a penny on buying featuring stories on News front pages.
Where makes this headline special?
When coming up with a new slogan, we often start with company values and the things we do, such as “Our company is the leading player in XX field, serving clients with passion and efficiency. ” This kind of headline is good, but never great.
Why? it lacks context. This kind of slogan can be used anywhere, anytime and if you switch just a few words, it can be used for any single company. This kind of slogan is not remarkable, and specific enough to tell the outside world that your company is the only unicorn in your particular field.
What about this Apple slogan? It picks this specific context to reveal itself.
The first context is Las Vegas and its already-popular slogan “Whatever happens in Vegas stays in Vegas”.
The second is the CES 2019. The privacy conflicts involving the large corporate attendees help amplify the power of the Apple message: They don’t care about your privacy. We do.
This headline works because it can’t be shown elsewhere, but Vegas, and at any other time, but this specific moment.
What can we learn from this?
Bit by bit, step by step, we grow our marketing skills. Here are some key points about this Apple headline and questions to ask ourselves when coming up with marketing strategies:
1. Color contrast helps draw eyeballs and separate your product/service from all surrounding.
2. What does your customers actually care about? How deeply do they care about these things?
3. Given that your company sells a really great products, what platform would be the very best place to reveal them?
